The Baltic States on the road to citizen science: researcher and citizen engagement

The poster was demonstrated during the 5th World Congress of Latvian Scientists "Research Latvia", which took place from June 27 to 29, 2023 in Riga.
Citizen science has been taking an increasingly stable place among the components of open science in recent years. Citizen science activities allow interaction between various interested parties, from researchers to the users of  the research results, which is an essential prerequisite for the well-being of society, scientific progress, and solving global problems.

In 2022, a study was conducted in the Baltic States, which revealed various aspects of cooperation between scientists, amateur researchers, library and museum specialists in the context of citizen science. The research, using the method of a survey, proved that the involvement of both citizens and memory institutions in research is diverse, and that it is expanding with the development of open science. Researchers from the Baltic States expressed a positive opinion regarding cooperation with amateur researchers and specialists from memory institutions. On the other hand, the citizens highly appreciated the researchers' contribution to citizen science activities, their sharing of knowledge about the research process, methods, fields of science, as well as the shared experiences of new discoveries.