European Commission logo
JRC Data Catalogue
DATASETCompleted

An inventory of citizen science activities for environmental policies

QR code

Citizen science is the non-professional involvement of volunteers in the scientific process, whether in the data collection phase or in other phases of the research. It can be a powerful tool for environmental management that has the potential to inform an increasingly complex environmental policy landscape and to meet the growing demands from society for more participatory decision-making. While there is growing interest from international bodies and national governments in citizen science, the evidence that it can successfully contribute to environmental policy development, implementation, evaluation or compliance remains scant. Central to elucidating this question is a better understanding of the benefits delivered by citizen science, that is to determine to what extent these benefits can contribute to environmental policy, and to establish whether projects that provide policy support also co-benefit science and encourage meaningful citizen engagement.

In order to get an evidence base of citizen science activities that can support environmental policies in the European Union (EU), the European Commission (DG ENV, with the support of DG JRC) contracted Bio Innovation Service (FR), in association with Fundacion Ibercivis (ES) and The Natural History Museum (UK), to perform a "Study on an inventory of citizen science activities for environmental policies" (see the "Publications" section below). The first objective was to develop an inventory of citizen science projects relevant for environmental policy and assess how these projects contribute to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) set by the United Nations (UN) General Assembly. To this end, a desk-research and an EU-wide survey were used to identify 503 citizen science projects of relevance to environmental policy. The second objective was to assess the conditions under which citizen science can best support environmental policy, through the selection and analysis of a sample of citizen science projects. This was followed by an in-depth analysis of 45 projects along 94 project attributes. Subsequently, this analysis provided the foundation for making a series of recommendations to leverage the contribution of citizen science to environmental policy.

We publish here both, the citizen science project inventory and the in-depth analysis data that resulted from this study. The inventory is updated on a regular basis - considering possible additions from trusted sources (such as, for example, the Irish Environment Protection Agency) and the survey that is provided in the "Other resources" section. New releases of the inventory may be provided in different formats (including CSV, JSON, JSON-LD, etc).

Contributors

Bio Innovation Service; Directorate-General for Environment European Commission; Joint Research Centre European Commission

How to cite

European Commission, Directorate-General for Environment; European Commission, Joint Research Centre; Bio Innovation Service (2026): An inventory of citizen science activities for environmental policies. European Commission, Joint Research Centre [Dataset] doi: 10.2905/JRC.HVVBNDG PID: http://data.europa.eu/89h/jrc-citsci-10004

Keywords

Citizen Scienceenvironmental policyinventorypolicy impactrecommendations

Data access

Inventory of environmental citizen science projects 3.0
ZIP

ZIP is an archive file format that supports lossless data compression. A ZIP file may contain one or more files or directories that may have been compressed.
Downloadable file

A downloadable file for the dataset.

Use conditions
Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International

CC BY 4.0 lets others distribute, remix, tweak, and build upon the author’s work, even commercially, as long as they credit the author for the original creation. This is the most accommodating of licences offered. Recommended for maximum dissemination and use of licenced materials.

Access conditions
No limitations

Anybody can directly and anonymously access the data, without being required to register or authenticate.

  • Third release of the inventory of environmental citizen science projects, also including projects from the Irish Environment Protection Agency (EPA) and the survey. Available formats: CSV, JSON, and JSON-LD.

Inventory of environmental citizen science projects
GNU zip

GZIP – GNU zip – is a file format and a software application used for file compression and decompression.
Downloadable file

A downloadable file for the dataset.

Use conditions
European Commission reuse notice

According to the European Commission reuse notice, reuse is authorised, provided the source is acknowledged. The reuse policy of the European Commission is implemented by the Decision of 12 December 2011. The general principle of reuse can be subject to conditions which may be specified in individual copyright notices. Therefore users are advised to refer to the copyright notices of the individual websites maintained under Europa and of the individual documents. Reuse is not applicable to documents subject to intellectual property rights of third parties.

Access conditions
No limitations

Anybody can directly and anonymously access the data, without being required to register or authenticate.

  • The inventory of environmental citizen science projects, in csv format, available in a zip file with a pdf describing the inventory attributes.

Selected practices in citizen science for environmental policy
CSV

CSV – comma-separated values – files store tabular data (numbers and text) in plain text. Each line of the file is a data record. Each record consists of one or more fields, separated by commas.
Downloadable file

A downloadable file for the dataset.

Use conditions
European Commission reuse notice

According to the European Commission reuse notice, reuse is authorised, provided the source is acknowledged. The reuse policy of the European Commission is implemented by the Decision of 12 December 2011. The general principle of reuse can be subject to conditions which may be specified in individual copyright notices. Therefore users are advised to refer to the copyright notices of the individual websites maintained under Europa and of the individual documents. Reuse is not applicable to documents subject to intellectual property rights of third parties.

Access conditions
No limitations

Anybody can directly and anonymously access the data, without being required to register or authenticate.

  • The selected practices in citizen science for environmental policy, in csv format, available in a zip file with a pdf describing the inventory attributes

Inventory of environmental citizen science projects 2.0
ZIP

ZIP is an archive file format that supports lossless data compression. A ZIP file may contain one or more files or directories that may have been compressed.
Downloadable file

A downloadable file for the dataset.

Use conditions
European Commission reuse notice

According to the European Commission reuse notice, reuse is authorised, provided the source is acknowledged. The reuse policy of the European Commission is implemented by the Decision of 12 December 2011. The general principle of reuse can be subject to conditions which may be specified in individual copyright notices. Therefore users are advised to refer to the copyright notices of the individual websites maintained under Europa and of the individual documents. Reuse is not applicable to documents subject to intellectual property rights of third parties.

Access conditions
No limitations

Anybody can directly and anonymously access the data, without being required to register or authenticate.

  • Second release of the inventory of environmental citizen science projects, also including projects from the Irish Environment Protection Agency (EPA) and the survey. Available formats: CSV, JSON, and JSON-LD.

Other resources

Citizen Science Project Inventory - Project description form
HTML

HTML is the standard markup language used to create web pages and its elements form the building blocks of all websites.

Use conditions
European Commission reuse notice

According to the European Commission reuse notice, reuse is authorised, provided the source is acknowledged. The reuse policy of the European Commission is implemented by the Decision of 12 December 2011. The general principle of reuse can be subject to conditions which may be specified in individual copyright notices. Therefore users are advised to refer to the copyright notices of the individual websites maintained under Europa and of the individual documents. Reuse is not applicable to documents subject to intellectual property rights of third parties.

Access conditions
No limitations

Anybody can directly and anonymously access the data, without being required to register or authenticate.

  • This page is to collect information about Citizen Science projects to be included in future versions of the Inventory of citizen science activities for environment policies. The inventory will be updated on a regular basis in order to include the replies.

CitSci-X: Exploring Citizen Science projects
HTML

HTML is the standard markup language used to create web pages and its elements form the building blocks of all websites.

Use conditions
Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International

CC BY 4.0 lets others distribute, remix, tweak, and build upon the author’s work, even commercially, as long as they credit the author for the original creation. This is the most accommodating of licences offered. Recommended for maximum dissemination and use of licenced materials.

Access conditions
No limitations

Anybody can directly and anonymously access the data, without being required to register or authenticate.

  • Visual project explorer

Publications

Publication
Citizen science for environmental policy
Publication
Understanding the Citizen Science Landscape for European Environmental Policy: An Assessment and Recommendations

Additional information

Published by
European Commission, Joint Research Centre
Contact email
s.schade (at) ec.europa.eu
Update frequency
irregular

The event occurs at uneven intervals.

Language(s)
English

English is a member of the West Germanic group of the Germanic languages. It is an official language of almost 60 sovereign states and is now a global lingua franca.It is the third-most-common native language in the world and it is widely learned as a second language.

Data theme(s)
Environment

dataset theme covering the domain of environment, defined as the interaction of all living species, climate, weather, and natural resources that impact human survival and economic activity
Science and technology

dataset theme covering the domains of science and technology, with science being the systematic pursuit of knowledge through testable explanations and predictions across natural, social, and formal disciplines, and technology encompassing the collective techniques, skills, methods, and processes used in producing goods, providing services, or achieving objectives like scientific research

Geographical name(s)
World
Issued date
2018-10-01
Created date
14 Dec 2018 10:40
Modified date
02 Mar 2022 09:07
Dataset identifier
http://data.europa.eu/89h/jrc-citsci-10004
Other identifiers
Rate this page
Please vote (optional).
An unhandled error has occurred. Reload 🗙