Citizen science within the framework of the Horizon 2020 Green Deal Call projects.
Date: 2023-03-16
Institutions: Directorate-General for Research and Innovation
Subjects: EU research policy, European citizens' initiative, Framework Programme for Research and Development, innovation, report, research programme, research project, scientific research

Green Deal Projects Support Office
Citizen science within the 
framework of the Horizon 2020 
Green Deal Call projects 

Independent 
Expert 
Report

Research and 
Research and
Innovation 
Innovation

Citizen science within the framework of the Horizon 2020 Green Deal Call projects – Report One

European Commission
Directorate B – Healthy Planet
Directorate RTD Research and Innovation
Unit C.5 — Ecological and Social Transitions

Contact 
Email 

Emilie Vandam 
RTD-GREEN-DEAL-CALL-COORDINATION@ec.europa.eu 
Emilie.VANDAM@ec.europa.eu
support@greendealprojects.eu 
RTD-PUBLICATIONS@ec.europa.eu

European Commission
B-1049 Brussels

Manuscript completed in March 2023 
1st edition.

This document has been prepared for the European Commission however it reflects the views only of the authors, and the Commission 
cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.

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doi: 10.2777/042477

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EUROPEAN COMMISSION

Citizen science  
within the framework of the
Horizon 2020 Green  
Deal Call projects 
Green Deal Projects Support Office

Hamnah Shakeel, Beatriz Mayor, Alan Irwin, Margaret Gold, Rosa Arias,  
Gabriella Leo, Arlind Xhelili, Alessandro Caforio, Luis Navarte, 
Ricardo

The Green Deal Projects Support Office is operated for the European Commission  
– DG RTD by Ecorys and Ricardo

2023

Directorate-General for Research and Innovation

2

Citizen science with the framework of the Horizon 2020 Green Deal Call projects ‒ Report One

CONTENTS

1 What is citizen science? 

4

2 Citizen science in European Commission research and innovation policies 
6

and programmes 

3 Challenges and barriers in implementing citizen science projects, and 

potential mitigation strategies 

10

4 Examples of citizen science in Horizon 2020 Green Deal Call projects 

13 

5 Communicating impact: communicating impact storiesfrom projects  

to stakeholders 

6 Summary and conclusions 

16

18

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Citizen science with the framework of the Horizon 2020 Green Deal Call projects ‒ Report One

About the  
Green Deal Projects 
Support Office

The  Green  Deal  Projects  Support  Office 
has  been  developed  to  facilitate  coordination 
between  projects  funded  under  the  Horizon 
2020  Green  Deal  Call  and  to  maximise  their 
positive  impact  in  the  longer  term.  The  Green 
Deal  Projects  Support  Office  will  operate  until 
November 2026 and its key activities will include 

supporting  Green  Deal  projects  to  implement 
effective collaboration, providing networking and 
knowledge  exchange  opportunities  to  develop 
synergies, and helping projects to rojects Support 
Office  will  support  networking,  knowledge 
exchange  and 
capacity-building 
common 
activities through five working groups:

Climate Change 
and Biodiversity

Clean Energy

Knowledge  
and citizens

Urban Environment 
and Mobility

Food and 
Health

For more information on the Green Deal Projects Support Office,  
please contact: support@greendealprojects.eu 

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Citizen science with the framework of the Horizon 2020 Green Deal Call projects ‒ Report One

1

What is citizen science?

Citizen  science  is  described  as  the  voluntary 
participation  of  non-professional  scientists  in 
research and innovation at different stages of the 
process and at different levels of engagement1. 
Citizen  scientists  can  be  involved  in  a  range  of 
activities,  from  shaping  research  agendas  and 
policies  to  gathering,  processing,  and  analysing 
data, and assessing the outcomes of research.

Employing  citizens  in  scientific  initiatives  can 
greatly increase the quality and quantity of data 
that  is  collected,  often  enabling  innovative  and 
creative  approaches  to  gathering  that  data.  It 
also ensures that the research being undertaken 
aligns  with  society’s  needs,  expectations,  and 
values,  and  is,  therefore,  more  likely  to  trigger 
desired  behavioural  change.  And,  finally, 
it 
transparency,  and 
increases 
societal understanding of the science, increasing 
public trust in research outputs. 

the  openness, 

Citizen  science  is  understood  to  be  an  integral 
part  of  the  “democratisation  of  knowledge 
production”2  and  of 
increasing  the  societal 
relevance  of  publicly  funded  research1.  It  has 
been attributed to the participatory turn in science 
policy. It is also claimed that citizen science can 
facilitate  the  democratisation  of  science  by 
shifting  it  from  being  a  closed  activity  to  being 
more  inclusive  and  accessible.  For  example,  the 
European  Commission  is  currently  investigating 
the  potential  of  citizen  science  as  an  input  for 
environmental  policymaking,  and  is  supporting 
citizen science in its research funding programmes 
(e.g. Citizens’ Observatories, Responsible Research 
and Innovation). Taking this agenda into account, 
funding agencies have started to promote citizen 
science  with  tailored  programmes,  such  as  the 
European  Horizon  2020  “Science  with  and  for 
Society (SwafS)” programme. 

1Heigl, F., Kieslinger, B., Paul, K.T., Uhlik, J. and Dörler, D., 2019. Toward an international definition of citizen science. Proceedings of the National 
Academy of Sciences, 116(17), pp. 8089–8092. 
2Irwin, A., 1995. Citizen science: A study of people, expertise and sustainable development. Routledge.

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Citizen science with the framework of the Horizon 2020 Green Deal Call projects ‒ Report One

Open  science,  including  citizen  science  and 
societal  engagement,  are  the  modus  operandi 
of  the  Horizon  Europe  programme.  This  opens 
up  huge  opportunities  for  the  projects  funded 
under  the  Horizon  2020  Green  Deal  Call;  it 
will  enable  these  projects  to  follow  up  their 
science  engagement  activities  beyond  their 
lifespan  and  to  achieve  long-term  impacts. 
They  will  also  contribute  to  the  delivery  of 
the  five  European  Union  (EU)  Missions  on 
several  fronts,  including  by  sharing  methods, 
results  and  lessons  with  the  Mission  projects,  
by  building  capacities  and  awareness  in  their 
pilot  regions  about  the  value  of  supporting 
research  and 
by 
innovation 
participating  in  co-creation  and  stakeholder 
engagement processes, and by networking with 
other similar regions (among others). 

initiatives, 

Figure 1 Ways of involving citizens and civil society 

organisations in project activities

Within  the  Horizon  Europe  programme, 
citizens  and  civil  society  organisations  can  get 
involved in project activities in three different ways  
(see Figure 1): 

1  Co-design of activities, such as workshops, 
focus  groups,  or  other  means  of  developing 
innovation  agendas  and 
research  and 
policies. This will often include exploring the 
implications,  ethics,  benefits  and  challenges 
of  research  and  innovation  approaches  and 
technology development. 

2  Co-creation, 

involving  citizens  or  end 
users  directly  in  the  development  of  new 
knowledge, often through user-led innovation. 

3  Co-assessment,  such  as  assisting 

in 
the  monitoring,  evaluation  and  feedback 
relating to a project’s governance, policies or 
programmes on an iterative or even continual 
basis.

Examples
include workshops, focus 
groups, or other means 
of developing research 
and innovation agendas
and policies

Assisting in the project’s
governance, policies,
or programmes

CO(cid:29)DESIGN

CO(cid:29)ASSESSMENT

CO(cid:29)CREATION

Involving citizens
or end-users 
directly

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Citizen science with the framework of the Horizon 2020 Green Deal Call projects ‒ Report One

2

Citizen science in European  
Commission research  
and innovation policies 
and programmes

This  section  explains  how  citizen  science 
has  been  incorporated  into  research  and 
in 
innovation  policies  and  programmes 
Europe. 
It  presents  citizen  and  social 
engagements  within  Horizon  Europe,  and 
how they can be mainstreamed.

Citizen science in the 
European research and 
innovation policy
Citizen  science  is  a  part  of  the  Pact  for 
Research and Innovation in Europe that lists 
societal  responsibility  as  a  main  principle, 
and active citizen and societal engagement 
in research and innovation as a priority area 
for joint actions. Promoting this engagement 
can increase:

•  the  excellence  of 

research  and 
innovation,  by  enlarging  the  scope  of 
research and innovation and the quality 
and  quantity  of  data  that  is  collected, 
discussed  and  analysed,  enabling 
innovative and creative approaches and 
leveraging collective intelligence

•  the  effectiveness, 

relevance  and 
uptake  of  the  results,  by  ensuring  that 
research  and  innovation  aligns  with 
the  needs,  expectations  and  values  of 
society and triggers behavioural changes
in  science,  by 
transparency, 
increasing 
science  literacy  and  the  confidence  of 
the public in research

openness, 

•  society’s  trust 

Member  States  have  also  taken  part  in 
mutual  learning  exercises  to  strengthen 
their  national  policies  and  initiatives  on 
citizen  science.  These  activities  enabled 
them  to  exchange  lessons  learnt  and  best 
practice,  as  well  as  exploit  synergies  and 
upscale  suitable  (cross-)  national  citizen 
science 
initiatives  across  the  European 
Research Area (ERA). 

As  a  result,  five  thematic  meetings  were 
organised  in  2022  involving  11  Member 
States  and  Associated  Countries  (Austria, 
Belgium, 
France,  Germany,  Hungary, 
Portugal,  Romania,  Italy,  Slovenia,  Sweden 
and Norway). The final report will be available 
in  early  2023,  and  will  focus  on  ensuring 

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Citizen science with the framework of the Horizon 2020 Green Deal Call projects ‒ Report One

good  practice  and  impact,  maximising 
the  relevance  and  excellence  of  citizen 
science,  creating  enabling  environments 
and sustaining citizen science, and scaling 
up citizen science.

Citizen and societal 
engagement in  
Horizon Europe
Opening the research system towards society, 
and  vice-versa,  is  a  policy  priority  that  is 
embedded within the new ERA policy agenda, 
in  which  the  practice  of  open  science  is 
addressed in the following ways:

• 

In  the  excellence  criterion  for 
evaluating  proposals:  “Soundness 
proposed  methodology, 
the 
of 
including 
the  underlying  concepts, 
models,  assumptions,  interdisciplinary 
approaches,  appropriate  consideration 
of  the  gender  dimension  in  research 
and innovation content, and the quality 
of  open  science  practices  including 
sharing  and  management  of  research 
outputs  and  engagement  of  citizens, 
civil  society  and  end  users  where 
appropriate”.

• 

Inclusion  under  the  methodology 
section during proposal evaluation: 
“Describe 
open 
science  practices  are 
implemented 
as  an  integral  part  of  the  proposed 
methodology”.

how  appropriate 

• 

In  Key  Impact  Pathways  (KIP): 
“KIP  6  Strengthening  the  uptake  of 

Innovation 
in  Society”  and  “KIP  3: 
Fostering  diffusion  of  knowledge  and 
Open Science”.

The Horizon 2020 
SwafS programme
The objectives of the programme are:
•  to build effective co-operation between 

science and society

•  to  foster  the  recruitment  of  new  talent 

for science 

•  to  pair  scientific  excellence  with  social 

awareness and responsibility

In  the  Horizon  Europe  Work  Programme 
2018–2020  there  are  three  strategic 
orientations addressing citizen and societal 
engagement:
•  building  the  territorial  dimension  of 

SwafS partnerships

•  exploring and supporting citizen science
•  building the knowledge base for SwafS

The  SwafS  project  portfolio  includes  the 
following areas:
•  Citizen 

science  and  engagement: 
covering  all  areas  of  science  and 
innovation,  from  public  health  and 
ecology to computer science and frontier 
physics.

•  Responsible Research and Innovation (RRI). 
• 

Impacts  and 
science and citizen engagement. 

implications  of  citizen 

•  Hubs  of  activity  to  foster  growth  and 

encourage the very best practices.

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Citizen science with the framework of the Horizon 2020 Green Deal Call projects ‒ Report One

Horizon  Europe  citizen 
and societal engagement 
dedicated support
Investments made by Horizon Europe to deliver on 
EU policy priorities and to contribute to the United 
Nations  Sustainable  Development  Goals  include 
the  European  Green  Deal,  the  Circular  Economy 
Action Plan, the EU Biodiversity Strategy for 2030, 
the  Farm  to  Fork  Strategy,  the  European  data 
strategy, the European Hydrogen Strategy, and the 
New Industrial Strategy for Europe.

With  the  aim  of  widening  participation  in,  and 
strengthening,  ERA,  the  Horizon  Europe  Work 
Programme  2021–22  included  the  development 
of  an  open  science  policy  and  the  adoption  of 
open  science  practices,  such  as  citizen  science, 
societal engagement, science communication and 
responsible research and innovation within ERA.

The expected impacts of this are: 

• 

• 

• 

• 

increased  capacity  in  the  EU  research  and 
innovation  system  to  conduct  open  science 
and to set it as a modus operandi of modern 
science 

increased  engagement  of  citizens  with 
research and innovation 

increased  alignment  of  strategic  research 
with society’s needs, expectations and values

increased  trust  in  science  and  research  and 
innovation  outcomes  within  society,  and 
greater  two-way  communication  between 
science and society

Citizen science has the potential to improve the 
excellence and impact of research and to deepen 
the  relationship  between  science  and  society. 

It  can  contribute  to  science  and  innovation 
in  a  meaningful  way,  from  environmental 
observation to improvements in the health and 
the energy sector. 

The  involvement  of  citizens  in  co-design,  co-
creation  and  co-assessment  processes  are 
foreseen  across  Horizon  Europe  activities, 
notably in the context of Missions and Clusters. 
Moreover, the Horizon Europe citizen engagement 
is  an  aspect  of  the  excellence  criterion  and 
methodology for proposal evaluation, and of the 
key impact pathway monitoring approach.

In  summary,  citizen  science  can  contribute  to 
improving  research  and  innovation  and  adding 
value to research projects. Horizon Europe aims 
to promote citizen science by acknowledging its 
value in the following ways:

•  Recognising  that  citizen  science  has  the 
potential  to  improve  the  excellence 
and  impact  of  research  and  to  deepen  the 
relationship between science and society. 

•  Recognising that citizens can contribute to 
science and innovation in a meaningful 
way,  from  environmental  observation  to 
improvements  in  the  health  and  the  energy 
sector. 

•  Being  cognisant  of  the  fact  that  citizen 
engagement,  which  includes  citizen  science, 
is at the core of the Pact for Research 
and Innovation and is a cross-cutting priority 
of the new ERA.

•  Foreseeing  the  involvement  of  citizens  in 
co-design,  co-creation  and  co-assessment 
processes  across  Horizon  Europe  activities, 
notably  in  the  context  of  Missions  and 
Clusters. 

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Citizen science with the framework of the Horizon 2020 Green Deal Call projects ‒ Report One

•  Making citizen engagement an aspect of the 
excellence criterion and methodology 
evaluation  within 
for 
Horizon  Europe,  and  of  the  key  impact 
pathway monitoring approach. 

proposal 

•  Offering  dedicated  support  to  citizen 
science in the Widening Participation 
and  Strengthening 
the  European 
Research  Area  (WIDERA)  part  of  the 

programme.  WIDERA  aims  to  ensure  wider 
participation in ERA, and to spread excellence, 
as  well  as  to  reform  and  enhance  the 
European  research  and  innovation  system. 
The essence of this component is the full use 
of Europe’s scientific potential and ensuring 
that  the  benefits  of  an  economy  based  on 
knowledge and innovation are widely spread 
across all countries of the continent3.

3WIDERA - Project WIDE_NET (ncpwidenet.eu)

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Citizen science with the framework of the Horizon 2020 Green Deal Call projects ‒ Report One

3

Challenges and barriers 
in implementing citizen science 
projects, and potential  
mitigation strategies

Citizen  science  approaches  boast  an  array  of 
benefits;  however,  there  remain  a  few  barriers 
that impact the effectiveness of implementation. 
With  careful  consideration  and  planning,  these 
challenges  can  be  mitigated.  This  section 
highlights five limitations and suggests ways to 
remedy them, as shown in Figure 2.

Maintaining citizen 
engagement 
In  the  initial  engagement  with  citizens  it  is 
imperative  to  persuade  them  to  participate, 
and to foster a willingness to do so, as well as 
then  having  a  clear  strategy  on  maintaining 
participation. The barriers that  could potentially 
prevent  engagement  must  be 
in 
advance  –  such  as  language,  poverty,  gender 
issues, the lack of an inclusive work environment 
for ethnic minorities, etc. The local context must 

identified 

be understood, with targeted measures in place 
to engage with citizens that are at risk of social 
exclusion.

Moreover,  the  role  that  citizens  will  play  in  the 
project must be defined at the start, and should 
be communicated with them, so that participants 
understand  which  part  of  the  research  process 
they will be involved in. This will facilitate a shift 
away from top-down, hierarchal approaches and 
will allow citizens to lead from the bottom up. 

In  order  to  maintain  citizens’  participation  and 
increase their productivity, motivation mechanisms 
can  be  employed  throughout  the  project.  For 
example,  frequent  feedback,  sharing 
relevant 
knowledge,  engaging  in  entertainment  activities, 
providing  access  to  information,  and  gamification 
are  all  examples  of  how  participants  can  be  kept 
informed  or  engaged,  which  will  make  them  feel 
more connected to the work that they are doing.

Figure 2 Limitations of adopting citizen science approaches in research projects

MAINTAINING
ENGAGEMENT

DATA
QUALITY

DEMONSTRATING
IMPACT

SUSTAINABILITY

SCIENTIFIC
RECOGNITION

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Citizen science with the framework of the Horizon 2020 Green Deal Call projects ‒ Report One

Some  general  strategies 
engagement include the following:

for  maintaining 

help to centralise the data that is collected can be 
especially useful.

•  Making it fun, by creating a social element 
during  participation  in  projects,  and  having 
an appealing reward system.

•  Allowing  citizens  to  work  closely  with 
scientists  (which  is  something  they 
appreciate).  This  can  be  through  formal 
training or allowing them to work alongside 
lead researchers during the project.

•  Allowing  them  to  actively  participate 
in data analysis and validation. Citizens 
value being involved in crucial elements of 
the research process.

•  Building  trust  and  maintaining  the 
purpose  of,  and  motivation  for,  their 
involvement. This can be achieved through 
fostering  a  community  feeling  around  the 
project, networking, and creating a personal 
connection with local actors, the context or 
a particular cause.

Data quality 
When data is dispersed it is difficult to access 
and  re-use,  which  poses  a  challenge  to  the 
quality  of  the  data  itself.  Automatic  data 
validation  mechanisms  remain  costly,  data 
sharing  between  projects  can  be  difficult, 
and  a  data-centric  approach  is  not  always 
systematically adopted: all of which can make 
it  difficult  for  researchers  to  assess,  measure 
and  compare  results  and  impact.  As  a  result, 
ensuring  the  data  collected  in  the  project  is 
robust can remain a hurdle if it is not considered 
early  on  in  the  research.  Some  approaches  to 
mitigate these challenges include the following:

•  Check for pre-existing tools that can be of 
use.  Platforms  (or  webtools/mobile  apps)  that 

•  Connect  with  similar  projects  to  share 
knowledge and approaches. A community 
of  participants  or  practitioners  can  help  to 
validate the data.

•  Offer  training  workshops  to  maintain  a 

consistent high quality of data.

•  Compare 

the  project’s  data  with 
official  data.  Combining  official  data  with 
the  project’s  own  data,  visualisation  and 
interpretations can enable it to be replicated 
in other contexts.

Demonstrating impact
It  is  quite  difficult  to  devise  indicators  for 
measuring the impacts of citizen science that are 
both useful to the project itself and applicable 
at  the  relevant  scale  (local,  national,  regional 
or  Europe-wide  level).  However,  by  publishing 
the  final  results  and  justifying  the  evaluation 
metrics  used,  not  only  can  this  contribute  to 
the discourse and overall recognition of Citizen 
Science  as  a  research  method,  but  it  can  also 
create an academic impact in and of itself.

A few strategies to improve impact evaluation 
include the following:

•  Prioritising 

the 

impact  areas  and 
creating  a  strategy  that  aligns  with 
existing  policy  and  social  agendas. 

• 

Engagement with policymakers: Producing 
policy documents resulting from the project 
to  inform  existing  agendas  and  planning 
political advocacy/ communities.

•  Being  flexible:  Running  ex-ante  and  ex-
post  impact  assessments  to  monitor  the 
project’s progress.

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Citizen science with the framework of the Horizon 2020 Green Deal Call projects ‒ Report One

Sustainability
Near the completion of the project, resources are 
typically depleted and thus often little attention 
is  paid  to  the  sustainability  of  the  project.  For 
example,  technological  tools 
(e.g.  apps  or 
platforms) that help to retain engagement and 
raise awareness can be costly and therefore their 
maintenance  can  be  overlooked.  Furthermore, 
the  upscaling  and  replicability  of  projects  can 
be  compromised  due  to  limited  funding  and  
the  short-term  perspective  that  sometimes 
governs projects. 

To  better  ensure  project  sustainability,  the 
following should be considered:

•  Defining  the 

business  models  at 
the project.

long-term  plan  and  new 
the  beginning  of  

• 

• 

Finding additional resources (either public or 
private) beyond grant funding. 

Planning  the  scale-up  or  roll-out  of  the 
impacts  of  
activities,  outcomes  and 
the project. 

Academic scientists and 
scientific recognition
Institutional  changes  in  academia  are  needed  in 
order to increase the scientific recognition of citizen 
science. Significant efforts are underway to pursue 
this, such as the European Commission’s inclusion 
of citizen science in its Open Science Agenda. 

Some  of  the  barriers  to  the  involvement  of 
academics  is  that  they  lack  the  familiarity  and 
skills  required  to  implement  citizen  science 
projects. Training in this area is therefore required. 
However,  there  remain  limited  incentives  for 
academics  to  undertake  such  training,  as  they 
can be reluctant to enrol in a more complex and 
less controlled research scheme. This is coupled 
with  the  lack  of  scientific  and  academic  career 
recognition for participation in such projects.

Possible  strategies  for  tackling  this  include  the 
following:

• 

• 

Establishing  an  interdisciplinary  team. 
A  European  platform  exists  to  connect 
scientists  around  Europe,  through  shared 
for  publishing 
information,  possibilities 
papers, 
schemes,  and 
funding 
new 
networking opportunities.

Emphasising 
impact  and 
the  policy 
research  elements  of  the  project  to 
incentivise academic participation. Similarly, 
it can be useful to reiterate how citizen science 
enhances societal trust in science. 

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Citizen science with the framework of the Horizon 2020 Green Deal Call projects ‒ Report One

4

Examples of citizen science 
in Horizon 2020 GREEN  
DEAL CALL projects

Citizen  science  is  currently  being  applied  by  a 
number  of  the  Horizon  2020  Green  Deal  Call 
projects. However, the implementation of citizen 
science  methodologies  in  these  projects  has 
faced a number of challenges and barriers. This 
has prompted the projects to develop strategies 
and  formulas  to  address  these  challenges  and 

barriers, which can be shared as ‘good practices’. 
Thus, the boxes in this section summarise three 
of  the  Horizon  2020  Green  Deal  Call  projects 
that  are  applying  citizen  science,  highlighting 
the research opportunities and barriers that were 
identified by the project coordinators.

GREENSCENT – Smart Citizen Education for a Green Future aims to 
educate and empower the people of Europe to change their behaviour 
towards  the  environment  by  fostering  empathy  for  the  planet. 
GreenScent believes that behavioural change is vital in order to achieve 
the  objectives  set  out  by  the  European  Commission’s  Green  Deal  of 
climate neutrality on the continent of Europe by 2050. 

This project is empowering children to monitor the air quality around their schools and 
raising awareness of the links between air pollution and health.

Opportunities
The project is giving students and pupils a say on the future Green Competence Framework 
and curriculum. It is expected that this will: 

•  make education more relevant

•  increase students’ and pupils’ awareness of the Green Deal

•  engage young people in the Green Deal and motivate  

them to act

Barriers
These have yet to be determined but it is suspected  
that engaging young people over a period  
of several years will be a challenge.

14

Citizen science with the framework of the Horizon 2020 Green Deal Call projects ‒ Report One

The PSLifestyle project aims to close the gap between climate awareness 
and individual action by engaging people to take an active role and endorse 
more  sustainable  lifestyles.  It  does  so  through  the  PSL  digital  tool.  On 
the one hand, the tool enables the collection, monitoring and analysis of 
an  individual’s  lifestyle  patterns;  on  the  other,  it  builds  awareness  about 
individuals’ carbon footprint, while empowering them to make changes in 
their lifestyle behaviours towards more sustainable ones. 

To  ensure  the  PSL  tool  reflects  the  needs  and  expectations  of  its  users 
within the context of their local realities, the PSL tool (content and features) 
has been co-created with citizens from eight European countries (Portugal, 
Finland,  Estonia,  Germany,  Italy,  Slovenia,  Greece,  and  Turkey)  through 
Citizen  Science  Labs.  The  opportunities  and  challenges  set  out  below 
related to the process of conducting the labs in the project’s pilot regions.

Opportunities
•  People  are  curious  about  understanding  their 
environmental  impact  and  tracing  it  back  to 
their specific lifestyle patterns/behaviours. 

•  Collaborating  with  various  (local)  organisations/
multipliers is helpful for recruiting lab participants. 

•  Tangible incentives (e.g. social gatherings and 
new experiences) help to bring participants on 
board, as well as keeping them engaged.

•  A  diverse  set  of  communication  materials 
and  channels  increases  the  effectiveness  of 
participant recruitment.

•  Starting  from  people’s  local  realities  and 
needs  helps  to  incite  people’s  curiosity  more, 
as opposed to speaking about sustainability in 
general.

•  Sharing  the  ownership  of  the  process  with 
participants is a success factor with regard to 
keeping participants interested throughout the 
entire journey.

Challenges
•  Recruiting and retaining participants seems to 
be  slightly  more  difficult  post-pandemic,  due 
to fears of possible Covid-19 infection and/or 
wanting to spend one’s time differently.

•  It  is  difficult  to  bring  on  board  people  from 
different  backgrounds  due  to  differences  in 
values:  for  example,  sustainability  concerns 
are  not  considered  a  priority  for  some  social 
groups over ensuring their personal welfare.

•  Participants were impatient about the project’s 
future  plans.  Providing  an  overview  of  the 
entire process upfront helps people to create 
an impression of the entire context. 

•  The ambitious sustainability targets (i.e. 1.5°C 
lifestyles) can lead to feelings of hopelessness 
and  risk  undermining  people’s  beliefs  in  their 
self-efficacy.  Highlighting 
individual’s 
role  complementary  to  other  people,  as  well 
as  actors  in  a  system,  helps  to  offset  such 
impressions. 

the 

15

Citizen science with the framework of the Horizon 2020 Green Deal Call projects ‒ Report One

AURORA is demonstrating how people can make a difference 
through  the  choices  they  make,  reducing  13–20%  of  all 
greenhouse gas emissions linked to residential energy use and 
13%  linked  to  transport  choices.  In  addition,  the  project  will 
empower  people  to  take  ownership  of  new  community  solar 
energy projects. 

Opportunities
•  Transforming university communities into Citizen Science Hubs by creating renewable  

energy communities.

•  Understanding the underlying motivations (social and environmental benefits)  

of participants through conducting surveys.

Barriers
• 

Inflexibility of public administrations.

•  Surveys revealed concerns about the financial and legal implications  

of participations (i.e. return on investment).

16

Citizen science with the framework of the Horizon 2020 Green Deal Call projects ‒ Report One

5

Communicating impact:  
communicating impact stories 
from projects to stakeholders 

Citizen  science  is  a  rapidly  emerging  mode  of 
research  and  innovation,  and  one  which  the 
projects  funded  under  the  Horizon  2020  Green 
Deal Call are increasingly using to engage citizens 
in adapting to and tackling climate change. 

A  body  of  knowledge  is  being  developed  that 
describes the types of impacts of citizen science 
initiatives, including how to monitor and analyse 
these projects, but discussing how to capture and 
convey the impacts to both policymakers and the 
wider public is equally important. 

In  citizen  science  research,  a  lot  of  outputs  are 
delivered in the form of reports, policy briefs and 
publications  that  disseminate  knowledge  and 
key findings, but it can be quite easy for the key 
impacts to get lost within the piles of paperwork 
that  land  on  a  policymaker’s  desk.  It  is  also 
difficult  to  scale  up  the  impact,  whereby  other 
stakeholders  take  on  best  practices  to  other 
regions,  as  the  knowledge-sharing  networks 
and  the  technological  infrastructure  that  can 

facilitate this would need strengthening.

The power of pictures 
In the ‘Plastic Spotter’ project, in which volunteers 
studied the macroplastics found in the canals of 
Leiden,  the  Netherlands,  pictures  were  used  to 
showcase  the  nature  of  activities  and  the  work 
that volunteers were involved with and this was 
particularly useful in demonstrating the outcomes 
of the research. For example, the impact of Covid 

Figure 3 Fish caught in medical glove

litter  was  illustrated  through  the  picture  of  a 
small fish trapped within a medical glove (Figure 
3).  This  proved  to  be  a  very  powerful  image 
that  was  picked  up  by  news  outlets,  including  

The Guardian and National Geographic.

Storytelling 
A  significant  element  of  reaching  new  people 
is  how  you  frame  your  work  and  how  you  tell 
your  story.  Leveraging  the  art  of  storytelling 
is  therefore  an  exceptional  asset  for  citizen 
scientists, and is especially useful in addressing 
the following challenges:

1.  awareness and engagement of citizens

2.  acceptability:  the  added  value  of  citizen-
to  decision-making  and 

driven  science 
policymaking

17

Citizen science with the framework of the Horizon 2020 Green Deal Call projects ‒ Report One

Self-
completion

Desk 
research

Interview

STEP 1
Learning about 
policy impacts

Using the CSISTA Impact 
Inquiry Instrument

STEP 2
Deciding on storytelling 
goals and instrument

Other

Impact
brief

Data from 
CSISTA 
Impact 
Inquiry 
Instrument

STEP 3
Cra(cid:6)ing an 
impact story

Impact 
narrative

Using the CSISTA Impact 
Story Instruments

Figure 4 Storytelling approach used in We Observe project

3.  sustaining the ecosystem of support and scaling 

up.

The We Observe project, which aims to improve 
the  coordination  between  existing  Citizen 
Observatories,  uses  a  storytelling  approach. 
Figure  4  shows  a  graphic  of  the  template 
designed during the project as guidance on what 
to keep track of. 

•  Step 1: How is the instrument being used? 
Will it be used during interviews, or will it be 
used at the end for reflecting and using the 
grey literature to complete?

•  Step  2:  Looking  at  the  instrument  itself  and 
what its goals are: who is it for? Policymakers? 
Funding bodies? 

•  Step  3:  With  that  audience  in  mind,  the 
narrative can be designed. Is it a policy brief? 
Poster? Video?

The greatest challenge that remains is measuring 
the impact in a quantifiable way, as impacts can 
be  manifested  over  long  periods  of  time  and 
in  many  different  directions.  Core  aspects  of 
projects,  including  meaningful  engagement,  are 
difficult  to  measure,  and  it  is  often  easy  to  use 
metrics  purely  because  they  are  measurable, 
as  opposed  to  the  metric  providing  information 
about  what  the  nature  of  the  impact  really  is. 
An  example  that  was  discussed  in  our  recent 
webinar was how an increase in Twitter followers 
is not reflective of engagement with projects or 
their  reach:  rather,  deeper  metrics,  such  as  the 
number of retweets or click-throughs, would be 
more appropriate. Yet this still fails to capture the 
action taken. So, although measuring impacts is 
encouraged, a deeper interrogation of whether it 
is a false/vanity metric must be considered.

 
18

Citizen science with the framework of the Horizon 2020 Green Deal Call projects ‒ Report One

6

Summary and  
conclusions

is 

to 

the  practice  of  public 
Citizen  science 
in  scientific 
participation  and  collaboration 
research 
increase  scientific  knowledge. 
This  rapidly  emerging  mode  of  research  and 
innovation shows substantial potential in terms of 
achieving greater societal impact and increasing 
trust in science, by leveraging collective societal 
capabilities,  by  enlarging  the  scope  of  research 
and innovation, and by increasing the relevance, 
responsiveness  and  transparency  or  research. 
Several projects funded under the Horizon 2020 
Green  Deal  Call  are  working  on  solutions  that 
will  enable  citizens  to  get  involved  in  Green 
Deal  implementation,  through,  among  other 
approaches,  citizen  science  and  observation 
initiatives.

Citizen and societal engagement are programme 
principles and an operational objective of Horizon 
Europe, which aims to “promote co-creation and 
co-design  through  the  engagement  of  citizens 
and  civil  society”4.  Looking  at  “Horizon  2025-
2027 – public consultation”, more citizen science 
projects are expected to come through.

Meanwhile, the use of citizen science will not be 
limited to the Horizon Europe research projects. 
The  implementation  of  the  Horizon  Europe 
research  and  innovation  Missions  on  cancer, 

climate-neutral  cities,  oceans,  smart  cities,  and 
soil  and  food,  foresees  user-led  innovation, 
citizen science and public engagement activities.

People,  whether  in  their  role  as  citizens  or 
consumers,  are  an  important  stakeholder  to 
scientific research, hence it is pivotal to consider 
and bring them on board with more active roles 
when  it  comes  to  designing  and  shaping  our 
current socio-economic frameworks. Furthermore, 
considering  citizens’/consumers’  reality,  thinking 
and  behavioural  patterns 
important 
element  in  ensuring  the  effectiveness  of  the 
solutions (existing or new ones) that address the 
improvement of our consumption and production 
systems  in  the  context  of  sustainability.  Citizen 
science allows for building such understanding. 

is  an 

Finally, it is important to note that citizen science 
can  be  regarded  as  an  important  activity  in 
itself:  getting  citizens  in  touch  with  science, 
engaging  with  local  issues  and  also  with  each 
other. However, it becomes even more important 
when placed in the broader context, including the 
wider framework of open science and innovation. 
Citizen science therefore not only needs political 
support but can itself be a source of support and 
an opportunity for many European initiatives.

4REGULATION (EU) 2021/695 OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL of 28 April 2021 establishing Horizon 
Europe – the Framework Programme for Research and Innovation, laying down its rules for participation and dissemination, 
and repealing Regulations (EU) No 1290/2013 and (EU) No 1291/2013. Available at: https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/
EN/TXT/PDF/?uri=CELEX:32021R0695 

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This report introduces citizen science and its incorporation into research and 
innovation policies and programmes in Europe, and looks at citizen and social 
engagements within Horizon Europe, and how they can be mainstreamed 
Although  it  boasts  an  array  of  benefits  there  remain  a  few  barriers  that 
impact  its  effectiveness,  and  we  examine  and  provide  suggestions  to 
remedy them. Finally we delve into three of the Horizon 2020 Green Deal 
Call  projects  that  are  applying  citizen  science,  and  highlight  the  research 
opportunities and barriers that were identified by the project coordinators.

Studies and reports