Citizen Science as part of EU’s Open Science policy

One of the eight ambitions under the Open Science policy of the European Union is citizen science. ‘The general public should be able to make significant contributions and be recognised as valid European science knowledge producers.’ The aim under Horizon Europe is to ‘engage and involve citizens, civil society organisations and end-users in co-design and co-creation processes and promote responsible research and innovation.’ (EU’s Open Science policy)

European citizens opinion on inclusion in science and technology

Four in ten European citizens (40%) think that public opinion should be taken into account in decision making about science and technology and six out of ten (60%) think that involving non-scientists in research and technological development ensures that science and technology respond to the needs, values and expectations of society. (‘European citizens’ knowledge and attitudes towards science and technology’ Special Eurobarometer 516 (May 2021) at request of DG Research and Innovation European Commission p.50/1)

Horizon Europe application, evaluation and reporting stages

Since the first version of the Horizon Europe Programme Guide under recommended Open Science practices reference is made to ‘Citizen, civil society and end-user engagement’. For the proposal stage a distinction is made between three types of activities: co-design, co-creation and co-assessment activities. Which type(s) of activities that will be included in the proposal, depends on the research and innovation activities envisaged and on the disciplines and sectors implicated (Horizon Europe programme guide (version 1 May 2024) p. 44, 54-56).

Open science practices, including citizen science, is evaluated under the excellence and also the impact evaluation criterion (end users) and the consortium’s expertise on open science practices under criterion quality and efficiency of the implementation. For the main ERC grant types this is not the case, except for Proof of Concept grants where potential end users need to be assessed, and nor for EIC Accelerator, where potential customers need to be addressed in the business case.

In Horizon Europe periodic reports under section impact, it is requested to report on citizen engagement during and after the duration of the project has ended. For ERC this only has to be done in the final scientific report (standard application, evaluation and reporting templates for all Horizon Europe programme type of actions are available on the Funding and Tender Portal under reference documents).

Dedicated citizen science calls for proposals in Horizon Europe two/three-yearly work programmes

Citizen science is a theme across all Horizon Europe programme parts, especially under Cluster 6 and the EU Missions (see below) call topics. There are also dedicated (open) calls for proposals and awards with regards to the promotion of citizen science.

Under the Horizon Europe Work Programme part Widening participation and strengthening the European Research Area, more specifically Destination 3 Reforming and Enhancing the EU Research and Innovation, there are several calls for proposals included with a specific focus on citizen science. The (past) calls for proposals with links to the Funding and Tender portal call topic pages and awards are listed here below:

• HORIZON-WIDERA-2023-ERA-01-08: Laying the groundwork towards Europe-wide citizen science campaigns
• HORIZON-WIDERA-2021-ERA-01-61: Supporting and giving recognition to citizen science in the European Research Area
• HORIZON-WIDERA-2021-ERA-01-60: A capacity-building and brokering network to make citizen science an integral part of the European Research Area
• EU Prize for Citizen Science (most recent) 2024 edition Ars Electronica awards the European Union Prize for Citizen Science on behalf of the European Commission in the context of the IMPETUS project. IMPETUS has received funding under the Horizon Europe call topic HORIZON-WIDERA-2021-ERA-01-61 - Supporting and giving recognition to citizen science in the European Research Area
• ERC Public Engagement with Research Award for ERC grantees of projects up to two years after its end.

Other Horizon Europe calls with links to citizen science and public engagement can be found via the Funding and Tender portal by searching on these and related key words (consumers, end-users, societal engagement,…). More and more call topics under Horizon Europe refer in the impact section to inclusion of the public in the actions.

EU Missions in Horizon Europe

Under Horizon Europe five missions are defined on cancer, soil, adaption to climate change, restoring oceans and waters and creating climate neutral and smart cities which should each deliver on a set of goals by 2030. In the framework of the missions it is the European Commissions’ aim to ‘engage with citizens to boost societal uptake of new solutions and approaches.’ (press release September 2021). Concretely this means that the public should be involved in the actions under the Horizon Europe two/three-yearly work programmes on missions and cross-cutting activities. More information on the (past) call topics for 2021-2022 and 2023-2025 and the latest developments for each mission including the call topics per mission area.

Resources on EU Missions and citizens involvement

• ‘Cities and citizens delivering on EU missions’ European Research and Innovation Days 2021 (June 2021)
• Press release and mission fact sheets - European Commission launch of EU missions to tackle major challenges (September 2021)
• EU missions and citizen engagement activities
• The TRAnsnational cooperation on the MIssions approach (Trami), a Horizon Europe funded project which ran from April 2022 until March 2024, focused on Making Missions Work by creating Communities of Practice, exchanging knowledge and offering mutual learning. Project outcomes

Other citizen science resources

• CORDIS news article ‘Exploring the role of citizen science volunteers in scientific discovery’ on three EU-funded projects that offer new recommendations on how to use citizen science to enhance research outcomes (January 2024)
• Citizen Science in Horizon Europe proposals and projects workshop organised by the Belgian Horizon Europe NCPs slides (October 2023) including a presentation from DG R&I Open Science & Research Infrastructures unit on citizen science in Horizon Europe
• Results from the citizens’ engagement event on Horizon Europe Strategic Plan 2025-2027 (July 2023) An executive summary of a citizens’ engagement event to help the Commission understand what citizens would prioritise when it comes to future research and innovation activities.
• Mutual Learning Exercise on citizen science initiatives: Policy and practice, which ran from December 2021 until February 2023 with 10 countries across Europe participating including Belgium. The MLE aimed to facilitate the exchange of information and lessons learned between participating countries, as well as to identify good practices and policies on citizen science. It also sought to promote and enable participatory research practices at the national level, within a supportive environment for citizen science in all its forms. Lastly, the MLE aimed to identify citizen science initiatives that have high potential to be implemented in a collaborative way across the ERA. Five thematic reports and final report
• Citizen Science and Frontier Research: ERC Annual Event 2022
• Citizen Science in ERC projects – mapping ERC frontier research
• Showcase of citizen science by ERC grantees and other EU-funded projects
• Guidance Valorising research through citizens’ engagement: how to run hackathons with citizens (June 2022)
• Horizon the EU Research & Innovation Magazine Monthly Focus on Citizen Science - science by and for the people (April 2022)
• Citizen Science projects – Cordis Results Pack (April 2022)
• European Commission Citizen Science fact sheet (September 2020)
• European Commission DG Research and Innovation report “Citizen science and citizen engagement - Achievements in Horizon 2020 and recommendations on the way forward” (July 2020)
• Horizon 2020 project EU-Citizen.Science, an online platform where citizen science projects, resources, tools and training is shared
• Scivil is the Flemish knowledge centre for citizen science established in 2019. Their website offers a wealth of information on citizen science: guides and manuals on partial aspects of citizen science, upcoming networking events to connect citizen science actors, projects in which Scivil participates, success stories and an overview of their services
• Department of Economy, Science and Innovation (Flanders) 2017 and 2019 citizen science calls selected projects (Dutch)
• Belgian Science Policy (BELSPO) Citizen science initiatives of the Federal Scientific Institutes