Creating knowledge together with citizen science.

Citizen Science creates the opportunity for many minds and eyes to work together, harnessing curiosity and passion to generate new knowledge. But what does Citizen Science actually mean? In simple terms, it refers to citizens who contribute towards scientific research on a voluntary basis. They research, collect, investigate or observe together with researchers from scientific institutions, and the focus of their work can range from the environment and nature to geology, archaeology, astrophysics and the humanities. In recent years, researchers, citizens and those responsible for education and research policy have discussed the potential and limitations of Citizen Science. Scientists at the Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research UFZ have played a key role in shaping this dialog. This resulted in the "Citizen Science Strategy 2020" for Germany in 2016, and the White Paper Citizen Science Strategy for Germany 2030 was adopted in 2022.

In the meantime, there is a great variety of Citizen Science projects at the UFZ, Helmholtz Association and many other research institutions in Germany. Anyone who is curious, would like to get involved, or would like to set up a project themselves will find plenty of projects, information and inspiration on the platform www.buergerschaffenwissen.de. 

Image: Julia von Gönner/UFZ