Our partner ZSI is organising a track on Participatory Evaluation in Citizen Science at the 1st Global Transdisciplinarity Conference.  

Overview

What do we evaluate when we evaluate Citizen Science? While some say it should be the long term impact, others claim the biggest challenge for evaluation in Citizen Science is still the process: How can we design participatory processes that are truly inclusive? What motivates anyone to engage in Citizen Science? And are we considering these motivations in the design of Citizen Science projects and research programmes? While Citizen Science is intended increasingly as a participatory process, in its current forms this often excludes the dimension of evaluation. However, there are potentially wide-ranging benefits to including participants of a process in evaluation activities, as we learn from various fields that have employed participatory evaluation for decades, such as social and developmental work and community based participatory research (CBPR). In this track, our distinguished guest will share their practical experiences with the participatory evaluation of Citizen Science. We will discuss how participatory evaluation needs to be carefully designed and implemented. What does it imply when we speak about involving stakeholders in evaluation activities from the onset, including the definition of the evaluation strategy, choosing appropriate evaluation instruments and trainings, as well as impact indicators? We address challenges and opportunities, expectation and impact considerations, as well as the limits of openness and transferability of data. To this end, we will present and discuss current approaches towards participatory evaluation in transdisciplinary Citizen Science with our guests, and reflect on possible risks and pitfalls based on experience from the field.

Participating Projects:
ACTION
MICS
CitiesHealth
COESO
StepChange
ROSiE
INCENTIVE
RRI2Scale
PRO-Ethics
CoAct

Agenda and formats