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This paper proposes creative ethnographic methods such as arts-based practices and storytelling (including local folk arts and digital storytelling) to document process-focused local impacts, motivations and challenges through co-creation grounded in inclusion and ethics.

Abstract

The long-term impact analysis of citizen science remains difficult for several reasons, such as timing mismatches and hard-to-trace outcomes, among others. Communities that take part in citizen science projects, however, experience direct impacts during the process, which can potentially empower them and influence longer-term change. Such communities are rarely homogeneous; interactions occur not only between professional and citizen scientists but also among diverse citizen groups. Thus, to understand, capture and assess the impact of citizen science on local communities, this paper, through an integrative review, proposes the use of creative ethnographic methods, such as arts-based practices and storytelling (including local folk arts, photography, co-created exhibitions and installations and visual digital storytelling through vlogs), which document experiences, emotions and imaginaries in ways that extend conventional interviews, surveys and metrics. In doing so, they can reveal how projects affect citizen scientists, their motivations and commitments, as well as their frustrations or disappointments, which may offer important insights about long-term impact. Creative ethnographic approaches also provide the means for professional and citizen scientists to engage in reflexive meta-research together, improving the process for the benefit of engaged communities and wider stakeholders. Going beyond impact assessments focusing on positive outcomes measured by quantified counts, these methods also emphasize the mitigation of negative and unintended impacts that may arise during and after the project. This, in turn, prioritizes the ethical dimensions of pursuing impact, which requires consideration of who benefits from project outcomes and who may be excluded or harmed.

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This study presents a non-intrusive, participant-centered and dialogic evaluation of the Delft Meet Regen (Delft Measures Rain) citizen science project. Using qualitative, deliberative methods, we capture nuanced outcomes on personal experience and project outcomes, while avoiding objectification.

Abstract

Evaluating the outcomes of citizen science participation often risks framing citizens as study subjects rather than collaborators, especially when using rigid survey instruments or requesting larger amounts of demographic data. In Delft Meet Regen (Delft Measures Rain, DMR (https://www.tudelft.nl/en/tu-delft-science-centre/discover/researching-together/delft-measures)) a local, city-based weather monitoring initiative, we explored an alternative approach, prioritizing participant voice, experience, and agency. We present the methodology and results of a recently published paper in which, instead of relying solely on predefined evaluation frameworks, we conducted semi-structured qualitative interviews (n=16) that began with open-ended reflection on meaningful experiences, followed only later by discussion of existing frameworks such as the Individual Learning Outcomes (ILO) and Impact Domains (ID). This method allowed participants to articulate their outcomes in their own terms before situating them within structured categories and frameworks, and reflecting on that process..

Foregrounding participant narratives and enabling them to co-reflect on evaluation categories, reduces the sense of surveillance while capturing nuanced impacts. We argue that such qualitative, dialogic methods contribute to more inclusive and non-intrusive impact assessment, supporting citizen science practices that empower participants rather than objectify them. Findings revealed a diversity of valued outcomes, many of which did not fit neatly into existing frameworks, demonstrating the value of including participants in the impact assessment methodology. Importantly, several participants described participation as an expression of prior values rather than a transformative change, underscoring the need for evaluation approaches that respect personal context rather than impose external measures.

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Drawing on the Horizon 2020 project INCENTIVE, this presentation introduces a participatory, non-intrusive framework for evaluating Citizen Science Hubs, showing how institutions can assess inclusiveness and impact while empowering citizens as active contributors.

Abstract

This presentation draws on findings from the Horizon 2020 project INCENTIVE, which established Citizen Science Hubs (CSHs) in four European Research Performing Organisations — the Universities of Twente, Barcelona, Thessaloniki, and Vilnius. By integrating Responsible Research and Innovation (RRI) principles with non-intrusive impact assessment, INCENTIVE demonstrated how universities can develop and use CSHs as vehicles to promote accountable and inclusive citizen science within their regions. The presentation focuses on the activities conducted toward the end of the project to evaluate the Hubs’ performance and impact. A reflexive and participatory evaluation framework was designed to assess the social, institutional, and democratic outcomes of the Hubs’ activities without overburdening participants. The framework combined quantitative indicators, stakeholder interviews, and comparative benchmarking against global Citizen Science trends. A key feature of the process was the organisation of regular “Data Reflection and Fine-Tuning” meetings with citizen scientists and stakeholders, ensuring that evaluation remained inclusive, adaptive, and context-sensitive. The evaluation revealed valuable insights on gender equality, open science, and public engagement, while highlighting persistent barriers such as limited incentives for researchers and unequal citizen access to science. The presentation will discuss how impact can be meaningfully captured without reducing citizens to research subjects, but instead empowering and supporting them to sustain their engagement in Citizen Science. It will conclude with recommendations for developing inclusive, participatory, and transferable evaluation frameworks for universities and Citizen Science ecosystems.

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Impactos-CC is Spain’s first national framework of citizen science impact indicators, co-created by diverse stakeholders and self-applied by projects. In 2024, it offered a participatory process and an inclusive model to assess impacts across scientific, social, and policy domains.

Abstract

mpactos-CC is the first coordinated effort in Spain to create a national framework for assessing citizen science impacts, offering an innovative model for Europe. Led by Ibercivis under the Spanish Citizen Science Observatory (ciencia-ciudadana.es), the initiative engaged over 100 researchers, practitioners, and policymakers in a participatory process to co-design a consensual set of indicators, drawing on the MICS framework. These indicators were self-applied to 30 initiatives, covering scientific, social, environmental, educational, and policy dimensions, with emphasis on inclusiveness and usability across diverse projects.

Findings reveal that Spanish citizen science is strongly rooted in environmental and biological sciences, complemented by earth, information, and social sciences, reflecting broad integration across sectors. Most projects adopt an interdisciplinary (79%) and applied (59%) approach, often producing not only new data but also innovative methodologies.

The framework was piloted nationally, demonstrating how co-created tools can support internal reflection while generating evidence of citizen science’s wider contributions. Its non-intrusive design avoids extensive demographic surveys or direct participant monitoring, focusing instead on project-led self-assessment.

This presentation will outline the process of co-design, the challenges of building consensus, and key insights from the first round of application. It will also explore future plans for implementation in Spain and discuss how Impactos-CC can serve as a transferable model, offering pathways to harmonise impact assessment internationally while safeguarding inclusiveness and trust in citizen science.

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Drawing on examples from IMPETUS and ECS to explore the practical aspects of social impact assessment within projects, taking a logic model approach to present potential impacts of citizen science on social inclusion and showcasing key enablers and barriers to implementing inclusive CS.

Abstract

Citizen science (CS) has been associated with democratic values, potential benefits for individuals, and transformative change at societal level. Experts stress its contributions to individual and community empowerment, improvement of social conditions, and positive changes in policy agendas. While CS has significant potential to contribute to stronger social inclusion and sustainability, there is only sporadic evidence about such impacts on “underrepresented” or "marginalised “groups.

This paper explores the practical aspects of social impact assessment within projects, taking a logic model approach to present potential impacts of citizen science on social inclusion and showcasing key enablers and barriers to implementing inclusive CS. Throughout this paper we draw on examples from both the IMPETUS and European Citizen Science (ECS) projects. IMPETUS supports new and existing citizen science initiatives to address relevant social challenges, including issues around inclusion and diversity in CS. ECS widens and strengthens the citizen science community in Europe through capacity building and awareness raising with a particular focus on employing inclusive approaches.

There is limited evidence on the practical pathways to social inclusion. What are potential drivers, what motivates project initiators to address diverse publics, and which initiators prioritise inclusive practices? In what way do funding and the specifics of research funding calls influence who is included and who is excluded? What approaches are used by practitioners to increase inclusion in citizen science? We present different pathways to social inclusion, analysing the underlying processes and promising approaches via comparative case studies across the ECS and IMPETUS projects.

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Through 200 questions focusing on structural inclusion and participant empowerment, the MICS (measuring impact of citizen science) platform demonstrates outcomes without compromising community safety or autonomy.

Abstract

The MICS (measuring impact of citizen science) platform offers impact evaluation that addresses the core tension between demonstrating outcomes and protecting community autonomy. Rather than requiring extensive demographic profiling and complex consent protocols, MICS employs a self-assessment approach where projects evaluate their own impacts across five domains: society, environment, economy, governance, and science.

The platform's 200-question framework enables non-intrusive measurement through project-level indicators such as 'Do the goals of the project align to the demands of the participants?' and 'Are participants equal partners in the knowledge generation?' Rather than extracting demographic data from individuals, MICS evaluates structural inclusion by asking 'Does the project make sure that minorities and those who usually have less power are among those who are able to influence the project?' This approach assesses participant empowerment through process satisfaction rather than personal profiling. The AI-powered scoring system generates comparable impact metrics while preserving participant privacy and agency.

MICS demonstrates that rigorous impact assessment need not compromise participant safety or transform citizens into study objects. By shifting evaluation focus from individual-level data extraction to project-level impact indicators, the platform enables evidence-based demonstration of inclusive outcomes while maintaining the democratic character of citizen science. The methodology has been validated across diverse European and extra-European contexts, proving its applicability for marginalised communities seeking to document their research contributions without compromising their autonomy.

This approach provides practical solutions for the ECSA community to demonstrate an inclusive impact while upholding the citizen science values of empowerment, participation, and community ownership.

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Urban ReLeaf has set up an inclusivity monitoring system to ensure the participation of socially vulnerable groups in citizen science on inclusive green transitions. The collection of minimal, voluntary demographic data balances participant safety with social enquiry into democratic representation.

Abstract

The Urban ReLeaf project invites citizens of six European cities to participate in data-driven decision-making processes to promote inclusive and green urban transitions. The project specifically engages socially vulnerable groups, i.e. citizens who are disproportionately exposed to and affected by environmental health hazards, and who lack the capacity to cope with or adapt to them. Through an open and targeted recruitment strategy, the following groups are more likely to participate in the project: women, older adults, children and young adults, people living in grey areas, and those with a lower socio-economic status.

To assess democratic representation, the project has defined two key performance indicators: participation by minimum 50% of females and 30% of vulnerable groups. To achieve these targets, the six cities are provided with inclusivity guidelines and inclusivity rates are frequently monitored during their citizen science campaigns. To safeguard ethical compliance and privacy laws, the following data collection protocol has been implemented: (i) voluntary provision: all demographic questions are optional and include a ‘prefer not to say’ option, (ii) minimal data collection in the Urban ReLeaf apps: only essential demographic information is gathered to achieve the intended purpose of inclusivity, (iii) representative response options: questions are inclusive of diverse identities, and (iv) analysis of de-identified datasets: personally identifiable information is excluded.

We believe this approach strikes a balance between creating a safe and non-intrusive environment for participants and addresses the importance of social enquiry into democratic practices and representation in citizen science.

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Citizen science needs impact evaluation beyond traditional metrics. We explore arts-based performative methods to capture holistic outcomes, including emotional, aesthetic and physical aspects, from a pilot in public health and transfer it to a new participatory Alzheimer’s project in rural Austria.

Abstract

Engaging and involving citizens in research is gaining more ground, shifting power dynamics between citizens, communities and researchers. Demonstrating the value or impact of such initiatives through more traditional impact metrics, such as bibliometric indicators, would not paint a comprehensive picture. Even qualitative evaluation methods of capturing change, such as interviews, create a power asymmetry between interviewer and interviewee and focus only on verbal aspects. We are exploring arts-based approaches, such as performative methods, to overcome these challenges. Our aim is to create a more inclusive space to capture (positive and negative) impacts as well as focus on emotional, physical and aesthetic aspects within citizen science contexts.

We are building our experience on a pilot final reflection format we conducted in November 2024 in the context of five public health citizen science projects which ended last year. We collaborated with artists who used performative methods to capture a more holistic perspective of the project outcomes. We will expand on this pilot reflection format in a new citizen science project, called “Ankerpunkte” (“Anchor Points”), involving people with Alzheimer's disease in a rural region in Austria. Our objective is to explore the possibility of a formative impact evaluation using arts-based approaches (as opposed to the summative approach for the pilot reflection format), as well as to meaningfully include the vulnerable groups. We want to discuss our current experiences, including the benefits and challenges we perceived, our plans to go further and the broader context what impact in citizen science means.

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Drawing on a 3-year trajectory in doing citizen social science (CSS) with Deaf communities, this presentation explores design implications and social impacts on participants of a CSS project, Acting4DHH II, with Deaf communities from four European countries (PL, GR, SK, UA).

Abstract

While citizen science is often praised for its contributions to knowledge production (von Gönner et al., 2023), its transformative impact on participants, especially those from marginalised groups, remains underexplored (Pateman & West, 2023). This presentation aims to fill in this gap by drawing on the measurable social impact results of a 6-month citizen social science (CSS) project, Acting4DHH II, that brought together Deaf and Hearing individuals from Poland, Greece, Slovakia, and Ukraine.

Acting4DHH II aimed to enhance understanding and solidarity among Deaf and Hearing citizens through CSS, shedding light into instances of everyday communication, agency, and empowerment among these two groups. Thus, Deaf citizen scientists engaged in the co-creation of knowledge on themes such as accessibility and inclusion through videos recorded with the collaboration of Hearing individuals.

Thus, the presentation’s objective is twofold:

a) to reflect on the design of Deaf-inclusive CSS across Europe, and

b) to explore how participation shapes solidarity and civic agency through tools like self-portraits, narrative testimonials, and feedback mechanisms adapted to signed languages.

These approaches allowed for the measurement of subtle internal shifts often overlooked in conventional evaluation models.

By leveraging the Acting4DHH II results the presentation will contribute to the panel’s exploration of how citizen science can shape social identity, behavior, and agency, particularly within historically underrepresented communities, such as Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing citizens. This contribution draws on activities and results of the IMPETUS Accelerator 2025-funded “Acting4DHH II” project (Citizen social science for the benefit of Deaf communities in Europe, June 2025-January 2026).

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We explore how familiar communication platforms such as WhatsApp can enable inclusive and sustained participation in citizen science and demonstrate how communicative practices themselves can serve as non-intrusive indicators of social impact and inclusion.

Abstract

This contribution responds to the panel’s call to advance inclusive and non-intrusive impact assessment in citizen science by examining communication as both a mechanism and a measure of inclusion. Drawing on the principle of Meeting People Where They Are, we designed communication methods that align with participants’ social, cultural, and technological habits. We argue that assessing impact can utilize these communication features considering how such infrastructures reflect and foster meaningful engagement.

We illustrate this through the Big Backyard Bird Count (BBBC), where informal WhatsApp groups emerged as self-organized spaces for community building and knowledge sharing. Using a mixed-methods approach combining an online survey (n=97) with content analysis of group interactions, we assessed the communicative functions of the platform and their implications for sustained, equitable participation. Rather than treating participants as research subjects, our analysis focused on naturally occurring interaction patterns as indicators of inclusion, belonging, and empowerment.

Interpreting the findings through the Community of Inquiry (CoI) framework, we show how social, cognitive, and facilitator presences manifest organically in accessible digital environments. This framing provides an avenue for impact assessment grounded in lived communication practices rather than external measurement. The study offers practical insights into how everyday digital communication can serve as an ethical, low-intrusion approach to evaluating the inclusive impact of citizen science initiatives.

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Citizen science in cosmic-ray research has shown how open hardware can turn classrooms into global observatories. This session explores how we can evidence impact by focusing on collective capability, access to open tools, and shared ownership of data.

Abstract

Citizen Science in astroparticle physics—through projects such as HiSPARC, QuarkNet, and CREDO—has demonstrated how distributed detector networks and open hardware can transform classrooms into scientific observatories. Students and teachers across the world collect and share data on cosmic rays, learning experimental methods and contributing to frontier research. These initiatives exemplify how access to open tools and shared infrastructures can foster inclusion and scientific literacy, even in remote or resource-limited regions.

This session explores how open hardware and open data can serve as alternative indicators of inclusion: through shared tool development, distributed collaboration, and the co-creation of knowledge.

Drawing on insights from the APPEC Citizen Science strategy and the UNESCO Recommendation on Open Science, and learning from the experience of organizations like the "Gathering for Open Science Hardware (GOSH)" and the "Open Science Hardware Foundation”, this contribution examines how openness itself can become a measure of empowerment. Inclusiveness can be traced through sustained networks, equitable access to resources, and the sense of agency that emerges when participants help build the instruments they use.

This contribution builds on the recent CS strategy of the Astroparticle Physics European Consortium (APPEC), and on insights from the Open Science Hardware (OscH) workshop to be held at CERN in January 2026. It explores how lessons from astroparticle physics can inform future open science hardware strategies, and how open hardware can foster inclusion, scientific literacy, and innovation, ensuring that even remote or under-resourced regions can engage directly in frontier research. From cosmic rays to climate and beyond, the methods proven in astroparticle physics can guide the next generation of open, globally connected science classrooms, advancing a new framework for inclusive impact that values empowerment and collaboration.

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Since 2022, Emilia-Romagna Region has developed a regional Citizen Science framework. This paper presents results from the first experimentation, analyzing strengths and challenges of a meso-level institutional approach, and proposing the framework as a replicable model for other territories.

Abstract

Scientific literature and countless practical experiences show us how Citizen Science can be a truly powerful tool to raise citizens' awareness on socially relevant issues, and expanding the availability of data on phenomena that are of great interest (for the public, government, science,...).

In this sense, Citizen Science holds enormous potential for policy making, and for fostering inclusion and participation.

According to these statements, in 2022, Emilia-Romagna Region, in collaboration with its in-house companies (Lepida and ART-ER), started the CitizER Science project, with the aim to foster the growth and spread of Citizen Science initiatives in Emilia-Romagna through the creation of a regional conceptual framework.

The paper presents the main results of the first experimentation of the project and the framework, explaining both: advantages and strengths of the meso-level institutional approach to the Citizen Science phenomenon, on regional level; and critical issues and challenges addressed during the path.

The experience of Regione Emilia-Romagna, a pioneer both in Italy and at European level, now seeks to reflect on critical issues and opportunities for scaling up, and to propose its conceptual framework as a replicable model for other Italian regions.

The experiences developed through CitizER Science show that involving citizens – especially younger generations – in data collection, awareness-raising and co-design activities can foster civic engagement and trust in institutions.

Citizen Science is not only a tool for gathering information, but can be a driver of cultural and institutional change.