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Poster Short Abstract

Citizen science can bridge researchers, citizens and institutions, yet cooperation across projects in Austria is rare. A survey of 121 initiatives shows common goals drive collaboration, but lack of resources hinders it. Shared infrastructures and capacity pooling are key to future impact.

Poster Abstract

Citizen science creates bridges not only between researchers and citizens, but also between institutions and communities. Cooperation across citizen science projects holds great potential: It can generate knowledge through the unusual combination of data, strengthen long-term monitoring and ensure that the outcomes of today’s research remain valuable for tomorrow. Yet in Austria, such cooperation remains the exception rather than the rule.

To investigate this gap, a survey of 121 projects listed on the Austrian citizen science platform Österreich forscht was conducted. Although many respondents recognize the value of cooperation, inter-project collaboration remains limited and is most often confined to the exchange of experiences. The strongest motivation for (future) cooperation lies in achieving common goals, while the greatest obstacle is a lack of capacity and resources. The role of the platform emerges as crucial in offering spaces for networking and supporting projects with stable infrastructures.

Extrapolated into the future and building on these findings, citizen science requires collective infrastructures, shared stewardship, capacity pooling and trust-building to make cooperation viable. Even cooperation among projects within the same field remains underrealized and problematic. Yet, fostering cross-disciplinary cooperation offers the potential to address complex societal challenges in a more integrated manner. Cooperation can ensure that short-term efforts feed into heritage collections or long-term monitoring or that stronger projects safeguard data from smaller initiatives.

Without cooperation, citizen science risks remaining isolated silos. Investing in enabling frameworks can transform it into a bridge connecting past achievements, present efforts and future societal and environmental challenges.