1) Understand the progress of the establishment of citizen science as a means of driving institutional change and embedding RRI in society. During the first period of the project, partners worked together to identify good practices of Citizen Science (CS) and capture insights on the success factors and barriers that may affect CS initiatives. Then, interviews and surveys were implemented to analyse and understand the status of CS. Finally, a large-scale survey ran in the four countries were the RPFOs are based, revealing the drivers, challenges, motivations and perceptions of the local stakeholders and the general public to support and participate in CS.
2) Develop tailored governance and operating models for the Citizen Science Hubs.
A Co-Creation Workshop was organized to engage with the stakeholders of each RPFO aiming to co-define the pivotal aspects of the governance and operation of the prospective CSHs. The outcomes were the starting points of related tasks that defined tailored governance structures and operating models for each CSH. Furthermore, a manual aimed at the establishment of the CSHs was delivered. In the first period also the project's Methodological Guide and Toolkit for setting up CSHs was prepared.
3) Enhance the ability of citizen scientists to meaningfully participate in all facets of R&I, and foster the development of communities around citizen science. The first interaction with different actors of society was through the survey on prospective citizen scientists’ expectations and motivations; 1936 observations from Greece, Lithuania, Spain and the Netherlands were gathered. Then, for the elaboration of the Manual for Citizen Science Community Building the perspectives of 1052 citizens from the above-mentioned countries were gathered on the incentivisation tools for the engagement and Quadruple Helix stakeholders in CS projects. Finally, a hybrid 2-day Mutual Learning Workshop was held to define how the CSHs can incentivise different types of stakeholders.
4) Demonstrate the potential of Citizen Science Hubs to promote institutional change through responsible and high-quality citizen science with greater involvement of R&I stakeholders. During this first period, we have focused on the co-creation of the CSHs. We organised co-creation workshop for the CSHs, in which we interacted with 30 stakeholders from academia, the public sector, the private sector and civil society.
5) Document the contribution of the Citizen Science Hubs in embedding Responsible Research and Innovation in society, as well as to fair, inclusive and sustainable development. During the first period of INCENTIVE, a thorough and robust monitoring and impact assessment framework was developed. To create the framework, we considered previous good practices and involved RPFO stakeholders and M&E experts.
6) Support RPFOs in consolidating sustainable institutional changes to realise their long-term intention to promote and support citizen science, driven by the keys of RRI and the ten Principles of Citizen Science, across their entire institution. A First INCENTIVE Policy Brief was submitted and a Stakeholder Engagement, Dissemination and Communication Plan that describes in details INCENTIVE’s communication strategy.
7) Support other RPFOs to implement institutional changes for the establishment of Citizen Science Hubs, establishing links between RPFOs and society and expanding citizen engagement in science. A series of concrete dissemination, communication and stakeholder engagement activities were implemented during the first reporting period. In total, more than 9.500 stakeholders were reached.
