REINFORCE has successfully created informed communities of citizens who are actively participating in the scientific endeavours of the partner organisations. The demonstrator projects on Zooniverse are at the vanguard of this, with their significant uptake and considerable volunteer contributions, both in terms of classifications, as well as involvement in discussions with the research teams. Other elements of the project have certainly contributed to this success, however. For example, an enthusiastic community has developed around the senior citizen science course, which is now into its second edition. The Collaboration has tried to turn the online nature of many of the project initiatives, enforced as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic, to its advantage, by using it to reach as wide an audience as possible, without restricting itself to local communities. The art and science competition for young people, for example, reached across different continents, while considerable support and focus has been given to events and conferences taking place in South America.
The close collaboration between the research teams, supported by the engagement strategy and evaluation process, has also contributed directly to the success of the individual demonstrator projects and the success of the project as a whole, while extensive engagement with teachers groups and specific efforts to promote the project to young people, have also been beneficial overall. These sessions have not just focused on the demonstrator projects, but have also involved exploring and training on the sonoUno sonification tool. The work on the sonification tool in particular has helped create a positive-feedback loop between volunteers and the development team, contributing to innovative and resourceful solutions.
The evaluation process within REINFORCE has also shown how the members of the communities of practice are confident that the demonstrator projects have been successful in achieving their goals, while impact has been measured against a wide range of indicators, including: attitudes towards science, motivation, science-related skills, self-efficacy and scientific knowledge. Differences in terms of engagement level, visual impairment and discriminated against groups have also been examined.
