Towards a pan-European research infrastructure for excellent citizen science

What if millions of ordinary people armed with nothing more than curiosity and a mobile phone could reshape how Europe does science?

That is precisely the vision driving the RIECS-Concept – an ambitious new initiative working to build the infrastructure that would make this vision not just possible, but permanent. RIECS-Concept – short for, Towards a Pan-European Research Infrastructure for Excellent Citizen Science – is a pioneering project funded by European Union's Horizon Europe research and innovation Programme aimed at laying the groundwork for a future pan-European research infrastructure dedicated to citizen science.

The project seeks to conceptualize a European Research Infrastructure for Excellence in Citizen Science that will leverage both citizens' resources (such as mobile phones and desktop computers) and existing scientific resources (citizen science platforms, data collections, and research infrastructures). In doing so, it aims to bridge the gap between typical citizens' tools such as mobile apps, amateur scientific kits, personal devices, and professional scientific resources, including databases, federated computing and storage facilities, and dedicated personnel.

According to Steffen Fritz, Principal Research Scholar in the Novel Data Ecosystems for Sustainability (NODES) Research Group of the IIASA Advancing Systems Analysis Program, citizen science in Europe has enormous potential, but that potential is being held back by fragmentation. Platforms, datasets, and communities exist in silos, making it difficult to build on each other's work. He says that a pan-European research infrastructure like the one envisioned by RIECS-Concept is exactly what the field needs to move from isolated efforts to a coherent, powerful ecosystem that can truly serve science and society.

The project is motivated by the fact that, while citizen science is a vital part of research that taps into the collective power of individuals to gather data and solve complex problems, a lack of integration between diverse platforms and tools limits its full potential. Researchers often struggle with the interoperability of data and resources across domains. By tackling these challenges, RIECS-Concept aims to foster cross-disciplinary and multilevel collaboration, improve the quality of citizen science data, and support initiatives that strive to achieve meaningful social and scientific impacts.

Linda See, another IIASA Principal Research Scholar associated with the NODES Research Group, explains that IIASA’s work on citizen science, ranging from Geo-Wiki tools to Earth observation validation, has demonstrated time and again that rigorous, well-supported citizen science can generate data of genuine scientific value. The IIASA team, in collaboration with the Citizen Science Global Partnership (CSGP), contributed to RIECS by defining user requirements through stakeholder workshops, particularly with local and national policy stakeholders and research infrastructure funders.

RIECS-Concept is structured around three core objectives. The first is to assess the feasibility of developing a future citizen science research infrastructure by addressing current challenges and opportunities in the field. This involves creating an open inventory of technological components, services, and resources that could form the foundation of the future infrastructure. The initiative will refine and interconnect this catalogue, address both technological and scientific challenges, and establish links with other research infrastructures such as the European Open Science Cloud (EOSC) to shape the foundational design, including through a unified conceptual model that seamlessly integrates data and metadata from diverse sources.

The second objective is to design a strategic roadmap for the future lifecycle of the infrastructure, outlining actionable steps for decision-makers and focusing on governance, sustainability, and long-term viability. This roadmap will be of direct relevance to the European Strategy Forum on Research Infrastructures (ESFRI), the body responsible for guiding the long-term development of research infrastructures across Europe. By producing a well-grounded and stakeholder-validated roadmap, RIECS-Concept aims to position citizen science as a recognized and supported pillar within the ESFRI ecosystem, ensuring that future European research infrastructure policy formally accounts for the unique needs and opportunities of citizen science.

The third objective is to promote an open and participatory approach to governance, engaging a diverse range of stakeholders from science, technology, policy, and society in co-design and road-mapping activities. This collaborative approach ensures that the infrastructure is shaped by its users and effectively serves the broader citizen science community.

Senior NODES Research Scholar Dilek Fraisl further notes that citizen science is not just a tool for engaging the public – it is a serious mechanism for filling critical data gaps in global sustainability reporting. Her team’s work with Ghana on plastic litter monitoring, for example, has shown that citizen-generated data can directly support reporting on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), including in the Global South where conventional data collection is most stretched. She emphasizes that this kind of contribution is invaluable as a complement to the work of the UN Statistics Division in tracking progress on the SDGs, and that projects like RIECS can make these efforts more systematic and integrated.

The consortium behind RIECS-Concept is led by the Ibercivis Foundation in Spain and co-coordinated with the European Citizen Science Association (ECSA), bringing together 13 partners from 8 countries: Spain, Germany, Austria, Sweden, Italy, Serbia, Lithuania, and Switzerland. The project covers three main scientific areas: environmental observation, health, and climate change, and will run from January 2025 to December 2027. By advancing the field from conceptual foundations to innovations in practice, including new means to acquire, analyze, and openly share citizen science data, RIECS-Concept will consolidate citizen science in Europe and position it as a fully recognized contributor to global scientific endeavors and sustainability goals.

Note: This article gives the view of the authors, and not the position of the IIASA Insights blog, nor of the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis.