Citizen science is an important way in which diverse groups of people can participate in research and innovation, whether through collecting data, analysing data or helping researchers and innovators to develop better questions.
UK Research and innovation is now making a long-term commitment to citizen science by launching a new £400,000 funding call. This aims to encourage researchers and innovators to experiment with citizen science, which could include:
- crowdsourcing data
- working with volunteers to analyse existing datasets
- collaborating with communities in designing research programmes
- approaches to innovation that involve diverse groups of people in the innovation process.
Citizen science can potentially add value to any project. Yet embedding citizen science methods into the routine way that science is done requires a capacity building approach, where researchers and innovators who are unfamiliar with citizen science are supported to assess their capacity and need for citizen science.
Through this call, up to 20 successful applicants will be awarded up to £20,000 to explore opportunities for building citizen science methodologies into their research.
What will be expected?
Successful applicants will need to undertake activities such as capacity building work, small proof of concept pilots, and/or collaborative workshops to explore project ideas, data sources or volunteer opportunities. The intention of this funding call is to support researchers and innovators to explore approaches to citizen science that could form the basis of future projects which may be supported through other funding sources. This includes a proposed follow-up phase of UKRI funding between 2020-2023.
Deadlines
The call is available to all active UKRI grant holders in any discipline across research and innovation and is open from 01 October 2019.
The deadline for submitting a full bid is 16:00 on Tuesday 12 of November 2019.
More information
More information about the call and details of how to apply can be found on the UKRI website.
This funding call is part of UKRI’s new approach to and new vision for public engagement.
Other UKRI Funds
The fund of £500,000 to support UK research organisations to pilot place-based public engagement partnerships and activities is still available. The application deadline is 17:00 on Monday 21 October 2019.