Citizen science: Major opportunities to advance science but growing challenges (OECD policy paper)

"The opportunities and challenges for citizen science can be expected to become more pronounced in the near future, and cultural shifts and institutional support are required to sustain and advance citizen science practices", states the OECD's 'Embedding citizen science into research policy' policy paper, published on 08/04/2025.

The OECD defines citizen science as "the active engagement of citizens in scientific knowledge production, a mode of research that can be applied in a variety of scientific fields and is valuable for addressing a broad range of policy priorities".

Specific issues highlighted in the paper include: the potential of citizen science to transcend polarisation and political divides; the need to ensure the rigour and quality of citizen science data and research results; the importance of inclusivity and ensuring the participation of vulnerable sections of the population, and the need to foster local initiatives, while scaling up to global collaboration.

"With a long history of deployment in environmental research and potential for promoting societal awareness and…