Strengthening the capacity of citizen science in biodiversity observation

Expected Outcome:

In supporting the implementation of the European Green Deal, the EU biodiversity strategy for 2030 and the EU Nature Restoration Regulation, which contributes to the EU’s overarching objectives on climate mitigation and adaptation, the successful proposal will deliver on the impact of this Destination on improved knowledge, innovations, methods, pathways and tools to protect healthy ecosystems and to restore degraded ones ensuring the provision of ecosystem services. It will thus contribute to the objectives of the European Climate Law on nature-based solutions and ecosystem-based adaptation.

Project results are expected to contribute to all of the following expected outcomes:

• capacity for citizen engagement in biodiversity observation is enhanced and contributes to the development of climate change mitigation and adaptation measures at local level;
• citizen science initiatives on biodiversity are promoted and coordinated by citizen science experts (taxonomy, genomics, IT, education and communication experts) and their outputs better harmonised;
• citizen science approach is better integrated in taxonomic networks and communities, supporting modern taxonomic research and resolution of pressing ecological challenges;
• systematic biodiversity observation is established (including citizen science and environmental observations), covering also little-known taxonomic groups and going beyond what the current policy is covering. Specifically, the possibilities of using citizen science data for monitoring ecosystem dynamics in time and for modelling the effects of the drivers of biodiversity loss, notably climate change, on species distribution are enhanced.

Scope:

Citizen science is key to gather in situ biodiversity data, which complement official/national data collection programmes. The role of European citizens, including young people, in the generation of knowledge on biodiversity, ecosystems and their provision of essential ecosystem services to society needs to be strengthened on the basis of best practices. There are hundreds of citizen science initiatives across the European Union, managed and/or funded by EU, national or regional authorities, NGOs, municipalities and others. Data are not always collected and/or presented in a harmonised way, preventing their best use. Many lesser-known species are overlooked, as well as some opportunities (e.g. collaboration with key stakeholders such as farmers, foresters, fishers, hunters, urban planners). A coordinated approach, at the level of the EU, is necessary to tackle some specific issues such as challenges in nature management, state of plant health, spread of invasive alien species, changes in species distribution or migrations due to climate change or as result of human activity (e.g., transport, agriculture, industrial production).

Activities under this topic are expected to:

• analyse all tools available for citizen science on biodiversity (taxonomy fiches, schoolkits, App, use of e-DNA kits, artificial intelligence, etc), collect best practices and propose/identify, if necessary, new ones in collaboration with taxonomy, genomics, IT, education and communication experts;
• develop strategies, roadmaps and guidelines and test them to scale up citizen engagement in biodiversity observation, including a review of good practices for setting up a system of incentives to attract and retain citizen interest. The development and tests on the ground should be based on tools and protocols for data quality assessment, control and validation, consider data need scenarios (e.g. types of data used by Environmental Authorities and bodies providing scientific advice to policy makers on environmental aspects) and involve potential users (e.g. schools, stakeholders, young citizens, NGOs, civil society organisations as well as hard-to-reach and vulnerable citizens/groups);
• develop outreach activities and materials on the crucial importance of biodiversity and biodiversity observation for climate change mitigation and adaptation;
• identify frameworks for harmonisation and standardisation of citizen science protocols for data collection, validation, storage and sharing, as well as frameworks for interoperability of various digital tools (e.g. smart phone applications) used by citizen scientists. Attention should be paid to metadata and accessibility and transparency with regard to reference documentation, taking into account the multilingual nature of citizen science activities. Cyber security and personal data protection aspects should be considered;
• explore avenues to streamline development of essential resources for setting up and running citizen science initiatives, including kits for collection of biodiversity data, promotion and awareness raising toolkits, training schemes, applications, multilingual protocols and participation certification for diverse target groups including children and young people.

The support and early involvement of citizens and civil society is central to achieving the targeted outcomes. The proposals should focus on all potential groups of stakeholders and citizens including vulnerable groups, such as young people (including those not in education or employment), elderly people, migrants, ethnic minorities, pregnant women, and persons with disabilities.

It is expected that the proposed activities cover terrestrial, freshwater and marine environments, and that the activities will contribute to the objectives of the EU Nature Restoration Regulation and thereby also to climate change mitigation and adaptation objectives.

The proposal should foresee cooperation with the European Biodiversity Partnership Biodiversa+, the EC Knowledge Centre for Biodiversity and the Science Service project BioAgora. The proposal should also foresee cooperation with the European Alien Species Information Network (EASIN), the upcoming pilot on the EU Biodiversity Observation Coordination Centre (EBOCC), national biodiversity monitoring hubs, and national statistical offices to explore and advance the collection of citizen science observations.

The selected project should coordinate with other projects working on citizen science for biodiversity^[1], the European Citizen Science platform^[2] and relevant organisations as the European Citizen Science Association (ECSA), to ensure the exhaustive overview of all citizen science initiatives across the EU.

The selected project is also expected to collaborate with the projects selected under the topics HORIZON-CL6-2025-01-BIODIV-03: Strengthening taxonomic approaches for biodiversity and HORIZON-CL6-2025-01-BIODIV-04: Large-scale in situ biodiversity observations for better understanding of biodiversity state, drivers of its decline and impacts of policies.

The use of AI could be considered for the analyses needed under this topic.

[1] Projects funded under the topics HORIZON-CL6-2021-BIODIV-01-02, HORIZON-CL6-2021-BIODIV-01-03, HORIZON-CL6-2022-BIODIV-01-01. See also relevant EU projects funded under the EU Missions, in particular “Soil Deal for Europe” (e.g. HORIZON-MISS-2022-SOIL-01-09), “Restoring our ocean and waters by 2030” (e.g. HORIZON-MISS-2024-OCEAN-01-04), “Adaptation to Climate Change” and “Climate-neutral and smart cities”.

[2] https://eu-citizen.science/.