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In 2018, we conducted a short online survey to capture the thoughts and strategies of individuals and organisations involved in public engagement with research in the UK. We asked them about their future involvement in public engagement and citizen science. We received over 70 replies and we share some of our findings in this and subsequent posts.\u00a0Clearly there are a fantastic number of projects and events aimed at engaging communities and citizens with environmental and scientific research. It’s therefore vital that we understand the challenges<\/span> facing public engagement and the barriers<\/span> to involvement in citizen science projects.<\/p>\n Our respondents who were a mixture of university researchers, practitioners, NGOs, policy teams, public engagement support teams and community groups worked in areas as diverse as\u00a0marine and coastal research, natural hazards, bird-watching, public health and well-being, bio-nanotechnology, rivers, natural history, housing, wildlife and habitats, and litter, among numerous others.<\/p>\n TEN key challenges and barriers to public engagement and citizen science work were identified:<\/p>\n This was the most common challenge highlighted in the responses to our survey. People mentioned the availability and continuity of funding as a key issue, both in terms of salaries and resources. Funding is often equated to time, and so increasing the amount of public engagement work undertaken has an impact on that person’s involvement in other projects or work (e.g. teaching), sometimes requiring access to a different funding stream. Being able to allocate time and specific funding to such work would enable researchers to be more readily involved with public engagement and citizen science projects.<\/p>\n As the second most common issue,\u00a0 engagement is a key challenge when thinking about public engagement. There were a number of different issues at play, including:<\/p>\n There is a difficulty in balancing public engagement activities with other demands (such as teaching, or other projects or research), particularly given the amount of time required to plan and undertake successful projects. In the survey, time issues were also linked to funding issues, a lack of resources, and the lack of recognition given to public engagement endeavours.<\/p>\n Management, the scientific community, community groups and government bodies were noted as often undervaluing public engagement work, with involvement more likely where a direct relevance to the individual or organisation is perceived. In order to remove this barrier, some responses highlighted the importance of building trust, and demonstrating how citizen science or another form of public engagement is an appropriate approach.<\/p>\n For citizen science projects to be successful, respondents highlighted that the right data needs to be collected, meaning that projects require people with the right skills, as well as the opportunity and willingness to volunteer their time. As government bodies require high quality data, both data collection and data analysis can become a challenge for citizen science projects, again often linked to funding issues.<\/p>\n This factor covered a number of issues, with communications between academic and non-academic stakeholders highlighted as a barrier, as well as communicating project results and understanding stakeholder knowledge. In particular, respondents noted the difficulty in networking in order to communicate and connect with others on future projects.<\/p>\n As we mentioned briefly, finding people with the right skills can be a challenge for citizen science. Some respondents found that the availability, number, and competition for volunteers was an issue, as well as ensuring consistent participation. These too were linked to a lack of funding.<\/p>\n There is a particular difficulty in finding people that have experience and ability to bridge the gap between the natural and social sciences, particularly regarding methodologies. Similarly, recruiting people with specialist skills, such as web design, was shown to be an issue.<\/p>\n Some responses noted the difficulty of finding good examples of similar or relevant projects, in order to understand best practice and share information. This was seen as largely due to the proliferation of initiatives and projects with some difficulty in streamlining or filtering these<\/p>\n Managing expectations for all involved individuals and organisations can be a challenge, both in terms of the activities themselves and the resultant outputs.<\/p>\n This survey has highlighted a number of key issues facing individuals and organisations wishing to become involved in, or to further, their public engagement and citizen science work.<\/p>\nWho responded<\/h4>\n
Their engagement activities included<\/h5>\n
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Our survey said<\/h1>\n
1. Funding<\/h4>\n
2. Engagement<\/h4>\n
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3. Time<\/h4>\n
4. Recognition<\/h4>\n
5. Data quality for citizen science<\/h4>\n
6.\u00a0Communication<\/h4>\n
7.Volunteers for citizen science<\/h4>\n
7. Capacity and skills<\/h4>\n
8. Case studies<\/h4>\n
9. Expectations<\/h4>\n
In summary<\/h2>\n