WUR Citizen Science Hub

Citizen Science as active citizenship?

Citizen Science combines the power of active citizenship with the power of science by involving citizens with different backgrounds and interests in, amongst others, articulating research questions, collecting and analyzing data, and determining action, for example advocating for policy change. In doing so, citizens work closely together with scientists working at universities and research institutes who aim to have positive societal impact.

Citizen Science at Wageningen University & Research

Wageningen University & Research has long been involved in a wide range of Citizen Science projects. These projects focus on the monitoring, assessing and addressing of local and regional sustainable development issues around health and well-being, climate change, the quality of air, water and soils, and the conservation and regeneration of biodiversity.

The WUR Citizen Science Hub aims to strengthen capacity building for Citizen Science within and beyond WUR. To this end, the Hub:

• provides an online portal showcasing diverse Citizen Science projects at WUR
• organizes regular Community of Practice meetings to connect people and to stimulate learning around a variety of different Citizen Science related topics
• supports in the initiation of Citizen Science projects
• aims to contribute to the development of (online) training and education material to support citizens, researchers, teachers, students and professionals with an interest in Citizen Science

To realize the above, the Hub collaborates with, amongst others, the Wageningen Science Shop, the WUR library, the public library of Wageningen (de bblthk, including Stadslab), the WUR Teaching and Learning Center (TLC) and the different Science Groups. In this way, the Hub contributes to putting into practice the WUR Open Science & Education program, in which Citizen Science forms one of the four program lines.