The Estonian Research Council is the national organisation in Estonia that brings together and supports citizen science promoters.
What is citizen science?
Citizen science (also known as community science or public participation in scientific research) refers to the voluntary and informed participation of individuals in organised scientific research or related supporting activities. Most commonly, citizen science involves data collection (for example, conducting nature observations and entering data into databases), but it may also include participation in project design, research planning, data analysis, or other stages of the scientific process.
Participation must be voluntary and informed, and the initiative must include a genuine scientific component. Citizen science is closely connected to concepts such as open science, engagement, science popularisation, extracurricular science education, crowdsourcing, and co-creation.
Why is citizen science important?
Engaging people in scientific activities helps foster and shape a scientific worldview. Participation in citizen science initiatives encourages individuals to contribute to solving meaningful questions and challenges, thereby enabling them to influence local and national decision-makers on issues important to society.
Citizen science also has a strong educational dimension, which in some initiatives may be the primary objective. Well-designed projects provide participants with new knowledge, feedback on results, and opportunities to learn about scientific research methods and processes.
Examples of projects
In Estonia and elsewhere, citizen science projects are most common in the environmental field, but they also exist in health and medicine, astronomy, cultural heritage, and other areas. Internationally, citizen-initiated projects are also frequent, where communities engage researchers to help scientifically investigate or solve local issues.
In Estonia, widely recognised examples of citizen science projects include “Eesti otsib nurmenukke” and “Pane puuk posti!”.
In the environmental field, the PlutoF biodiversity database connects nature enthusiasts and researchers.
Opportunities to participate can also be found, for example, through the Estonian Environment Agency’s Nature Web portal, the Estonian Ornithological Society, and water monitoring platforms. In kindergartens and primary schools, the best-known programme is “Tere, kevad!” (“Hello, Spring!”). At upper secondary level, initiatives include the UNESCO Associated Schools Network Baltic Sea Project and the GLOBE science programme.
Further information and resources on citizen science are available on open science platforms and on the website of the University of Tartu Natural History Museum, as well as in the materials of LibOCS, a joint project of Baltic university libraries.
Across Europe, citizen science communities are connected through the European Citizen Science Association platform, which provides access to numerous projects and resources.
Join our citizen science mailing list
The citizen science mailing list serves as a platform for sharing information about events and initiatives, distributing useful resources, exchanging ideas, and fostering discussion. It is open to everyone interested in advancing and developing citizen science, implementing projects and initiatives, engaging the public in research, or staying informed about the field.
The mailing list is in Estonian.
To join the mailing list, please express your interest by contacting riho.kinks@etag.ee.
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