Research project
Can citizen science help improve public trust in science?
This project explores how citizen science (CS) can increase public trust in science and foster equity in the research system.
- Duration
- 2026 - 2028
- Contact
- Laurens Hessels
- Funding
- Open Science NL call for Research on Open Science
- Partners
While earlier research about trust in CS has addressed the people actively participating in CS projects, we will investigate the perceptions and perspectives of citizens, researchers and policy makers who are not directly involved in such projects. Our main objective is to explore how CS relates to public trust and to equitable research practices in environmental science. We work towards this aim by investigating how the involvement of citizens in scientific research influences trust of other people, with special attention to those who historically experience a large psychological distance to science. To this end, the team will study four CS projects in the domain of environmental science, using a survey, individual interviews and focus group interviews.