A Reflection Tool for institutional changes in Citizen Science now in Open Access!
Are you interested in integrating Citizen Science practices to the research activities of your institution or department?
Would you like to learn how to define your action plan for institutional changes?
Find out the TIME4CS Reflection Tool, now available on Zenodo!
The Reflection Tool in a nutshell:
The Reflection Tool for institutional changes in Citizen Science (CS) is dedicated to anyone that would like to pursue sustainable institutional changes towards Citizen Science at its research institution.
Overall, it will help you to define the Grounding Actions (GA) you need and to integrate them to your institutional Roadmap for change.
The GA are concrete actions aimed at implementing or favouring institutional changes. To be effective they need to be tailored to your institutional needs and context. Finally, the roadmap you will get is the action plan that sets the GA into a common strategic framework and timeframe.
The tool will guide you through six main steps for each Grounding Action, helping you to:
define your goals and big vision along with the success criteria to monitor and evaluate their achievements;
identify the main stakeholders that need to be involved or affected by these actions, the potential obstacles and the needed resources;
delineate the activities, the responsibilities and the specific timeline of the actions.
How to use it?
Should you be interested to use the Reflection Tool, we recommend you to:
Build a core team with motivated colleagues and possible change agents.
Set your baseline: collect information of any existing or past project that includes CS practices, of any training, working group, or infrastructure working on CS in a broader sense (incl. Public Engagement and/or Science Communication), of any possible funding opportunity for CS at your institution, country or region.
Fill out the Reflection Tool template in a collaborative way in dialogue with the relevant stakeholders for each action.
Follow the Reflection Tool steps thoroughly, considering that the output of this exercise is a stepping stone towards a tailored roadmap for institutional change.
Get inspiration!
Four TIME4CS partners have used the Reflection Tool and have found it useful in the development of their own roadmaps for institutional changes in Citizen Science. As a result of the process, nineteen Grounding Actions have been selected, and the four roadmaps for institutional change have been defined, detailed and compiled in the deliverable “Compilation of roadmaps and Grounding Actions for the Implementers’ – First Version” .
Have a look at these roadmaps to get inspiration!
Now in Open Access
The Reflection Tool is now available on Zenodo. Click here to view it.
Check out the Reflection Tool, get ready, and embark on the journey towards institutional changes in Citizen Science!
Authors: Eugenia Vilarchao (ESF)
Marie Fleck(ESF)
