Training & mentoring visits at the CRG: an impactful immersion in Citizen Science that raised awareness and awakened interest

The core methodology of the TIME4CS project is based in sharing knowledge between partners that have strong expertise in Citizen Science, as well as partners that are in initial phases of the use of this methodology. With this aim, the CRG hosted a training and mentoring visit on the 8th and 9th of May, 2023 as one of the key actions of the project.

On the 8th of May, the Front-Runners from Aarhus University delivered two training workshops for the CRG community: an introductory workshop on the basics of Citizen Science – tailored to the biomedical research field – and a workshop tailored to scientific project managers, grants specialists and Principal Investigators (PIs) to explore how to include a Citizen Science methodology in a research project proposal. Participants learnt about the types of contributions in Citizen Science projects, tools, examples, types of impacts, who to involve in their projects, how to effectively communicate with them, etc. Attendance was not very high but participants showed a lot of interest in the methodology after the workshops, including the PIs who joined.

As one of the CRG Grounding Actions, the training workshops are the cornerstone to start implementing Citizen Science in research projects. The hope is that people who joined the workshops would spread the word among their colleagues to raise global awareness in the methodology.

On the 9th of May, the mentoring visit with all the Front-Runners and other project partners sparked an interesting and useful conversation between them and people from the CRG strategy, training and communication offices and the Director of the centre. The discussions about the current state of the Grounding Actions of the CRG were very useful to refine and redirect them in the most appropriate way regarding the current state of Citizen Science at the CRG. There was also a discussion about the Grounding Actions for the long-term described in the second version of the roadmap, which clarified how to develop them in a more effective and tailored way for the CRG community.

Additionally, a general conversation about the implementation of Citizen Science at the CRG highlighted the opportunities and barriers that the methodology entails at this moment for CRG researchers and their research projects.

Finally, and most importantly, these two days of learnings, guidance and discussions not only clarified concepts, ideas and next steps, but also ignited conversations about Citizen Science and raised awareness about the methodology among key internal actors.

Author: Marta Solís Mateos (CRG)