MICS: Measuring the impact of citizen science

The EU-funded MICS project has developed a platform of tools to measure the costs and benefits of citizen science. The impacts of citizen science are measured through the following domains: (1) Society: impact on society and individuals as well as collective values and understanding; (2) Economy: implications for entrepreneurial activity, and economic benefits derived from data, e.g. for the public good; (3) Environment: impact on the bio-chemical-physical environment, e.g. on the quality or quantity of specific natural resources or ecosystems; (4) Science: impact on the scientific process as well as research more broadly, and the scientific system; (5) Governance: impact on the processes and institutions through which decisions are made.

Aim

The MICS platform allows you to:

• Assess the impact of a citizen-science project, through metrics and indicators across different domains

• Look at different projects in the same discipline and compare their impact.

• Evaluate the impact of a project from conception to realisation and beyond, seeing how impact changes over time.
• Produce an impact summary to share with communities, stakeholders, funders and policy makers.

The MICS project and its associated platform allows citizen science practitioners, funders and other stakeholders assess the impact of their and other communities citizen-science activities through answering questions online associated with over 200 impact assessment indicators. Through doing this, the platform calculates an impact score for each domain (science, society, environment, economy and governance) based both on rules-based calculations, and through the use of a neural network trained through the inputs of 30 current citizen science projects.

Additionally, the accompanying about.mics.tools website provides a suite of guidance and tools regarding how to measure the impact of your project and activities. 

 

How to participate

Go to the MICS platform, create a profile, add a project and start your impact journey!

About funding

Funding bodies: European Comission

Active from 01/01/2019 until 31/01/2030

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