Embedding citizen science and community knowledge into local decision-making

The Citizen Scientists-in-Residence programme, a collaboration between the Institute for Global Prosperity (IGP) and Camden Council, fully integrated citizen scientists into the Council’s engagement and policy teams for a year to work around a citizen-led research project, based around two key strategic Camden projects. The programme also included an accredited Citizen Science training course with the UCL Citizen Science Academy based at the IGP. Their research findings are now being used by the Council to inform how they will invest funds from the Community Wealth Fund.

The training equipped the citizen scientists to conduct research on the ground and gather information on what are the challenges and needs for the local community. Lack of opportunities for refugees, the challenges for people with disabilities, and poor community services for young people are some of the issues that the social citizen scientists reported on.

Citizen science is being pioneered by the IGP as a means of co-producing research that can more accurately reflect the needs of local communities and ensure the research is more inclusive and relevant to the people who lastly are going to be affected by the policies.

Embedding citizen science into local government decision making processes ensures that citizens feel empowered to have a say in local decision-making, especially under-represented groups, which in turn can help rebuild the public’s trust in institutions.

The Council’s team who hosted some of the citizen scientists stated how working with them brought a lot of day-to-day benefits and influence to the team, offering their unique lived experience and local knowledge in team discussions.

“It brought a lot of benefit to our team, having the Citizen Scientists embedded in our team. Just having them in our meetings and their contributions made us think differently with our approach.” - Stakeholder

“In the housing space, we were doing door knocking in the estates and one citizen scientist is a Council tenant. She could help us to understand where that experience was coming from as a user of the service, so we were able to contextualise and make sense of it and understand the depth.” – Stakeholder

One of the clearest benefits of the programme was helping the Council engage residents it typically fails to reach. Being local, and often with similar experiences, residents felt more confident in talking to them.
“People that don’t usually like to talk to the council, they talk to me. But if a researcher comes they would refuse. They don’t feel listened to or [that] their voice will be heard.” - Citizen Scientist

Through the programme the citizen scientists were also able to develop a range of transferable, work-related skills including research, digital, communication, and organisational skills, as well as having a clear impact on their level of confidence.

“I learned a bunch of practical transferable skills, like interviewing. I've done lots of face to face interviews before but I learnt a lot about interviewing techniques and how to do it really well. The so skills I guess. I learnt a lot of that.” - Citizen Scientist

Their confidence, knowledge, presenting, communication and relationship skills have all improved across the course of the year. They seem confident asking questions, challenging us in an appropriate and open way. Being able to share their local community knowledge and relationships confidently in a trusting way.” - Line manager

The programme also gave them a better understanding of what it’s like to work in a council and of its decision making processes, and this enabled them to make more meaningful and nuanced contributions, and use their research to provide ongoing insights.

Working for the Council also instilled a sense of direction and helped them decide what to do next.

“I realised I do want to work in this sector, particularly the participation sector which I wouldn’t have seen without this role. I know that I do want to work in local authorities. It’s given me the experience to have an understanding of what other roles would entail.” - Citizen Scientist

Finally, the citizen scientists developed and deepened their knowledge and expertise in community engagement and subject matters related to their fields of research like youth justice or digital inclusion.

“I gained knowledge about the participation process and different ways to engage with residents. And gained an understanding of how a local authority does it.” - Citizen Scientist

After the programme, four out of the seven citizen scientists have either found full or part-time employment or gone onto full-time education. One of these has secured full-time employment with the Council in another team, and two on a part-time basis while another citizen scientist has gone on to start a Master’s degree at UCL.