Marks Leah, Mitchell Jo, Rowbotham Samantha, Laird Yvonne, Smith Ben J
Menzies Centre for Health Policy and Economics, School of Public Health, Faculty of Medicine and Health, The University of Sydney, Sydney, Australia.
The Australian Prevention Partnership Centre, The Sax Institute, Sydney, Australia.
Health Promot J Austr. 2024 Oct;35(4):1326-1336. doi: 10.1002/hpja.866. Epub 2024 May 19.
Despite increasing interest in citizen science as an approach to engage members of the public in research and decision making about health and wellbeing, there is a lack of practical evidence to guide policy and practice organisations to utilise these approaches. In this study we investigated how and why citizen science came to be incorporated into the work of two policy organisations.
We offer two in-depth case studies of Australian government organisations which have utilised citizen science in environmental and healthy ageing policy. Interviews with organisational informants and relevant documents were analysed inductively to explore how citizen science came to be adopted, legitimised and supported.
Citizen science was utilised to address multiple organisational objectives, including increasing community participation in science; enhancing individuals' wellbeing, learning, and skills, and generating data to support research and policy in a relatively cost-effective manner. In both cases, grant funding was a mechanism to support citizen science, with project delivery facilitated through academic-policy partnerships and led by external academic or community partners.
Although citizen science is relatively new in policy and practice settings, this study underscores the value of these approaches in realising co-benefits for organisations, academics, and community members. The support and advocacy of senior managers as 'champions', and a willingness to invest in trialling new approaches to address policy problems are necessary ingredients to foster acceptance and legitimacy of citizen science. SO WHAT?: Citizen science initiatives can be strategically utilised by health promotion organisations to enact priorities related to genuine community involvement, support research and innovation and facilitate collaboration and partnerships between academic, policy and community stakeholders.
尽管公民科学作为一种让公众参与健康和福祉研究及决策的方法越来越受到关注，但缺乏实际证据来指导政策和实践组织运用这些方法。在本研究中，我们调查了公民科学是如何以及为何被纳入两个政策组织的工作中的。
我们对澳大利亚政府组织进行了两项深入的案例研究，这些组织在环境和健康老龄化政策中运用了公民科学。对组织内部人员的访谈和相关文件进行了归纳分析，以探讨公民科学是如何被采用、合法化和得到支持的。
公民科学被用于实现多个组织目标，包括增加社区对科学的参与；提升个人的福祉、学习和技能，以及以相对经济高效的方式生成数据以支持研究和政策。在这两个案例中，资助资金是支持公民科学的一种机制，项目实施通过学术 - 政策伙伴关系来推动，并由外部学术或社区伙伴牵头。
尽管公民科学在政策和实践环境中相对较新，但本研究强调了这些方法在为组织、学者和社区成员实现共同利益方面的价值。高级管理人员作为“倡导者”的支持和倡导，以及愿意投资尝试新方法来解决政策问题，是促进公民科学被接受和合法化的必要因素。那又如何？：健康促进组织可以战略性地利用公民科学倡议来落实与真正社区参与相关的优先事项，支持研究和创新，并促进学术、政策和社区利益相关者之间的合作与伙伴关系。
