Begleitende Evaluation zum Förderbereich Citizen Science des BMBF
Publication date: 8 October 2025 | Report language: DE
Technopolis AT and DE were tasked to evaluate the Citizen Science activities of the German research ministry. The accompanying evaluation was shortly concluded, and could scrutinise how citizen science works in practice and follow a selection of funded projects over a longer time. Supported by the funded projects, we surveyed not only researchers conducting the project, but also the citizens participating. In workshops with researchers and citizens, we were able to discuss first results and validate our findings.
Since 2013, the German Ministry for Research, Technology and Space (BMFTR) has been implementing various activities in the field of citizen science (CS), primarily focusing on funding CS research projects and community support. This evaluation shows that the BMFTR has largely achieved its associated goals. In particular, the activities have contributed to the following target areas:
- Reciprocal knowledge transfer between science and society has been encouraged and accelerated, and exchange relationships between science and society have been strengthened.
- Cooperation between non-governmental organizations and scientific institutions has been stimulated.
- The participating researchers and citizens have improved their research skills in the field of CS and their understanding of science in general and CS methods in particular.
- Citizens have made numerous contributions to the creation of new knowledge.
Overall, the BMBF has come closer to its strategic goal of permanently anchoring citizen science in society and science. However, this goal has not yet been achieved. We therefore recommend, among other things:
- Continue to promote the CS approach in Germany in line with relevant European activities
- Funding should continue to cover both activities for the CS community and the funding of CS research projects
- Continue to support mit:forschen! as a point of contact for the CS community, ensuring networking and securing expertise so that it remains available
- Strengthen the establishment of CS projects in existing BMFTR funding by raising awareness and facilitating knowledge exchange, both internally and with other funding organisations.
- Continue to fund further CS projects with a thematic and methodological focus.
