Building capacity to apply citizen science approaches in policy and practice for public health: protocol for a developmental evaluation of four stakeholder-led projects

Citizen science is gaining attention as an approach to involving communities in gathering data and contributing to decision-making in public health. Stakeholders interested in citizen science have identified a need for support in applying these approaches and in obtaining evidence of their value. However, there have been few attempts to evaluate citizen science approaches within policy and practice contexts in public health. Within this protocol paper, we outline an approach to evaluating stakeholder-led citizen science projects that focuses on fostering innovation and building capacity in the use of citizen science approaches by these stakeholders.

We will use developmental evaluation, which focuses on ongoing reflection and adaptation, to guide the development and delivery of four stakeholder-led citizen science projects in public health. We will employ a multiple embedded case study design, using surveys and interviews, observations of project meetings, reflective journaling, and document review to gather perspectives from a range of stakeholders across the four projects. Data will be synthesised to explore how projects using citizen science approaches operate within policy and practice contexts, including the barriers and facilitators to their application, the circumstances under which they are most useful, and the impacts of these approaches.

A developmental approach to evaluation will enable us to build capacity in the use of citizen science approaches by sharing insights and learnings as project teams navigate their individual projects. We hope that this paper will stimulate further discussion about the application and evaluation of citizen science approaches in public health and beyond.