Uta Wehn appointed Professor of Citizen Science and Sustainability
Uta Wehn, recently appointed Professor of Citizen Science and Sustainability at IHE Delft and Leiden University, is a champion for citizen science that empowers citizens and communities to contribute to positive change. Her professorship will analyse and expand the role of citizen science in catalysing change toward sustainability.
IHE Delft and Leiden University’s Centre for Science and Technological Studies (CWTS) established the position as part of wider cooperation. Both institutions work on topics related to the interface of science, society and policy, with citizen science and open science as key components. Through the new joint professorship, they advance the use of citizen science, and deepen the understanding of how it can support sustainability.
Interest in citizen science and its role in sustainability is growing among scientists, policymakers and society at large. Citizen science is becoming increasingly pervasive for data and knowledge co-production with members of the public in many scientific fields. In water and environmental policy and management, citizen science has been gaining attention as a means for participation in environmental management. Grassroots initiatives flagging environmental concerns in their local environment and communities monitoring and exposing threats to their livelihoods present yet another form of citizen science.
“Citizen science has the potential to help promote conservation, efficiency and intergenerational equity to create a more balanced and harmonious relationship between people and the natural world.”
“In its different forms and different ways, citizen science has the potential to help promote conservation, efficiency and intergenerational equity to create a more balanced and harmonious relationship between people and the natural world,” Wehn said. "At the core of citizen science are people - citizens and communities but also other key stakeholders such as scientists, authorities and policymakers.”
Knowledge co-creation
In the recent UNESCO Recommendation on Open Science and other contexts, citizen science is recognized as integral for engaging society in open, inclusive and participatory processes of knowledge creation and application, she noted.
Wehn, who joined IHE Delft in 2011, has lead Action Research and research on citizen science for more than 15 years. She served as Adalbert Visiting Professor of Marine Citizen Science for Sustainable Development at the University of Gothenburg, Sweden, from September 2021 to December 2022, and Visiting Professor of Citizen and Community Science at the University of Sonora, Mexico, from May 2023 to December 2024.
She has led numerous Action Research projects in Europe and the Global South on how innovative societal engagement in data and knowledge co-creation and sharing can help trigger transformative changes in science, policy and society towards participatory environmental governance and sustainable societies. Also, she has initiated and co-chaired the global Citizen Science & Open Science Community of Practice of the Citizen Science Global Partnership since its inception in 2020.
Citizen science for sustainability
“The research I will lead aims to understand the behavioural dynamics of stakeholder collaborations and new constellations in data and knowledge co-creation across science, society and policy. How are these linked with transparent and democratic governance of natural resources and ecosystems? This will contribute to a more nuanced understanding of the dynamics and challenges of leveraging different forms of citizen science for sustainable practices,” she said.
Though welcoming the increasing interest in citizen science, Wehn cautioned against overly optimistic assumptions about its promise: “It is difficult to deliver on exaggerated expectations that citizen science is a panacea for sustainability,” she said.
Still, citizen science has the potential to be one of several key contributors to a more sustainable world, and to maximize its impact, it has to be studied in-depth, Wehn said.
“To better understand citizen science and its contribution to sustainability, we should not reinvent the wheel but rather draw on and combine various fields and types of expertise, including science & technology studies, behavioural science, political science and sustainability science,” she said.
Ongoing research
At IHE Delft, the professorship will further strengthen the institute’s research capabilities in the social sciences in order to address complex societal challenges, as part of the Institute’s research theme Knowledge and innovation for sustainable societies. Ongoing projects related to the theory, practice and institutionalisation of citizen science and related forms of innovative stakeholder engagement in Action Research and participatory environmental governance include:
- CitiObs (Horizon Europe, 2023-2026) This collaboration, involving IHE Delft, CWTS and other partners, s consolidates and applies tools and practice-based knowledge for co-creating data, knowledge and local action via Citizen Observatories.
- more4nature (Horizon Europe, 2024-2027) This project, led by Wehn, aims to trigger transformative change in conservation efforts regarding zero pollution, biodiversity protection and deforestation prevention by including citizens and communities as key actors in collaborative environmental compliance assurance.
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