‘Significant potential’ for green European citizen science

Volunteer researchers could contribute to swathe of environmental policies, Commission suggests

The European Commission has signalled its strong support for the use of public volunteers in environmental science, in a set of recommendations it has sent to EU governments.

Citizen scientists can gather environmental data that would otherwise be too expensive to obtain, but they need to work with professionals if policymakers are to trust the results, according to the Commission text published on 28 July.