What motivated you to devote your master's thesis to citizen science in French-speaking Belgium?

Amandine: "I had heard about citizen science a few times before choosing the topic for my master’s thesis, as a few family members were involved in species observation and monitoring. At the time, I did not fully grasp everything the term encompassed. Nevertheless, I was fascinated to see people who, in the course of their everyday lives, choose to take action and contribute to the creation of knowledge.

Beyond this fascination, I wanted my master’s thesis to address a real gap in knowledge so that it could be useful to others. Finally, the world today is complex, and building bridges between different scientific fields is a real advantage when tackling various issues. I developed new skills while working on this master’s thesis, as I applied data collection methods that are rarely associated with bioengineers."

How did you approach your research? And what were the main challenges you encountered?

Amandine: "A kind of blur hung over the landscape of citizen science in French-speaking Belgium. Something was happening there, but the equivalent of Scivil does not exist in the other half of the country, and no large-scale network had been built to connect all French-speaking citizen science projects yet. In order to find as many existing or formerly existing projects as possible, and to describe these projects according to various attributes, a combination of a systematic review and a survey seemed to be the best choice. Collaboration with Scivil quickly became an obvious choice, since we both wanted to inventory and characterise projects that same year. The collaboration was a great success and allowed us to produce meaningful outcomes.

Several challenges appeared during the research process. It was important to remain attentive so as not to get lost in the flow of information resulting from the systematic review and the literature search. Another difficulty concerns small-scale projects that have little online visibility: not only are these initiatives harder to find, but the information available about them may also be incomplete, making it difficult to determine whether they can truly be considered citizen science. Finally, one of the major challenges in inventorying projects comes from the semantic ambiguity surrounding the term citizen science. Its definition can be interpreted - for example, what counts as scientific research? - and depending on the interpretation, certain projects may or may not be classified as citizen science. Once one of your admission criteria contains areas of ambiguity, the inventory itself inevitably contains areas of ambiguity as well."

What insights did you gain into the citizen science landscape in French-speaking Belgium?

Amandine: "My master’s thesis focuses on Belgian projects in the fields of environmental and natural sciences, either monolingual or multilingual, that incorporate French both as an organisational language and as a language accessible to participants. A total of 86 projects and initiatives were identified, 39 of which responded to the survey. Among the 39, citizen contributions consist mostly of data collection, and contributory citizen science remains the dominant type of projects. Slightly more than half of the projects involve between 21 and 500 participants, have a regional or national geographic scope, and are led by a governmental organisation."

Did you observe any notable differences between French-speaking and Dutch-speaking citizen science projects?

Amandine: "The main difference between French-speaking and Dutch-speaking projects lies in the numbers: Dutch-speaking projects are far more numerous. Two other notable differences were observed regarding the proportions of projects collaborating with schools and those involving online participation. Although monolingual Dutch-speaking projects appear to collaborate more frequently with schools and to make greater use of fully online participation, this trend cannot be statistically confirmed. The population size of monolingual French-speaking projects is not large enough to ensure that the observed percentage differences are due to an association between the variables rather than random variation."

What themes and scientific domains stand out most?

Amandine: "Most of the identified initiatives and projects involve biodiversity monitoring and species observation. The survey also revealed a surprisingly high number of projects centred on environmental monitoring with an explicit concern for human health. Although these remain fewer than biodiversity-related initiatives, human health protection nevertheless emerges as a notable motivation behind the development of several citizen science projects."

How do you think your work can contribute to strengthening citizen science in Belgium?

Amandine: "Now that we have a clearer overview of the citizen science types and projects available to French speakers in Belgium, networks can be developed, and project leaders and citizen scientists can more easily share their experiences and ideas. If this happens, it will certainly have a positive impact on the development of citizen science. In addition, bridges are now being strengthened at the national level, across language boundaries, through collaboration and networking."

Based on your findings, what obstacles do citizen science projects face, and how might these be addressed?

Amandine: "The three most common challenges identified in the projects examined in this master’s thesis are recruiting new participants, ensuring data quality, and securing funding. Although various strategies exist to address these issues, further in-depth research is needed to accurately identify the most effective solutions."

How do you see the future of citizen science in French-speaking Belgium? Where do you see the greatest opportunities?

Amandine: "Citizen science in French-speaking Belgium will continue to evolve, as will the meanings of science citoyenne and science participative, since no consensus has yet been reached on the definitions of these terms. Only time will tell how citizen science will further develop. One opportunity highlighted by the findings of this master’s thesis is citizen science’s potential to raise public awareness of specific issues, such as air quality, biodiversity loss, or the presence of pollutants or harmful species in everyday life."

What did you personally learn from this research, both in terms of content and on a personal level?

Amandine: "I learned a great deal through the process of conducting this master’s thesis, as it led me to explore research methodologies and literature that are rarely associated with the field of bioengineering. The review and the survey enabled me to identify, and even contact, numerous associations and governmental organisations I would be eager to work with in the future. Finally, seeing so many people dedicated to creating a better world is both inspiring and a source of hope."

If you could give one piece of advice to students or researchers planning a similar project, what would it be?

Amandine: "Research on citizen science presents challenges due to the semantic ambiguity surrounding the term. Nevertheless, it is truly fascinating, so go for it! If you plan to use a methodology similar to the one employed in this master’s thesis, make sure to disseminate the survey as widely as possible through various networks (social media, citizen science events, contact addresses of institutions, etc.), and ask several people to test the survey to detect any ambiguities in the questions."