On December 5, a citizen science seminar titled 'Opportunities and Lessons in Involving Communities in Research' was held in Tartu under the leadership of the Estonian Research Council, where scientists presented the use of citizen science as a method in their research and discussed how to motivate researchers to involve the public more.
Agnes Aljas, Research Secretary of the Estonian National Museum (ERM), pointed out in her presentation that in Estonian ethnology and folkloristics, the use of citizen science as a method has been self-evident since the very beginnings of these national disciplines in the late 19th century, when Jakob Hurt called upon the people to collect “vanavara” (old folklore and traditions) on a large scale. The network of correspondents that began in the 1930s is also a good example of a nearly century-old system that has directly contributed source material to scientific topics. Similarly, the exhibitions held in ERM’s participation hall are examples of citizen science.
More specifically, Agnes Aljas highlighted recent ERM projects, such as collecting materials on gaming environments together with young people. In addition, this autumn saw the conclusion of a digital creativity competition, which on the one hand encouraged people to use Estonia’s digital heritage creatively, and on the other hand generated information needed for research. Currently, within the international cooperation project “i-Game,” a co-creation platform for games is being developed in collaboration with the cultural and technology sectors and tested with end users.
At the seminar, Estonian researchers also spoke about involving the public and interest groups in their research in areas such as youth language use, birds, and archaeology. The seminar’s guest speaker, Professor Muki Haklay (University College London) from England, shared British experiences.
According to the Estonian Research Council’s thematic platform Miks?, citizen science is the voluntary and conscious participation of people in scientific activity, most often through data collection, but sometimes in other ways as well. Its aim is to bring together researchers and communities to jointly create new knowledge and broaden understanding of the world around us. Good examples of citizen science projects in Estonia include the now-completed initiatives “Estonia is looking for cowslips” and “Send a tick by post!”.
The 2025 citizen science seminar can be rewatched on the Estonian Research Council’s YouTube channel. All presentations by the speakers are available on the website miks.ee.