Citizen Science – the participation of people in different stages of scientific research – has experienced an upsurge of interest during the last decades, by the research community, volunteers and decision-makers. Citizen Science has the potential to extend the impact of the scientific, educational, policy, and civic outcomes. The Citizen Science Cost Action CA15212 ran from 2016–2020, including 37 participating countries, having contributed to workshops and scientific papers, as well as hosted young scientists. This COST Action explored the potential transformative power of Citizen Science for smart, inclusive, and sustainable ends, and provided frameworks for the exploitation of the potential of European citizens for science and innovation. The COST had many scientific and popular science outputs, including the Open Access book, launched in 2021: “The Science of Citizen Science”. Three researchers – Baiba Prūse (Latvia), Loreta Tauginienė (Lithuania) and Monika Suškevičs (Estonia) – each from one of the Baltic states, have put together a video, describing their experience about participating in this COST. They would also like to highlight one scientific outcome as a good example about extending the impact of the Action: a review on interdisciplinary citizen science in Nature Palgrave Communications (2020), led by Loreta Tauginienė. The results of this review have been presented at multiple conferences (e.g. CitSci Helvetia 2021, the first Swiss Citizen Science conference) and received considerable international and national media attention. For instance, it has been translated into Polish by a Polish association of librarians in their professional bulletin EBIB: http://ebibojs.pl/index.php/ebib/article/view/792/822, and an interview to present its main findings was taken by the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences: http://www.cssn.cn/hqxx/202108/t20210806_5352145.shtml.
Monika Suškevičs, Eesti Maaülikool, Keskkonnakaitse ja maastikukorralduse õppetooli nooremprofessor