About the project

The Observatory of Citizen Science in Spain is the portal Ibercivis has run since 2016 to show who is doing what in citizen science in Spain. Over these ten years it has built a national network of initiatives, projects, resources, researchers, institutions and participants.

It works as a map and catalogue of projects, a repository of resources and a place to see and be seen. Anyone running an initiative can add it, control the information shown about it and check statistics and metrics to manage it better.

On 15 July 2026 it celebrated its 10th anniversary in the Paraninfo of the University of Zaragoza and presented its new platform, integrated with the European platform citizenscience.eu. The event also announced the 1st Congress of Citizen Science in Spain, planned for 2027.

Project objectives

• Give citizen science projects visibility to increase participation in them.
• Make coordination and synergies between projects easier.
• Share resources and results across all areas of citizen science.
• Develop specific indicators to analyse how the relationship between science and society is evolving.

The role of Ibercivis

Ibercivis runs the Observatory and has developed its platform, which other organisations have already adopted: the European, Italian and Dutch citizen science associations and UNESCO. It is coordinated by Maite Pelacho.

Our activities

• Map and catalogue of citizen science projects and initiatives in Spain, open to new additions.
• Workshops and events to promote citizen science, such as the one at Medialab-Prado to co-create a national agenda (November 2016).
• 10th anniversary event and launch of the new platform (University of Zaragoza, 15 July 2026).

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Project details

Type of project

National

Duration

Since 2016

Funding

Originally, the Spanish Foundation for Science and Technology (FECYT)

Area

Citizen science infrastructure

Project website

La entrada Observatory of Citizen Science in Spain: The meeting point for citizen science projects, resources and people in Spain se publicó primero en Fundación Ibercivis.

About the project

Geonity is a free citizen science platform from Fundación Ibercivis for researchers, organisations and communities. It lets you design data collection projects, gather real-world observations from any device and collaborate in six languages.

It is open to any person or organisation: research groups, universities, public authorities, associations, schools or local initiatives that want to launch a project, and volunteers who want to contribute observations. No programming skills are needed and it is free to use.

Project objectives

• Provide a shared environment so that very different groups can organise their data collection without having to build a custom tool each time.
• Make it easy to take part in the field, through the website and mobile apps.
• Protect participants with privacy and location controls.

The role of Ibercivis

Ibercivis has developed Geonity with its own funds, and maintains and improves it based on real-world use and feedback from the community. Projects such as Life-Nitrazens and Flood2Now use it for their measurement campaigns.

Our activities

• Works in three steps: create a project (topic, geographical area and form), contribute geolocated observations, and analyse and export the data as CSV.
• New version (May 2026): custom forms with text, numbers, photos or options; organisations and teams with roles; public or private projects with location blurring; interface in Spanish, English, Portuguese, Italian, French and German.
• Apps for Android and iOS.

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Project details

Type of project

National

Duration

Ongoing

Funding

Fundación Ibercivis’s own funds

Area

Citizen science infrastructure

Project website

La entrada Geonity: A free platform for creating and taking part in citizen science projects se publicó primero en Fundación Ibercivis.

La entrada Science in your Mobile: A multi-game mobile app to bring science closer to young people se publicó primero en Fundación Ibercivis.

La entrada Apadrina un olivo: Citizen science to restore the abandoned olive groves of Oliete (Teruel) and build a social oil mill se publicó primero en Fundación Ibercivis.

The recommendations are based on evidence generated by more than 140 schools across 15 autonomous communities and on the evaluation questionnaires completed by participating teachers.

The document sets out five public policy briefs:

• Expand the coverage of the air quality monitoring network by integrating citizen science data, particularly in rural and peri-urban areas with a limited presence of fixed monitoring stations.
• Establish atmospheric protection zones around schools, with perimeters restricting access to motor vehicles during school hours and active mobility infrastructure.
• Integrate citizen science on air quality into the school curriculum, with the activity recognized within STEM and environmental education competencies.
• Create a mechanism for feeding results from citizen science projects back to participating communities, with defined deliverables set as an evaluable criterion in funding calls.
• Protect and expand urban green cover as a strategy for mitigating air pollution, incorporating this obligation into municipal urban planning schemes.

Each brief sets out the context of the problem, the evidence generated by AmIAire, and a concrete recommendation aimed at the bodies with competence in each area, including environment, education and urban planning departments, municipal governments and science funding agencies.

About AmIAire

AmIAire is a citizen science project focused on air quality, in which primary and secondary school students build their own sensors out of cardstock and petroleum jelly to capture suspended particulate matter (PM10, PM2.5, PM1). The samples are analysed using a digital image-processing platform developed specifically for the project. It is led by the Universidad de Deusto, together with Fundación Ibercivis and Scicling, with the collaboration of the Spanish Foundation for Science and Technology – Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities.

La entrada AmIAire, a project on air quality measurement, publishes its policy brief with recommendations based on the results of its first edition se publicó primero en Fundación Ibercivis.

The event also served to present the new features of its online platform, a hub that brings together technology and society at the service of citizens and the research community.

Today, 15 July, we celebrated, in the Paraninfo’s Aula Magna at the Universidad de Zaragoza, ten years of the observatory managed by Ibercivis, which has served to weave a national network of initiatives, projects, resources, researchers, institutions and participants in citizen science projects. The event was chaired by our president and rector of the Universidad de Zaragoza, Rosa Bolea, and was also attended by María Jesús Lázaro, institutional delegate of CSIC Aragón. In her opening remarks, the rector highlighted the importance of citizen science within the university’s strategic plan and the milestone represented by the adoption of the online platform developed by Ibercivis by various European institutions, such as the European, Italian and Dutch citizen science associations and UNESCO, underscoring Ibercivis’s capacity for technological development.

New features to keep weaving networks and initiatives

Our director Francisco Sanz described the new features of the Observatory’s online platform, which turns it into a virtual hub for finding initiatives, resources, institutions and projects that use citizen science methodologies. Users have full control over the information shown about their project, along with a wide range of reports, statistics and metrics that allow for better management of their initiative. The platform pays particular attention to data ownership and the ethical use of the data it hosts, enabling comprehensive management of citizen science projects’ presence on the network, improving their visibility, and enabling collaboration between the research community and the public.

Success stories and a look to the future

This celebration event also featured Enrique Torres and Guillermo Orduña, who shared their experience within the SERVET Project — Enrique as part of the organizing committee, and Guillermo representing the participating community. We also enjoyed a dialogue on the future of citizen science between Fermín Serrano and Manuel González Bedia, Vice-Rector for Innovation, Transfer and Lifelong Learning at the Universidad de Zaragoza.

Thank you to everyone who joined us on this day celebrating citizen science in Spain. The event recording is available on YouTube.

If you are interested in citizen science, manage an initiative, or belong to the research community, we encourage you to take part in the ciencia-ciudadana.es portal.

La entrada 10 years of the Citizen Science Observatory in Spain: a tool at the service of participatory research se publicó primero en Fundación Ibercivis.

About the project

CitSci Sort has a twofold purpose: to produce a research dataset and to serve as a learning tool.

CitSci Sort is a community classification tool developed by Fundación Ibercivis as part of the RIECS-Concept initiative (Towards a Pan-European Research Infrastructure for Excellent Citizen Science), a 36-month Horizon Europe project that brings together 13 partners from 8 countries, with ECSA as scientific coordinator.

Project objectives

Its aim is to build a systematically classified corpus of scientific abstracts on citizen science (CS), something that did not previously exist with a shared, transparent scheme. The abstracts come from peer-reviewed publications identified through a systematic search of the Web of Science database, accessed through the University of Zaragoza’s institutional licence.

How does the classification work?

• Step 1: First-level split

  The first question is the key one: does this article use citizen science as a method to produce knowledge, or does it study citizen science as a subject of research? Each abstract is assigned to one of three categories: Scientific Findings (CS as a method), Meta-research (CS as a subject of study) or Not Sure.

• Step 2: Classifying meta-research aspects (Meta-research articles only)

  Choose one or more aspects that capture the dimension the article analyses: methodology and design, data quality, impact and outcomes, participation, ethics and legal aspects, theory and conceptual frameworks, or technology and platforms. The scheme is based on the pillars set out by Ioannidis et al. (2015) and on the UNESCO Recommendation on Open Science (2021).

• Step 3: Classifying infrastructures (All articles)

  Assess whether the abstract mentions platforms, apps, data management tools, AI systems or other technologies that support the CS project described. This step builds a verified register of CS infrastructures directly from the published literature: information that RIECS-Concept needs to design the future pan-European infrastructure.

How can I take part?

You don’t need to be a researcher or a citizen science expert. The platform is designed so that anyone can classify abstracts by following the guidelines provided. What matters most is reading carefully and applying the criteria consistently.

Each abstract is reviewed by several people, so the goal is not individual perfection but collective consistency. Disagreements are valuable: they help the team spot the most ambiguous cases. Contributors can remain completely anonymous or ask to be publicly acknowledged in the project’s reports, always subject to their explicit consent.

Project details

Type of project

Global

Duration

2026 – 2030

Area

Citizen science research

Project website

La entrada CitSci Sort: Classify scientific publications on citizen science se publicó primero en Fundación Ibercivis.

CitSci Sort was built to create that map — collaboratively, with the help of anyone who wants to contribute.

What is CitSci Sort?

CitSci Sort is a community-driven classification tool developed by the Ibercivis Foundation in the context of the RIECS-Concept initiative  — Towards a Pan-European Research Infrastructure for Excellent Citizen Science —, a 36-month Horizon Europe project bringing together 13 partners from 8 countries, with ECSA as scientific coordinator.

Its purpose is to build a systematically categorised corpus of peer-reviewed scientific abstracts on citizen science (CS) — one that did not previously exist with a shared, transparent classification scheme. The corpus is drawn from publications identified through a systematic search of the Web of Science database, accessed via the Universidad de Zaragoza’s institutional licence.

CitSci Sort has a dual goal:

• Producing a research dataset: a structured map of how CS is studied, practiced, and theorised across disciplines.
• Being a learning tool: by reading and classifying real abstracts, contributors actively develop their own understanding of the CS publication landscape — what questions the field asks, how it frames them, and where the debates are.

How does the classification work?

Classification proceeds in three sequential steps, each grounded in published academic references.

• Step 1 — First-level Dichotomy
  The first question is fundamental: does this paper use citizen science as a method to produce knowledge, or does it study citizen science as an object of research? Each abstract is assigned to one of three mutually exclusive categories: Scientific Findings (CS as method), Meta-research (CS as subject of study), or Not Sure.

• Step 2 — Meta-research Aspects Classification (Only for Meta-research papers)
  One or more aspects are selected to capture which specific dimension the paper analyses: methodology & design, data quality & validation, impact & outcomes, participation & engagement, ethics & legal issues, theory & framework, or technology & platforms. This scheme is grounded in Ioannidis et al. (2015) and the UNESCO Recommendation on Open Science (2021).

• Step 3 — Infrastructure Classification (For all papers)
  Every abstract is also assessed for whether it mentions specific CS infrastructures — platforms, mobile apps, data-management tools, AI systems, or any other technology that enables or supports the described CS project. This step builds, directly from the published literature, a verified registry of CS infrastructures that RIECS-Concept needs to design the future pan-European research infrastructure.

Why does this matter?

Citizen science faces a structural challenge: fragmented data and a lack of shared standards. This lack of interoperability hinders the scalability of its collective scientific impact and poses a significant challenge to its long-term sustainability.

CitSci Sort responds by producing a shared, evidence-based taxonomy that makes the landscape of CS research legible. The data generated will feed directly into the design of a pan-European research infrastructure with a view to inclusion in the ESFRI roadmap and integration with the European Open Science Cloud (EOSC).

Do I need to be an expert to contribute?

No. You do not need to be a researcher or a citizen science expert. The platform is designed so that anyone can classify abstracts by following the guidance provided. What matters most is reading carefully and applying the criteria consistently.

Each abstract is reviewed by multiple contributors, so the goal is not individual perfection but collective consistency. Disagreements are valuable — they help the research team identify the most ambiguous cases. Contributors may choose to remain fully anonymous or request public recognition in project reports, strictly according to their express consent.

About the Ibercivis Foundation

Ibercivis (ibercivis.es) is a private non-profit foundation that promotes Citizen Science in Spain and Europe. Formally constituted on 14 November 2011 in Madrid, it evolved from the Zivis project launched in April 2007 — one of the earliest distributed volunteer computing initiatives in Spain. Its board of trustees includes the Universidad de Zaragoza, CSIC, CIEMAT, the Ministry of Science and Innovation, the Government of Aragon, and the Fundación Zaragoza Ciudad del Conocimiento.Over its trajectory, Ibercivis has developed more than 100 citizen science projects across domains including environmental monitoring (Vigilantes del Aire, D-Noses), biodiversity (Pájaros en la Nube), and aerospace education (Proyecto Aeroespacial Servet, with ten editions). It also hosts the Observatorio de la Ciencia Ciudadana en España.

About RIECS-Concept

RIECS-Concept (concept.riecs.eu) is a 36-month Horizon Europe project that began on 1 January 2025. Its goal is to design the conceptual model for a permanent, pan-European research infrastructure for citizen science — including a feasibility study and a five-year implementation plan — with a view to inclusion in the ESFRI roadmap and interoperability with the EOSC. CitSci Sort specifically supports the WP4 public engagement activities within RIECS-Concept.

Ready to contribute?

Register at https://citscisort.ibercivis.es/and start classifying.

La entrada CitSci Sort: Classify Scientific Publications on Citizen Science and Help Build a Global Map of the Field se publicó primero en Fundación Ibercivis.

About the project

Anyone aged over 18 with a Facebook or Instagram account that is more than 2 years old and that they use regularly can take part

Desenredados is a research project that studies how we behave online and offline, especially in relation to our personal networks. To do this:

With this information, we analyse what Meta knows about you, what kind of adverts it shows you and why, and we compare your real-life relationships with your digital ones. We also explore how personal networks vary across cultures and social contexts.

Project objectives

Desenredados sets out to study how our personal networks evolve and how we relate to each other. Through citizen science, Universidad Carlos III de Madrid collects information on how people are connected to one another and models it mathematically. The project also carries out a comparative analysis of how people are distributed across different cultural dimensions and how the structures of their personal networks vary. Having carried out the research in other countries, the research team now wants to extend the sample in Spain to complete the study.

The role of Ibercivis

Ibercivis will run a communication campaign to publicise the project and encourage the public to take part in the research. The campaign aims to get participants to complete the survey and securely share their social media profile data, from Facebook and Instagram, with the research team

Our activities

• The main activities Ibercivis carries out in the project are:
• Landing page
• Visual identity design
• Leaflets, infographics and web banners.
• Explainer videos.
• Campaigns.
• Posts.
• Opportunities for direct interaction with the researchers.
• In-person communication sessions

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Project details

Type of project

National

Duration

March–November 2025

Area

Digital society

Project website

La entrada Desenredados: Your social media content can contribute to scientific research se publicó primero en Fundación Ibercivis.

About the project

Lost at Night is a citizen science web app for locating night-time photographs of cities taken by astronauts from the International Space Station. It is part of the Cities at Night project, coordinated by researcher Alejandro Sánchez de Miguel.

NASA’s archive holds more than 3 million images, but only a small share of them have been located. For the rest, we know where the Station was when the photo was taken, but not where the camera was pointing, so the typical error is around 500 km.

To locate a photo, the app shows it next to several images of cities that have already been identified, and the participant chooses the one that matches. If none match, they can select ‘None of these’. No previous experience is needed.

The app was launched in early 2020 thanks to the Stars4all crowdfunding campaign, the support of the Spanish Foundation for Science and Technology (FECYT) – Spanish Ministry of Science and the involvement of Fundación Ibercivis.

Since 2024, Lost at Night has continued on a new platform, developed by Ibercivis as part of the European project PLAN-B: see the current Lost at Night page.

Project objectives

Lost at Night aims to organise and georeference the archive of night-time images from the Space Station so that it can be used in research.

• Identify sources of light pollution, at a much higher resolution than other satellites.
• Study how cities develop and cultural differences through artificial light at night.
• Provide data for health studies, such as those linking the colour of light to breast and prostate cancer.
• Support biodiversity studies, such as those on the dark corridors used by bats.

The first located images are already being used in research. In 2019, a Cities at Night paper entered the global top 100 of the Altmetric index.

The role of Ibercivis

Ibercivis helped launch the Lost at Night app, together with Stars4all and FECYT, and supports the project’s outreach and educational materials.

Our activities

• Design and layout of the Cities at Night teaching unit (in Spanish) for students in the 3rd and 4th years of ESO (ages 14 to 16), on light pollution and how to take part in the project. It is open access (CC BY-SA 4.0 licence) and also has a printable version.
• Sharing the project’s infographics on light pollution.
• Media outreach, such as the article in Tercer Milenio (Heraldo de Aragón) in March 2020.

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Project details

Type of project

National

Duration

2020 – 2024

Area

Space

La entrada Lost at Night: Help map night-time photos of cities taken from the International Space Station se publicó primero en Fundación Ibercivis.