Building Collaborative Health Research Drawing on New Lessons from Citizen Science

Abstract

Community-based participatory research is growing. What is also growing is citizen science. There are useful lessons for the health field from this rapidly growing approach of citizen science. The National Institutes of Health and other health leaders such as Community Campus Partnerships for Health have begun encouraging cross-learning between those engaged in CBPR and those doing citizen science. There are many opportunities to spark innovation and problem solve by analyzing each others’ practices and incorporating relevant aspects into community health research. The purpose of this workshop is to share with participants some of the latest practices in citizen science and consider ways of adapting some of these strategies to solve some of the problems we encounter in community-researcher health partnerships. In developing the session I will draw on my work in CBPR projects in Massachusetts and Maine, my service as an advisory board member for health citizen science projects in the western U.S., my webinar and keynotes in CBPR/CS for the National Citizen Association and NIH, and my development of graduate courses on stakeholder-researcher partnerships.