We are very happy to introduce the University of Salzburg as an important partner in the Citizen Science Network Austria. Not only has the University of Salzburg already organized a Salzburg Citizen Science Conference in 2016, but it also welcomed the 4th Austrian Citizen Science Conference and co-organized it. Numerous citizen science projects on Österreich forscht come from the University of Salzburg, and the Kontaktstelle Citizen Science ensures the internal and external networking of these projects, and also serves as a contact point for all questions concerning citizen science at the university.

We are very pleased to have the University of Salzburg as an active and competent partner in the Citizen Science Network Austria.

IIASA is an international research institute based in Laxenburg near Vienna. Its main focus is on interdisciplinary research in the fields of environment, economy, technology and population with regard to the human dimension of global change. IIASA was founded on the initiative of the United States of America and the Soviet Union during the Cold War as a bridge between scientists from East and West. It was one of the first partners of the Plattform Österreich forscht and is a strong player in the international Citizen Science Community. Several citizen science projects of IIASA can be found on Österreich forscht. We are therefore all the more pleased that IIASA will continue to be a reliable and competent partner in the Citizen Science Network Austria in the future.

In its zoological and ecological studies, the Private Institute for Wildlife Biology Apodemus is engaged in basic research (e.g. habitat use, community and population ecology) and in topics of nature and species conservation. The Apodemus team designs specialized planning and development concepts and carries out population surveys and progress assessments. The evaluation methods include zoological skills such as preparation, the creation of statistical models as well as GIS-based spatial analysis and habitat modelling. In addition to the research activities, Apodemus also focuses on environmental education. The team writes scientific publications and articles, designs information material, and offers lectures and natural history excursions to arouse interest and sympathy for wildlife.

Apodemus was represented at Österreich forscht very early on and we are very pleased to have the Apodemus team as a competent and reliable partner in our network.

The AIT (Austrian Institute of Technology) is Austria's largest non-university research institution and is the specialist for the central infrastructure topics of the future among European research institutions. The AIT's research and technological development work results in fundamental innovations for the next generation of infrastructure technologies in the fields of Energy, Mobility Systems, Low-Emission Transport, Health & Bioresources, Digital Safety & Security, Vision, Automation & Control and Technology Experience. These scientific research areas are complemented by expertise in Innovation Systems & Policy.

The AIT is also active in the field of Citizen Science: in addition to the (already closed) Biochar project, where a small project could be carried out at home, the AIT also took part in the Citizen Science Award, where antiphising approaches were developed and tested together with citizens.

We are very happy to have the AIT as an active member of the Citizen Science Network Austria!

The OeAD advises, promotes and connects people and institutions in education, science, research and culture with its future-oriented programmes. As the agency for education and internationalisation of the Republic of Austria, it is the interface to educational opportunities for all phases of life - from kindergarten and school to higher education and science, vocational training and adult education. With different funding lines, children, young people as well as adults are enabled to participate in social processes as well as in science, art and culture.

With its Center for Citizen Science and, especially, the Young Science initiatives, the OeAD supports the engagement of young people and adults with science and research in order to gain a better understanding of research and scientific work. The Center for Citizen Science serves as an information, advisory and service point for citizen science and carries out a number of initiatives such as the annual research competition "Citizen Science Award". With the centre, the OeAD primarily addresses researchers and scientific institutions with the aim of increasing awareness of the citizen science research approach in Austria. The research funding programme "Sparkling Science 2.0" and the funding of "Children's and Youth Universities" are also coordinated at the OeAD Center. Other Young Science initiatives such as the Young Science Ambassadors, who visit schools on a voluntary basis, the Young Science topic platform for pre-scientific work or diploma theses or the initiative "Pupils to Universities" are primarily aimed at schools and extracurricular educational institutions.

Further information:

• www.zentrumfuercitizenscience.at
• www.youngscience.at

The Municipal Department 22 for Environmental Protection (MA 22 for short) of the City of Vienna is the only authority that is represented with a citizen science project on Österreich forscht, namely the "Wiener Gebäudebrütern". However, MA 22 has been focusing on citizen science for a long time. With the help of the apps "Naturbeobachten in Wien" and "Wiener Flora und Fauna App" and via e-mail, nature observations in Vienna can be reported by the public. In July 2016, the people of Vienna were called upon to report stag beetles (Lucanus cervus), a strictly protected species typical for Vienna. More than 400 reports were received, which can now be incorporated into the work of MA 22.

MA 22 is thus also an international pioneer, because in only a few countries authorities use citizen science as a scientific method. As one of the first partners of Österreich forscht, MA 22 has shown, by joining the Citizen Science Network Austria, that it wants to continue to work with citizens to improve environmental protection in the city of Vienna.

GenTeam is a loose association of genealogists who work independently or in teams on databases and want to make these data available to all researchers free of charge. All staff members work voluntarily; GenTeam is not profit-oriented. The geographical focus of the data collections is on present-day Austria and its neighbouring areas.

GenTeam is one of the partners of the first hours of the Citizen Science Network Austria, and was the first project in the field of historical research, and last but not least has brought other partners from this scientific field into the network. Therefore, GenTeam has been a valuable partner in the Citizen Science Network Austria from the very beginning and we are very pleased to have a highly valued and reliable colleague in the network in Felix Gundacker, the head of GenTeam.

You run or participate in a citizen science project? This project could also be listed on Österreich forscht. There are no costs involved. The professional or institutional background of a project is not important. The only requirement is a project description in German, and it must be possible to participate in Austria. On Österreich forscht you can find projects of universities, associations, NGOs, museums and also of citizens.

But what are the advantages of having my project listed on Österreich forscht?

On the one hand, Österreich forscht supports the networking of citizen science practitioners, and on the other hand, Österreich forscht makes it easy for citizen science projects to be found by interested citizens. For this purpose, the Österreich forscht team offers several services that are exclusively available to projects on Österreich forscht:

• Your project is presented on Austria's largest citizen science platform with over 40.000 site visits per year: Every year, many people from all over Austria access Österreich forscht. They look for new projects, information on citizen science or read the posts on the Österreich forscht blog. Listed projects benefit from this additional outreach by potentially attracting new citizen scientists to a project or by drawing the attention of journalists to the project.
• If you are starting a new citizen science project and have few resources available, you can also use Österreich forscht as a project website and make your project information available there.
• Deep Linking: By linking to your project website on Österreich forscht and linking back to Österreich forscht on your project website, the findability of the project in search engines is significantly increased.
• Österreich forscht-newsletter: We promote your project via our monthly newsletter. In addition, you have the possibility to advertise short news from your project via the newsletter.
• Your project and project news will be promoted via the social media channels of Österreich forscht. We are also happy to promote the project's own social media channels via the corresponding handles. If you do not have your own social media channels, a campaign for your project can also be carried out on Facebook or Twitter in cooperation with Österreich forscht.
• Use of the Österreich forscht-blog: As a project listed on Österreich forscht, you have the possibility to independently publish posts on the blog without them having to be approved in advance by the blog's moderators. You can also create your own project team on the blog, which allows several people to publish blog posts on behalf of your project (this is very helpful if you have several project members who all want to share information from your project). This team can also be subscribed to by your citizen scientists, i.e. they will then receive an automatic email as soon as you publish a new blog post in the team. The blog posts are of course also promoted via social media and the newsletter. You can interact directly with your citizen scientists through the comment function in the blog. Every registered user can also rate your blog posts.
• You can publish project updates once a year in the annual performance report of Österreich forscht. This performance report is published on Österreich forscht and sent to all project coordinators on Österreich forscht and the representatives of all partner institutions in the Citizen Science Network Austria.
• Participation in events (co-)organised by Österreich forscht: Österreich forscht organises several events every year and offers special advantages to the projects, such as exclusive access.

If you are in the process of submitting a funding proposal for your project idea to a funding body, we will of course be happy to support you with a Letter of Support or Letter of Interest, if you would like to have your project listed on Österreich forscht after successful funding. Please note that for being listed you must also fulfil the quality criteria for Citizen Science projects on Österreich forscht.

How does the listing process work?

The first step is to determine whether the project meets the quality criteria for citizen science projects on Österreich forscht. To do this, you have to fill in this questionnaire. This questionnaire also contains FAQs on individual questions and of course all answers can be saved (in this case, please make sure you write down the password you use to save the incomplete form, as it is unfortunately not possible to recover the password). The questionnaire is only available in German, because we would need a German text for the evaluation. Attention: since the 10.02.2025, the Quality Criteria Catalogue version 1.2 is in force and all questions can also be viewed in advance on Zenodo. The questions correspond to the quality criteria.

Once the questionnaire has been completely filled in and sent to us, it will be examined by us as coordinators of Österreich forscht and, if necessary, also reviewed by members of the working group for quality criteria. If some answers are unclear or do not correspond to the criteria, we will contact the project management and give tips on how the criteria can be fulfilled. The questionnaire is then revised again by the project management and sent back to us. This process is deliberately designed as a dialogue and not as a classic application system. This means that the questionnaire can be filled in and resubmitted until all criteria have been met.

After a positive conclusion of the quality criteria process, we send an e-mail to the project management detailing exactly which contents we can present on Österreich forscht. This includes a project description, pictures, videos, and links to project websites or social media channels. After we have received this content from the project management, we compile it into a project page. Before the project is advertised via the Österreich forscht-channels, the project management can check all contents again and give the final OK.

If you have any questions about this listing process, please send us an email to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. We are looking forward to getting in contact with you!

The project Pilzdaten-Austria.eu aims at a comprehensive documentation of the occurrence and distribution of fungi in Austria, and to present and evaluate the available data. It is an Austria-wide cooperation of numerous mycologists, citizen scientists and institutions, which collect distribution data of fungi or hold collections of fungal specimens, coordinated by the Austrian Mycological Society.

The freely accessible online database Pilzdaten-Austria.eu continues the previous Bio-Office database of Austria's mushrooms and allows to view dynamic maps of more than 16,500 fungal species from almost 68,800 localities and to download the more than 777.000 records as tables according to various selection criteria and sorting. In addition to location and collection date, many reports contain notes on habitats and substrates, on the identification and documentation of the mushroom as well as the source of the stored data. Hints on further data sources, constructive comments as well as suggestions for further improvents of the Mushroom Data Austria are welcome. New reports of finds are checked before they are fed into the system.

Cooperation, especially the communication of mushroom findings, is explicitly desired. Everyone can contribute to the expansion by uploading their own finds (individual records or excel lists) and photos. You can also take part offline. To do this, take photos of the mushrooms, make a note of the accompanying trees and possibly collect a fruiting body for identification. The finds can then be brought to Rennweg 14, 1030 Vienna on Mondays from 5-7 pm.

The web pages also contain Latin and German names of the mushrooms recorded in the database as well as an indication of the degree of endangerment. Many species of fungi are also presented with pictures A considerable number of observations on the occurrence of fungal species are reported by amateur mycologists. Citizen scientists throughout Austria are thus making a significant contribution to the project's success with their fungal data.

Participation in the database project, especially the communication of fungal findings, is welcome. Please do not hesitate to contact us.

On request the raw data will be made available to interested persons. Please contact us via our contact form.

Podcast episode

If you would like to learn more, you can listen to the Wissen macht Leute podcast episode about the project (in German). More information can be found here.

Photo gallery

• Amanita regalis Amanita regalis
• Cortinarius subtortus Cortinarius subtortus
• Cortinarius sanguineus Cortinarius sanguineus
• Sparassis brevipes Sparassis brevipes
• Macrocystidia cucumis Macrocystidia cucumis
• Geastrum triplex Geastrum triplex
• Ganoderma Ganoderma
• Irmgard taking a photo Irmgard taking a photo
•  

This project fulfils version 1.1 of the quality criteria for citizen science projects on Österreich forscht.

Knowledge about citizen science can be acquired online as well as at various institutions in many different learning formats. In addition to universities, which present the basic methods of citizen science in various courses, there are also further education opportunities offered by associations or networks. Since such continuing education opportunities are developing very dynamically, please contact your institution directly or write to us if we should send you any offers.

The Citizen Science Association regularly offers webinars in English on specific topics in citizen science which are conducted by experts in their respective fields in a very professional manner.

Another option for finding out and learning more about citizen science is books and publications. We have provided a small selection of these here:

• "Popular knowledge - from 19th century amateur research to today's citizen science - an approach" (2023, in German): On the initiative of Österreich forscht and under the guidance of the editor Dr Christian Stifter, 29 authors* from a wide range of Austrian institutions, including associations, universities, authorities and museums, have reviewed the history of citizen science in Austria from the 19th century to the present day. Since this history of "lay research" in Austria is so incredibly diverse, the 17 chapters can only be an approximation. There is also a short review in German on Österreich forscht.
  
  
• The Science of Citizen Science (2021): An anthology resulting from a COST Action on citizen science summarises many different aspects of citizen science from a European perspective and presents them in 26 chapters. The book was illustrated by our partner SPOTTERON. The book is written in English and available free of charge as a pdf. A summary of the book in German can be found in Katrin Vohland's blog post.

• Citizen Science: Innovation in Open Science, Society and Policy (2018): This anthology offers an impressive overview of citizen science in Europe in English and can be downloaded for free. Österreich forscht also gives a short review of this book in a blog entry. 

• Citizen Science Terminology Matters: Exploring Key Terms (2017): This overview article (also in English) deals with different terms used to describe citizen science and the people involved in it. The article is available for free. Österreich forscht also gives a short review of this in a blog entry.
  
  
• What is citizen science? (2016): What is to be considered in planning and implementation and what examples or recommendations are there for this? These are the questions dealt with in the handbook "citizen science for All". It is a publication of the platform Bürger Schaffen Wissen (GEWISS), in which the experiences of 31 authors are incorporated. This publication is also available for free and we have written a review of it.
  
  
• Citizen Science – Public Participation in Environmental Science (2012): This book in English offers a good first introduction to the topic and tries to inform on a broad basis, but remains very focused on the U.S. American area. As the title suggests, the authors of this book deal with citizen science in the environmental sciences, thus excluding the humanities and social sciences. Österreich forscht also gives a short review of this in a blog entry.

In addition, there are also many collections of guidelines and tools for citizen science projects. The most extensive collection is offered by the European Citizen Science Association on its platform and on EU-Citizen.Science. On EU-Citizen.Science there are also a number of online citizen science training courses that focus on different aspects of citizen science. We have tested some of them and present them in the following blog posts:

• Introduction to Citizen Science
• Citizen Science Typologies
• Designing for Learning through Citizen Science
• Leading a 'Train the Trainer' Workshop
• Citizen Science Projects: How to make a difference (Part 1)
• Storytelling for Citizen Science

If you need information or literature on a specific topic and cannot find it here, don't hesitate to contact us at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..