When citizens do science: an overview of public participation in scientific research in Italy,

Over the recent years citizens have had the opportunity to play a valuable role in contributing to projects conducted in collaboration with universities, government agencies and NGOs. Such initiatives have become increasingly popular and have been given various terms, including citizen science, volunteer monitoring, public participatory research. These initiatives are diverse and don’t necessarily require the involvement of the academia. There are worldwide numerous inspiring local projects on land and resources monitoring thanks to the cooperation of citizens, communities and committees. Our goal is to give an overview of the entire landscape of Public Participation in Scientific Research (PPSR) in Italy. A questionnaire has been subjected first of all to international opinion leaders and then to the coordinators of the various Italian participatory projects through the use of social media, blog, email and interviews. The required information concerned the essence of the project, the discipline area, the organisation and the nature of the involvement of volunteers. The results show a growing development of partecipative activities, still with a strong prevalence of projects in strictly natural areas, while are lacking the contributions on other disciplines. Besides most of the projects are yet characterized by a top-down approach for citizens' participation.