Stakeholders in environmental citizen science and the benefits of partnership

The voices of stakeholders in citizen science have often been neglected within the academic literature. This research addresses facilitator stakeholders who have the expertise to support citizen science growth as well as advocate citizen science in a range of fields, particularly policy, academia, industry and education. Qualitative methods were used to interview UK citizen science stakeholders about their opinions and experiences of working in partnership with other stakeholder groups. The interviews of 26 stakeholders were analysed using template thematic analysis. The interviewees identified 22 different stakeholder groups that they partnered with and recognised collaboration as important for their citizen science project to achieve its full potential. Benefits associated with collaborations revolve around five categories: project management, sharing of information, leading positive change, creating connections and advertisement of the organisation. This research should be seen as an introduction to wider stakeholder collaboration in citizen science projects and a recognition of the need for further research on this topic