WHAT WE’VE LEARNED OVER THE YEARS

Since expanding Citizen Science Day into Citizen Science Month in 2020, we’ve continued to grow and evolve. Along the way, we’ve developed foundational training to support both citizen scientists and facilitators, welcomed global partners to join the movement, and expanded our library network to create a thousand community hubs for citizen science around the world. Each April, we’ve pushed the boundaries of what citizen scientists can achieve—shining a spotlight on projects of all kinds and celebrating collective impact.

In 2024, for example, our partners Unique Mappers of Nigeria contributed 19,000 Acts of Science to a project using Open Map Data to help governments and humanitarian organizations better respond to vulnerable flood-prone communities. In 2025, 425 events were registered—ranging from one-hour sprints to multi-day efforts—resulting in project leaders reporting a surge of new energy and participation in their work.

Beyond the numbers, summative evaluation conducted by Arizona State University’s CREST Team in 2024 found that participants, project scientists and facilitators all benefit from Citizen Science Month and SciStarter’s support, from increasing understanding of citizen science, to feeling more confident in engaging in projects, to better understanding how people from all walks of life can play an active role in science, it’s clear that Citizen Science Month makes a difference. Read the full report: Citizen Science Month 2024 Summative Evaluation.

Check out our blog posts from 2024 and 2025 showcasing our favorite outcomes and watch our celebration reel from our first One Million Acts of Science!

Founding PARTNERS

SciStarter.org is the place to find, join, and contribute to science by providing people access to more than 2,000 searchable formal and informal citizen science research projects and events. The SciStarter website also offers a dashboard or coordinated place for members to track and earn credit for contributions across citizen science projects and platforms. More than 200,000 people are registered members of the SciStarter community. The SciStarter team includes educators, faculty, librarians, programmers, instructional designers, communicators, and scientists, all focused on improving the citizen science experience for everyone.

Arizona State University School for the Future of Innovation in Society (SFIS) is a transdisciplinary unit at the vanguard of ASU’s commitment to linking innovation to public value. SFIS pursues a vision of responsible innovation that anticipates challenges and opportunities, integrates diverse knowledge and perspectives, and engages broad audiences. By examining the ways we translate imagination into innovation — and how we blend technical and social concerns along the way — SFIS aims to build a future for everyone.

Thanks to support over the years from the National Institutes of Health, the National Library of Medicine, and the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, SciStarter and Arizona State University have scaled the program globally, supported a network of more than 1,000 public libraries, and increased the public’s awareness of and engagement in scientific research.