Project

Reshaping Citizen Science for Nature Connectedness and Well-being

Active project

2026

Project contacts

Smriti Safaya / smriti.safaya@york.ac.ukSarah West / sarah.west@sei.org

This project addresses key research gaps in understanding which specific aspects of a citizen science project can lead to nature connections. Over 8 months, we are bringing together people from the UK and France, across the diverse disciplines of citizen science, biodiversity, education, behavioural psychology and more, to build on nascent research in this field.

The project involves a 2-day Springboard meeting in York, a 4-day placement in York and a 4-day placement in Paris, to explore the topic of citizen science and nature connection and collaborate on new resources and funding proposals.

As well as sharing our findings through the academic literature, we will produce a good-practice guide for citizen science practitioners, to help them implement pathways to nature connection more intentionally and effectively in their projects. With these outputs, we aim to strengthen experiential environmental education pedagogy for more effective teaching and learning in both formal and informal educational settings and for public engagement with nature-based citizen science projects.

We will also leverage this burgeoning network to develop proposals for further research that considers human and environmental health.

Related work

Team members Smriti Safaya, Babette van Gerwen and Cléa Montanari presented a poster on Citizen Science and Nature Connectedness at ECSA26, sharing findings from an exploratory review of citizen science and nature connectedness literature, alongside examples of projects that intentionally emphasize relational experiences with nature.

Placement at SEI York

October 2026

During this placement we managed to come together and better understand what were the aims of the good practice guide we would be creating as a main project output. It was amazing to see the convergence of ideas with an end result being a consensus on the way of working towards the creation of the guide. Being in York for 4 days meant we enjoyed great conversation over scones and pies, and participated in an amazing folkloric walk about trees at York St John University as part of the York Environment Festival, which fueled further discussions about nature connection. Thank you to SEI York for the beautiful welcome off and on campus.

The French team

This York placement really hit home how powerful in-person collaboration and exchange is, especially in contrast with so much work that happens online. Experiencing creative modes like collaging and walking stories accentuated the value of experiential engagement, which is the major theme we will be developing in the guide. The upcoming Paris placement for Smriti Safaya and Babette van Gerwen will further the creation of this guide as we learn from conversations with researchers and citizen science organisers at the Natural History Museum in Paris. A croissant or two will, no doubt, help energise us along this journey!

Smriti Safaya, SEI York