Citizen Science Home

Overview

Click to view in Welsh

Citizen science and volunteer-led environmental monitoring have grown significantly in recent years. At a time when public sector budgets are under pressure and resources are limited, it has become increasingly important for NRW to look outward, explore alternative data collection approaches, and collaborate with organisations and volunteer groups where appropriate.  Citizen scientists play a vital role in caring for Wales’s natural environment. They are often the “boots on the ground”, spending significant time in their local areas and undertaking regular monitoring. This work generates valuable information that can complement NRW’s own evidence needs.  

NRW recognises the importance of making effective use of these efforts. Citizen science is not a replacement for NRW's statutory responsibilities; however, it can provide additional context, help fill spatial or temporal gaps in our monitoring, and strengthen our understanding of the condition of Wales natural resources.  

NRW aims to have a consistent approach across all areas and domains, ensuring that collaboration is fair, evidence-focused, and aligned with NRW’s statutory responsibilities and evidence needs.

We are currently prioritising the following activity areas: 

• Supporting evidence focused projects that align with NRWs evidence needs.

• Encouraging high quality, well designed and structured data collection that can meaningfully contribute to our work.

• Providing consistent clear engagement with citizen science groups across Wales.  

How to collaborate with NRW

The Citizen Science Collaboration Request Form is the route for groups who wish to work directly with NRW. This includes requests for staff time, technical advice, data use or formal partnership arrangements. This is replacing the previous Partnership Proposal application process. Citizen Science collaboration request form

For groups who simply want to share information about their monitoring activities, we have also introduced a Citizen Science Project Register. This form allows groups to submit details of their work without requesting collaboration. The register will help NRW build a clearer picture of citizen science activity across Wales and identify opportunities for future engagement.Project information register

Limitations to NRW’s Engagement

Citizen Science can play an important role in reporting pollution incidents, and we value this contribution. Please continue to report pollution which can be clearly seen or smelled through our incident hotline - Natural Resources Wales / Report an environmental incident .

More broadly NRW follows our pollution response protocol Natural Resources Wales / A new approach to how we respond to pollution incidents, which is aligned with other UK agency and regulators. All engagement with citizen science work will be in line with this policy. 

Please note that it is unlikely NRW will enter into partnerships where citizen science water quality data is collected to trigger immediate pollution response or enforcement action beyond NRW’s normal incident response procedures. See: Natural Resources Wales / A new approach to how we respond to pollution incidents

NRW agreeing to a citizen science partnership does not exempt any group or individual outside of NRW from their responsibility to request and obtain all necessary permissions, including but not limited to land access and any relevant licences.