Citizen Science Collaboration Request Form

Overview

Click to view in Welsh

Citizen science is expanding in Wales and NRW are keen to support project that align with our evidence needs. If you are looking for collaboration or advice from NRW or access to NRW resources, this form helps us understand your project and allows us to provide a consistent approach to all citizen science involvement across the organisation.

Please note funding requests to NRW need to go through the grants process and not through this form. NRW grants and funding opportunities are detailed here (Natural Resources Wales / Grants and funding). If requesting a grant for a citizen science project, it would still be beneficial to complete this form for the nonfinancial contributions from NRW in regard to the project.

If you are not seeking support and simply want to share information about your project, please complete the citizen science information form here Citizen Science Project Register

Why we require this form

Our staff receive many requests from citizen science groups to collaborate on projects and we want to make sure they are all considered in a fair and consistent way. Unfortunately, we may not be able to collaborate on every project.

The information you provide helps us:

• Understand your project and what you are hoping to achieve
• Assess how your work aligns with our evidence needs
• Identify whether, and how, NRW can provide meaningful support, enabling us to prioritise projects and allocate staff time/resources appropriately

This is not a competitive process, and all requests are considered independently.

Who can submit citizen science partnership proposals?

Anyone running or planning a citizen science project within Wales.

What kinds of proposals are NRW looking for?

We are interested in collaborating with citizen science projects that are:

• Well designed with clear aims/questions
• Meet our evidence needs. Which can be found here:
  • Natural Resources Wales / Area Statements
  • Natural Resources Wales / SoNaRR 2025 evidence needs
  • UKEOF-guide-to-citizen-science.pdf

What we are not able to collaborate with

To ensure consistency, fairness and priorities of our limited resources we must priorities work that aligns with our evidence needs.

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 .

Please bear in mind that it is unlikely NRW will enter into partnerships where citizen science water quality data is collected to trigger immediate pollution response or enforcement activity over and above NRW normal incident response procedures. See: Natural Resources Wales / A new approach to how we respond to pollution incidents

Natural Resources Wales / Report an environmental incident

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.

These boundaries help ensure that our engagement with citizen science remains focused, transparent, and aligned with NRW’s statutory responsibilities.

What happens after I submit this form?

Your application will be reviewed by our citizen science advisor alongside a range of topic specialists internally. Once approved the response will be returned to you via email, to the address you provide on the form.

We aim to respond to your request within six weeks. 

If you have any questions on the form and process please get in touch with our External data and Citizen Science Advisor at ceisiadaugd@cyfoethnaturiolcymru.gov.uk