Researchers from the University of Nottingham are looking for people who have ever been involved in a citizen science project investigating a topic related to mental health, to take part in a consultation.
Citizen science is a new approach within mental health research, and there is some debate about what makes it a distinctive approach. Researchers are investigating whether there is consensus on the key features which make a project a mental health citizen science project, rather than other participatory kinds of mental health research.
Mike Slade, Professor of Mental Health Recovery & Social Inclusion in the School of Medicine at the University, said: "A citizen science approach has the potential to be transformative for mental health research, as an innovative approach to creating new knowledge based on lived experience at a larger scale than previously possible."
This public consultation will confirm the key features of the approach, enabling us to build a community of researchers and citizen scientists with shared ideals, who will help to shape the future direction of this exciting field.
You can take part in this consultation if you are aged 18+ and have been involved with a mental health citizen science project either as a public contributor (someone who contributes information to a project) or as a project lead (someone involved in designing or running a project).
You will be asked to complete Round 1 of the consultation by completing an online survey (link below), which should take no more than 20 minutes. You'll also be asked to provide informed consent and some demographic information about yourself. Once this has been processed, you will then be contacted by email to invite you to participate in subsequent rounds.
You can find more information about mental health citizen science here and about the citizen science study here.
The deadline for submission is 23 April 2025. The link to the consultation is here
