About the CROPS Project
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The CROPS project (Curating, Replicating, Orchestrating, and Propagating Citizen Science across Europe) is a European initiative dedicated to understanding how citizen science can scale responsibly while remaining grounded in participatory values, ethical practice, and societal relevance.
Citizen science projects frequently face questions about growth, sustainability, influence, replication, and institutional engagement. However, scaling in citizen science is rarely a straightforward process. While some initiatives seek broader reach or policy impact, others prioritise strengthening participation, deepening local relationships, improving governance, or consolidating existing activities. CROPS recognises that meaningful scaling may involve many different pathways and that remaining local may, in some contexts, represent a responsible and intentional choice.
Drawing on research and practical collaboration across Europe, CROPS explores scaling as a multidimensional and non-linear process shaped by social, institutional, technical, ethical, and contextual factors. Rather than promoting expansion as an inherent goal, the project encourages citizen science practitioners to make deliberate, reflective, and context-sensitive decisions about how their initiatives evolve over time.
Through collaboration between researchers, practitioners, intermediaries, and citizen science organisations, CROPS has developed a range of practical tools and resources designed to support more informed scaling decisions. These include the Scalability Assessment Framework, protocols for scaling citizen science (forthcoming), stakeholder engagement guidance, sustainability and funding strategies, and practical scaling resources that help projects reflect on opportunities, limitations, and trade-offs.
Further information about the CROPS project can be found at: https://www.crops-cs.eu/