Citizen Science is research carried out by members of the public who volunteer to collect scientific data. Citizen science driven monitoring platforms have grown in popularity over the years. There are several national citizen science-driven monitoring platforms, and they include:

1. Ireland’s Citizen Science Portal – managed by the National Biodiversity Data Centre’s Ireland’s Citizen Science Portal encourages volunteers to record any animal or plant species they find via an app or directly through the Citizen Science Portal webpage. All records are available to view on the portal and recorders also have the opportunity to take part in a recorder league. The number of records submitted to Ireland’s Citizen Science Portal has almost trebled since 2016 (61,000 records in 2016 vs 169,000 records in 2022). For more information, please visit: https://records.biodiversityireland.ie/

2. MothsIreland - MothsIreland aim to create awareness of moth recording in Ireland. Their website contains photographs, distribution maps, flight charts and record submissions. Since 2016, MothsIreland have received an average of 75,500 records each year from citizen scientists. Please note that at time of publication not all records for 2022 had been received. For more information on MothsIreland please visit: http://www.mothsireland.com/

3. BirdTrack – BirdTrack looks at migration movements and distributions of birds throughout Britain and Ireland. Volunteers simply track the birds they identify during their bird watching events and log the information on the BirdTrack website. Since 2016, an average of 56,000 records have been submitted annually by citizen scientists. For more information on BirdTrack please visit: https://www.bto.org/our-science/projects/birdtrack/about

4. Irish Whale and Dolphin Group – The Irish Whale and Dolphin Group (IWDG) encourage volunteers to record both sightings and strandings of whale and dolphin species through their website. The numbers of records submitted to the IWDG has almost doubled since 2016 (1,627 in 2016 v 2,922 in 2022). For more information please visit: https://iwdg.ie/

5. Botanical Society of Britain and Ireland - Botanical Society of Britain and Ireland (BSBI) has been promoting the study and understanding of British and Irish botany since 1836. They encourage volunteers to submit records of wild plants across Britain and Ireland and have collected 208,000 records on across the island of Ireland average per year since 2016. Figures pre-2020 are much higher than post-2020 figures due to increased momentum for updating records and increasing coverage for the Atlas 2020 project. For more information please visit: https://bsbi.org/