Evaluation is a core management instrument and part of many scientific projects. Evaluation can be approached from several different angles, with distinct objectives in mind. In any project, we can evaluate the project process and the scientific outcomes, but with citizen science this does not go far enough. We need to additionally evaluate the effects of projects on the participants themselves and on society at large. While citizen science itself is still in evolution, we should aim to capture and understand the multiple traces it leaves in its direct and broader environment. Considering that projects often have limited resources for evaluation, we need to bundle existing knowledge and experiences on how to best assess citizen science initiatives and continually learn from this assessment. What should we concentrate on when we evaluate citizen science projects and programmes? What are current practices and what are we lacking? Are we really targeting the most relevant aspects of citizen science with our current evaluation approaches?

This is the first version of the White Paper Citizen Science Strategy 2030 for Germany. This version is out for consultation from 8/8/21-30/9/2021 and will then be revised with received comments and reviews accordingly. Consultation website: www.citizen-science-weissbuch.de

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One of the central goals of Citizen Science (CS) is to provide individual benefits for participants, such as promoting interest as well as building knowledge (effects on personal characteristics). There is an increasing number of empirical studies that investigate how participants benefit from CS in terms of increased knowledge. Since the question of what benefits participants can derive from CS also relates to the motto of the Austrian Citizen Science Conference 2022, parts of this manuscript were presented in a talk. To enable generalizable conclusions about the effect of CS on the participants' knowledge, we summarize the results of those studies systematically and their results are reflected against the background of their research designs.