Volunteers Recruitment, Retention, and Performance during the CSMON-LIFE (Citizen Science MONitoring) Project and 3 Years of Follow-Up

Abstract

Volunteers’ contribution to research is growing, especially since the beginning of the 21st century. Given the constant increase of Citizen Science initiatives, recruiting strategies have to be planned properly. Retention is pivotal as well, especially when time is invested in volunteers’ training. However, practically no follow-up data are available on retention after major Citizen Science initiatives. CSMON-LIFE (Citizen Science MONitoring) was a 42-month project (2014–2017) funded by the European Commission in the framework of the LIFE+ programme (LIFE13 ENV/IT/842). It aimed at increasing awareness on Citizen Science among citizens, researchers, and decision makers in Italy. During CSMON-LIFE, recruitment was based on extensive awareness raising actions on different media. In total, 5558 volunteers were engaged in different field activities during the project and its follow-up. They gathered a total of 30062 geo-referenced observations, each with an image of the reported organism. Their activities were organized in campaigns, each devoted to a different topic. This study aims at investigating volunteers’ performance and retention in the funded period of CSMON-LIFE (December 2014–November 2017) and in its after-LIFE follow-up period (December 2017–November 2020), for a total of 72 months.

Volunteers are not Volunteering to Sacrifice their Objectives

“…Therefore, organizations are advised to scan employee objectives at the time of their recruitment (Arshad et al, 2022). Furthermore, researchers are also convinced that when the learning objectives of volunteers do not match with the workplace environment, it stimulates their dissatisfaction and turnover intention (Martellos et al, 2021;Walk, Handy, & Schinnenburg, 2013), whereas contented volunteers prefer to remain with organizations (Welty Peachey, Lyras, Cohen, Bruening, & Cunningham, 2014). Therefore, to meet the growing social service needs of society, volunteering organizations have started to perceive the objectives of offering volunteering services to keep them motivated (Robinsons et al, 2021).…”

Lobaria pulmonaria (L.) Hoffm.: The Multifaceted Suitability of the Lung Lichen to Monitor Forest Ecosystems

“…Finally, L. pulmonaria is also viewed as a flagship species, thus capable of attracting a wider audience than insiders [25]. It may seem strange to consider a lichen as a charismatic species, but some projects have confirmed its effectiveness in environmental dissemination and education by improving public awareness on the issues of sustainable forest management, air pollution, and biodiversity conservation (see, e.g., the lichen campaigns included in the CSMON-LIFE project LIFE13 ENV/IT/842 [26]).…”