The UCL Citizen Science Academy offers high-quality, practice-based education and training programmes to equip people with research knowledge and practical skills to get involved in social action and local decision-making.  

The project has seen programmes on Prosperity in East London 2021-2031, and a project to inform the design of an inclusive innovation hub at UCL East’s Meanwhile Use site. This project draws on insights from interviews with local entrepreneurs in Carpenters Road, Chobham Manor and East Village, as well as ethnographic observations of local spaces.

Local participants can work towards the UCL Citizen Science Certificate. Launched in May 2023, the certificate recognises the research and team-working competencies citizen scientists acquire such as research methods, ethics, fieldwork strategies, how to code and analyse data, communication and dissemination strategies. The courses taught include core competency domains that are relevant to all citizen science research projects as well as course-specific competency domains that can be adapted to the specific method each research project requires.  

On the same campus UCL has Trellis, a multistage art commissioning programme that aims to bring together artists, UCL researchers and local east London communities to co-create work together. Now on its fifth set of commissions, the next set of projects explore everything from neurodiversity in the environment to the dynamics of meeting in the Olympic Park.