Survey on the social impact of the citizen science in the projects LIFE MIPP and InNat

The present dataset consists in a sociological survey addressed to the volunteers involved in MIPP and InNat projects, a citizen science initiative aimed at the collection of distribution data of protected species and habitats all over Italian national territory. In particular, two different files are provided: 

the original survey (questions and answers) addressed to the volunteers in Italian

the English translation of the questionnaire 

The survey covers different topics: socio-demographic data (section 1), opinions on the role of volunteering in a citizen science project (section 2), possible previous citizen science experience (section 3), test on the acquired skills on the monitored insect species with MIPP/InNat (section 4), opinions concerning the ecological crisis and the trust in the ability of humankind to solve environmental issues (section 5), possibility to be further contacted for additional interviews (section 6).

A total of 364 completed questionnaires have been collected and relative results are provided here. Moreover, the above-mentioned results are  thoroughly investigated and analysed in a scientific paper which also explores drivers that might keep volunteers active in a biodiversity monitoring project. Indeed, the engagement of volunteers in citizen science projects is a remarkable issue to address in order to ensure long-term sustainability, scientific relevance and public participation.

The MIPP/InNat initiative started in 2012, with the project MIPP “Monitoring of insects with public participation” (LIFE11 NAT/IT/000252) which ended in 2017, and was then continued by the InNat project thanks to Italian National fundings. Data gathered in both projects converged in the same database. This research was supported by the National Recovery and Resilience Plan (NRRP), Mission 4 Component 2 Investment 1.4 - Call for tender No. 3138 of 16 December 2021, rectified by Decree n.3175 of 18 December 2021 of Italian Ministry of University and Research funded by the European Union – 1034 of 17 June 2022 adopted by the Italian Ministry of University and Research, CUP B83D21014060006, Project title “National Biodiversity Future Center” – NBFC.