This is a selection of resources related to the current COVID19 pandemic. It contains links to citizen science and crowdsourcing projects that might be of interest to:
- citizens wanting to help tackle the virus
- researchers looking for support during interruptions to their fieldwork
- parents looking for ideas to support children who are homeschooling
- anyone looking for useful ways to fill their time while self-isolating.
This list was initiated by the CSA and includes inputs from ACSA, CitizenScience.Asia, ECSA and RICAP. This is not an exhaustive list, and we will add new links in the coming weeks.
Get involved with efforts to track the COVID 19 virus
The citizen science app ‘CoronaReport’ for social science, led by the University of Edinburgh, will be ready soon. Get your app invite now at coronareport.global.
Flusurvey has been adapted to monitor community prevalence and trend of symptoms related of the novel coronavirus. The system will capture additional information about possible community acquired covid-19 using self reported respiratory symptoms reported on the platform.
@flusurvey
Influmeter, the Danish part of Influenzanet, is based on voluntary efforts by citizens who, regardless of whether they have sought medical attention or received treatment, report weekly on whether they have had symptoms and thus contribute to knowledge about dissemination in the community. Everyone who lives in Denmark can join the Influmeter.
Operation COVID19 is a project to track, mobilise and prevent the spread of coronavirus-19 to save lives and improve global public health systems, and also has a Facebook Group.
The NHS in the UK has a symptoms checker with advice, that might also be tracking that data https://111.nhs.uk/covid-19
TrackTogether in the UK is a not-for-profit survey on contact tracking.
A new Israeli initiative to track and monitor Coronavirus outbreak “hotspaces” using citizen science has been set up in Israel.
CoronAPP is a questionnaire in Danish on physical and mental health and well-being in relation to the coronavirus situation.
Corona-land (in English and Danish) provides a ‘before and after’ survey for the effects of using an interactive coronavirus simulator. The simulator can also be used as an educational tool on its own, with tutorials on social distancing, hospital capacity and what people can do to help.
TraceTogether is an app launched by the Singapore government that uses a community-driven approach to identify close contacts of users.
FluTracking is a surveillance system to detect and monitor the spread of influenza in Australia and New Zealand. By taking part, you’ll not only be contributing to scientific research, you will be helping to track influenza in your local community and nationwide.
@Flutrack
Flu Near You has launched a new initiative called CovidNearYou to help track corona symptoms in the US and Canada.
@COVIDNearYou
Quantifiedflu, a new citizen science project that allows people to report past illnesses or to track symptoms going forward in case of illness, in order to investigate if the various physiological parameters tracked by our wearables help to predict when we’re getting sick.
Resources for educators and those currently home schooling
Zooniverse has hundreds of projects in which young people can collaborate on real science research.
@the_zooniverse
MapWorks Learning has set up Assembly Point, an online collaboration space where educators can find resources, pose questions, and share answers with each other on how best to provide a nurturing, engaging online learning experience for their students.
QuestaGame are offering to create a free QuestaGame team (in-game clan) for every school, anywhere in the world. team (in-game clan) for every school, anywhere in the world. Contact the team to register your school. Your kids don’t need to be at school to play for their school – and they’re participating in citizen science at the same time.
The National Science Foundation has created a list of seven NSF-supported STEM Resources Perfect for Home Learning
Discover Magazine has shared articles with ideas for home schooling during periods of self-isolation: Cooped Up at Home? Seven Ways to Take Part in Online Science Projects and These STEM Resources Can Help with At-home Science Learning
Globe at Night is an international citizen-science program that people can do from their backyards. It is now preparing for virtual involvement with the International Dark Sky Week, Citizen Science Month and Global Astronomy Month (both in April) and the International Day of Light on 16 May.
@GLOBEatNight
Other useful citizen science resources
Citizen Science Month is still taking place but in-person events are transitioning to virtual events. If you’re planning an event or would like to learn how to plan a virtual event, you’re welcome to join Science Friday and SciStarter for a free webinar on Wednesday at 2pm ET (“Host or Facilitate Remote, Live-Streamed Citizen Science Events in a Pinch”).
There is a regularly updated wiki of COVID-19 Open Innovation Resources that people can use or comment on.
Other resources that might be of use and interest to researchers include:
- Georgetown COVID-19 Open Research Dataset
- Coronavirus Tech Handbook
- NIH Literature Hub Curated Collection on COVID19
- COVID-19 Projects Tracker
- Covid-19 Data Tracker for State Data (USA)
- Scientific Knowledge Services COVID-19
- The NSF Cyberinfrastructure Center of Excellence Pilot, Trusted CI, and the Science Gateways Community Institute are all available to help the science community tackle research to address the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) outbreak. To request assistance, please send an email to covid19@trustedci.org
- Corona Papers Unlocked: Open archive of research articles mentioning coronavirus (COVID-19 and other coronaviruses)
- COVID-19 research tracker for social scientists
Thanks to the following for their contributions:
Andrew Robinson, Ann Borda, Calvin Cupini, Darlene Cavalier, Gitte Kragh, Jennifer Lynn Shirk, Jessie Oliver, Kit Mathew, Lea Shanley, MapWorks Learning Team, Margaret Gold, Robert Stevenson, Samantha Rowbotham, Sophia B. Liu, Sven Schade, Tiberius Ignat, Tim Woods, Yaela N. Golumbic