A citizen science partner who stays beyond launch
Pocket Science joins research and innovation projects as a substantive technology and outreach partner. We build the participant-facing software and research infrastructure, help attract and welcome participants, and can support the resulting community for years. We work worldwide, with particular experience in European funded programmes.
Research technology often fails when software is treated as a final communication deliverable instead of part of the method. By the time developers are invited, the participant workflow, data model, validation route and long-term operation may already have been promised without technical ownership.
Pocket Science contributes earlier and remains responsible for an agreed technical outcome.
What we bring to a consortium
Our role can span technical delivery, outreach strategy, participant onboarding, communication, community hosting, end-user support and long-term operation. Researchers work with one partner across the public experience and the system behind it.
- Participant-facing applications
Mobile and web workflows for observation, measurement, classification and feedback. - Scientific sensing
Phone cameras, sensors, connected hardware, calibration and processing. - Research infrastructure
Production backends, APIs, data pipelines, maps and administrative tools. - Co-design
Practical translation between researchers, participants, field partners and engineering. - Open science
FAIR workflows, interoperability and EOSC-oriented service delivery where appropriate. - Operational continuity
Deployment, maintenance and a responsible route beyond a prototype demonstration.
Shaping future citizen science infrastructure
Pocket Science has been invited to provide expert review and panel input for the Project Charter of the planned EOSC Citizen Science Node. We aim to help establish and contribute services to one of the first EOSC citizen-science nodes. The Charter process precedes a future EOSC Federation membership application, so we describe this as an active ambition rather than an established node status.
Relevant programme experience
Horizon 2020 COS4CLOUD
Pocket Science contributed software, backend and research work to interoperable citizen-science services associated with the European Open Science Cloud. Public programme record: grant 863463.
Horizon 2020 MONOCLE
The team developed mobile and low-cost sensing technology for water-quality observation and contributed to open-system delivery, processing work, documentation and international field deployment. Public programme record: grant 776480.
Worldwide work, specific funding knowledge
Pocket Science works worldwide with universities, research institutes and international consortia. Horizon Europe and EOSC are specific areas of experience, not geographic limits on our availability. We can also contribute to directly funded research, foundation-supported programmes and other national or international collaborations.
Beyond the four-year grant
Funded projects often last three or four years; useful applications, datasets and participant communities rarely fit that boundary neatly. Pocket Science helps consortia plan the post-project owner, hosting and support model, app-store continuity, data stewardship, community communication and a realistic funding or transfer route.
Continuation is not always the correct answer. Where a service should close, we plan a responsible ending for participants, data and institutional knowledge instead of letting the app quietly decay.
Long-term institutional relationships
Some collaborations begin with a build and continue through a multi-year support contract. Others are established through a memorandum of understanding (MoU) around shared research interests, future proposals, scientific validation or continuing technical cooperation. An MoU creates a collaboration framework; funded development, hosting, support levels and delivery obligations are scoped separately.
Long-term arrangements preserve operational knowledge, keep apps and infrastructure current, and give both researchers and Pocket Science a clear route for the next campaign, proposal or technical development.
A credible role in the proposal
We help define technical objectives, dependencies, risks, milestones, deliverables and effort for the work we may actually perform. Funding is never guaranteed, and participation does not create unlimited unpaid design work. Substantive proposal development and implementation are agreed with clear scope, responsibilities and rights.
What to send us
Share the call or funding context, research objective, intended participants, method, existing partners and systems, expected technical role and submission timeline. Early contact is valuable when the project still has room to align scientific ambition with credible delivery.