Citizen Science Incubator

Our initiative to turn NC State's campus into an incubator for participatory science projects that are embedded into campus life.

What could you accomplish with 2000 research assistants?

Apply to be part of the annual cohort for our Incubator Workshop Series!

Now accepting Fall 2026 Applications from NC State faculty, staff, postdocs, and graduate students.

Through our annual Incubator workshop series, we provide trainings, consultations, and a small project supply fund for select projects to help project leaders launch innovative citizen science projects that help address new research questions with participatory methods.

Citizen science and other participatory sciences are a range of approaches in which science and society co-produce new knowledge. Many disciplines have their own forms of participatory research, and these research methods can be an effective way to gather data for complex and widespread challenges.

Projects are selected from each workshop cohort to be featured as a focal project in one of our other campus programs:

The Pack Science Challenge
Wicked Problems, Wolfpack Solutions
Other partners for pilot-testing your project (e.g. undergraduate courses, residential communities, student organizations, alumni communities, etc.)

We provide additional support for the projects above, including:

A $500 stipend for purchasing project supplies
Advertising and participant recruitment
A custom SciStarter webpage to host the project
Assistance from undergraduate and graduate students intern

Every field needs participatory science – how can you use it to advance YOUR research?

About Our Incubator Workshop Series

This series of four workshops is offered exclusively to selected applicants from annual cohorts of the Citizen Science Incubator. If selected into our program, applicants are required to attend all four workshops to receive training, and consultative support for launching their participatory science project at NC State. During workshops, applicants are considered as focal projects for our other partnered programs (e.g. Pack Science Challenge, Wicked Problems, etc.)

Lunch provided at each workshop. Workshops occur sequentially across four weeks.

After completion of this workshop series, selected applicants are connected with our Incubator Community of Practice. This group meets approximately every three months to check in, revisit timelines & project management, and get support from Citizen Science Campus through pilot testing, beta testing, and recruitment.

This workshop is structured to assist with developing research questions that are appropriate for citizen science engagement, designing participatory methods and volunteer tasks, and estimating “who” and “how many” participants are needed for your citizen science project.

Gain clarity on citizen science data ethics and your obligations to both science and participants within the context of your project. Together we’ll work through plans for data integrity and draft ideas for report-outs and report-backs to participants.

In this workshop we’ll discuss how to recruit and engage community participants. Consider – why would someone want to voluntarily participate in your project? We’ll also integrate evaluation and assessments into report backs

Together we’ll workshop launching the “large-scale” vision of your citizen science project. In addition to guidance on branding and graphic development, you’ll create a timeline that works backwards from your ideal launch date, covering elements like beta-testing, web development, data collection protocols, training, report-back plans and communication, partnerships, and volunteer management.