Am I really a scientist?

An image showing a chemist, a civil engineer and a data scientist contributing to a better society

Source: © Peter Mac/Ikon Images/Getty Images

Whether in a lab, an office or on a stage, we are no strangers to wrestling with self-identity 

Citizen science projects are a high-impact way to engage people with real, scientific research. Anecdotally, untrained participants are not only lucky enough to learn about and contribute to science, but also experience increased feelings of confidence and empowerment, as well as feelings that science is ‘for them’.

It’s frustrating that this is still one of the factors that new researchers at the start of their formal scientific journeys struggle with most.