National Action Plan on Open Government Commitment

Back to search

C01.5.1 - Inclusive and meaningful public participation

Commitment:
Inclusive and meaningful public participation
Milestone:
Foster meaningful public engagement throughout the federal science ecosystem by reducing barriers to the integration and promotion of citizen-science methods across the Government of Canada
Indicator:
C01.5.1 - Develop and advance infrastructure by, for example, building capacity, providing guidance and creating a digital prototype platform, to facilitate dialogue and the successful adoption of participatory research and citizen science in the federal science ecosystem.
Lead Organization:
Public Services and Procurement Canada, Health Canada
Deadline:
By end of 2029

Updates

2025-12
Status:
Limited progress
Evidence of progress:
  1. Work expected over the 2025-29 NAP cycle will build on extensive exploratory work which was successfully conducted during the previous NAP cycle. Previous work aimed to identify the interest and gaps in support needed to advance citizen science (a collaborative approach to research involving the public) in a government health context.
  2. Presented preliminary results of a joint Health Canada-Laboratories Canada citizen science pilot project to Laboratories Canada's Digital Science and Technology Community in July 2025, increasing awareness of the platform's potential to support across departmental science mandates
  3. Presented pilot results and a concept for a government-wide citizen science platform to Treasury Board Secretariat's interdepartmental Access to Information and Open Government Executive Committee in September 2025, strengthening understanding of the platform's synergies with open government priorities.
  4. Initiated planning for development of prototype for an interdepartmental digital citizen science platform, building on pilot project.
  5. Developed and submitted a proposal to the Council of Canadian Academies (CCA) to assess the current state of citizen science in Canada, with support from 18 departments and agencies. The proposal was selected for assessment in September 2025.
  6. Convened the Participatory Research/Citizen Science interdepartmental Community of Practice in October 2025 to share the vision for platform prototype and gather feedback from participating departments and agencies.
  7. Launched a survey to federal scientists in October 2025 to identify digital requirements for a citizen science platform from the researcher perspective and received 25 responses.
Evidence:
  1. Work under the previous NAP included user-centric design thinking workshops involving federal scientists and members of the public, extensive Public Opinion Research, the development of a Health Canada working group and interdepartmental Community of Practice, development of internal Health Canada guidance documents to support the inclusive design and development of citizen science projects, the scoping of a health-focused pilot project, and more. Work in this next phase aims to focus on awareness and capacity building, and on advancing digital infrastructure to support two-way engagement with the public on citizen science projects based on the learnings in phase one. Link to Public Opinion Research: https://epe.bac-lac.gc.ca/100/200/301/pwgsc-tpsgc/por-ef/health/2023/117-22-e/index.html?nodisclaimer=1.
  2. Internal presentation summarizing the preliminary results of the joint citizen science pilot project funded through Laboratories Canada’s 2024–2025 Experimentation and Innovation Fund. The pilot developed a cloud-based digital tool for citizen engagement in Health Canada's National Radon Program. The presentation highlighted how the pilot project resulted in improvements in usability, streamlined workflows, elimination of manual data handling, and estimated efficiency gains of approximately 20% of staff's time. Work is underway to determine whether the pilot project can be put into production.
  3. Internal presentation to Treasury Board Secretariat's Access to Information and Open Government Executive Committee outlining pilot results and the potential for a government-wide citizen science platform to support federal science, policy, and open government priorities.
  4. Funding secured through Laboratories Canada’s 2025–2026 Experimentation and Innovation Fund to expand the pilot into a prototype for a centralized, modular platform. Technical partners at Shared Services Canada initiated development planning of the platform architecture.
  5. Link to summary of proposal selected by Council of Canadian Academies: https://cca-reports.ca/reports/the-state-of-citizen-science-in-canada/.
  6. Internal presentation to community of practice outlining preliminary pilot results, the vision for a federal platform prototype, proposed implementation activities, and opportunities for community input.
  7. Internal survey completed by 25 federal scientists, identifying digital requirements related to recruitment, data collection, hardware management, and workflow automation for studies involving public participation. Findings will inform feature development for the platform prototype.
Challenges:

• Uncertain funding for platform prototype past current fiscal year
• Uncertainty around the ability to productionize the radon pilot project
• Evolving government priorities, organizational changes, and resource constraints potentially impacting the scope of implementation