National Action Plan on Open Government Commitment

Summary: Between January and June 2026, LabsCanada and Health Canada completed development of a proof of concept platform that supports public participation in federal research. The team also increased awareness of the platform through presentations to federal science communities. Two capacity building events were held at Health Canada to support researchers in understanding how citizen science can support their work and to share tools and guidance for implementing citizen science approaches. Progress was also made on the Council of Canadian Academies assessment of the current state of citizen science in Canada.

1. Completed the development of a proof-of-concept interdepartmental citizen science platform that supports public participation in federal research. Key features include a centralized landing page, participant and research log-in, a searchable inventory of available research studies, participant and researcher user profiles, and a research study management dashboard with a configurable project builder that guides researchers through the process of designing, launching, and managing studies. The platform was informed by lessons learned from a previous Radon pilot project and feedback collected from federal researchers in a 2025 survey on digital research requirements. The platform’s cloud-native architecture supports scalability and is aligned with federal security and compliance requirements. During the next reporting period, work will focus on testing, refinement, and development of supporting guidance. These activities will help position the platform for implementation and adoption across federal across departments and agencies.
2. Held the first meeting of the expert panel for the Council of Canadian Academies assessment of the current state of citizen science in Canada in March 2026. The meeting introduced the assessment topic and clarified its scope and key questions.
3. Presented the platform prototype concept to the Office of Chief Science Advisor’s Departmental Science Advisor Network in May 2026. The presentation increased awareness of the platform and highlighted its potential to strengthen evidence-informed decision-making across the government.
4. Presented the platform prototype to Laboratories Canada's Digital Science and Technology Community in June 2026, increasing awareness of the platform's potential to support federal research across departments and agencies
5. Hosted two events through Health Canada’s Science and Research Integration Network in March and June 2026. The sessions explored the growing role of citizen science in a health context, resources to support the adoption of citizen science within health research, and approaches to recruitment and retention of diverse participants in citizen science initiatives.

1. Internal cloud-based proof-of-concept that demonstrates the technical feasibility of the platform. The prototype will support future business case development, stakeholder engagement, and planning for broader implementation and adoption.
2. Internal discussion with the expert panel to clarify the assessment topic scope and questions prior to the panel undertaking the assessment.
3. Internal presentation and demonstration summarizing the results of platform development funded through Laboratories Canada’s 2025–2026 Experimentation and Innovation Fund. The demonstration highlighted how a scalable digital platform can support and streamline end-to-end research study management, accelerate the launch of studies through reuseable workflows and reduce the administrative burden on researchers, and deliver significant efficiency and cost-saving opportunities.
4. Highlighted the platform prototype concept as part of an internal presentation to the Departmental Science Advisor Network, highlighting the platform’s broad utility, development progress, and next steps.
5. Two internal events hosted by the Citizen Science Working Group of Health Canada’s Science and Research Integration Network (SciRIN), with opening remarks from Health Canada’s Departmental Science Advisor, Dr. Valerie Taylor. The inaugural event in march 2026 was presented by working group co-chairs, followed by a presentation in June 2026 by Canadian Partnership for Tomorrow’s Health (CanPath), Canada’s largest population health study. The events were attended by approximately 120 staff across Health Canada and Public Health Agency of Canada.

• Uncertain funding for platform prototype and limited mechanisms to bridge experimental projects to sustained production environments
• Evolving government priorities, organizational changes, and resource constraints potentially impacting the scope of implementation

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.

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.

• 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