University of Oxford (UOXF)
Institution
The University of Oxford is the oldest university in the English speaking world, combining a strong tradition of research in the humanities with major research capability in both pure and applied sciences. The Department of Physics is especially strong in astronomy and astrophysics, making major contributions to instrumentation, computation, observation and theory.
The citizen science group, which sits within the sub-department of astrophysics within the department of physics, is led by Prof Chris Lintott and was founded in 2007. Along with its international partners, it runs some of the world’s largest and most successful mass participation projects, hosted at Zooniverse.org
The Zooniverse is the world’s largest and most popular platform for people-powered research. This research is made possible by volunteers — more than a million people around the world who come together to assist professional researchers. Our goal is to enable research that would not be possible, or practical, otherwise.
Research expertise
Over the last decade the Zooniverse has been at the forefront of research in online citizen science. Zooniverse research results in new discoveries, datasets useful to the wider research community, and many publications across a full range of disciplines.
Role in REINFORCE
The Zooniverse lends its expertise and support to the researchers building citizen science experiences on our platform as part of the REINFORCE project. We are also involved in the efforts to understand the desires and motivations of potential participants in the REINFORCE demonstrator projects.
