The iSPEX is an innovative product. Its big brother, the SPEX, will be used for an earth observation mission by NASA. The iSPEX uses the same technology on a smaller scale and cheaper materials to create new possibilities. What is new is that the SPEX, and potentially the iSPEX as well, not only measures how much particulate matter there is in the air but also the composition of the particulate matter. And the fact that the iSPEX is used by so many people creates a highly detailed picture.

Over the past 2.5 years, the program has grown considerably. The focus has shifted from iSPEX to various other sensors that allow citizens to help monitor air quality. The National Institute of Public Health and Environmental Protection is now at a stage where crowd-based monitoring is implemented in the regular process, whereby the data obtained is also made available to citizens. The institute is scaling up in the Netherlands. Meanwhile, it is focusing on developing and supporting communities of citizens who are jointly engaging in particulate matter monitoring. This sees residents make a measuring plan for their neighborhood, while carefully considering what the community needs.

Embracing citizen science has yielded valuable data and created a new network of partners. In this network, the institute fulfills the role of an independent and expert adjudicators, facilitating measuring done by citizens and putting openness and transparency first.

The iSPEX was developed by a consortium made up of the Leiden Observatory, Leiden University (NOVA), the Netherlands Institute for Space Research (SRON), the National Institute of Public Health and Environmental Protection (RIVM), and the Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute (KNMI). With regard to developing communities of citizens, the institute draws on methods used by Luftdaten.info, a German citizen science project.

Ultimately, the citizens measuring particulate matter are at the core of this innovation. They are both user and collaborator in this project. Putting trust in citizens and communities is an important development that the National Institute of Public Health and Environmental Protection has gone through over the past years.

In 2013, 9,997 measurements were performed over a period of three days. Based on the resulting data, two articles were published confirming the effectiveness of the measurements and the power of citizen science. This experiment was repeated on a European level in 2015 (5,368 measurements in eleven European cities). These experiments have generated great exposure, as the iSPEX shows that citizen science works, that people are willing to get involved, and that this is a good and efficient way to conduct science experiments.

But above all, the experiment has produced a learning effect. Citizen science will fundamentally change the role of the National Institute of Public Health and Environmental Protection, because the organisation will no longer do all the measuring itself, and become more of a facilitator enabling others to perform the measurements, using its expertise to ensure reliable measurements and provide open access to data.

During the innovation process, not all of the institute’s employees backed the new way of working, because the measurements using iSPEX differed from their own official measurements. They questioned the quality of the data collected by citizens. And they were afraid of losing their jobs, as they saw citizens do what they used to do. As it turned out, data collection helped shape a new role for the institute, changing from that of an institute that performs measurements detached from society, where virtually no one took any notice of the outcomes, to that of a service provider to other parties. What was also interesting to see was that measurements by citizens actually led to an increase in the number of official monitoring stations.

The institute simply started with a number of projects. The results brought success. Internally, support grew, and the innovation became ever more important, in part because management was open to it. The institute has always been an organisation that has allowed its employees to work on innovations, such as the iSPEX in this case.

One of the institute’s core tasks is to conduct independent research. In this citizen science project, they had the courage to outsource monitoring, showing faith in the citizens who, thanks to the iSPEX device, became co-researchers. This was a key success factor, as was the institute’s consistency in providing open access to data.

On top of that, the institute turned out to be able to strike up successful partnerships with parties that did not work according to traditional structures but were structured differently, such as networks and communities. This is important when, for example, you need to submit a subsidy application together.

The institute teamed up with the German Luftdaten.info citizen science project. This project is a network that works based on communities. It inspired the institute to also start harnessing the power of communities in the Netherlands. What is interesting about this way of working is that it can be effective both in countries where the public sector has a very independent role, such as in the Netherlands and in countries where this is not the case and where citizens take the initiative, filling the void left by an ineffective public sector.

On the one hand, customisation is key. Within the communities, the institute tries to tap into what the people of the region find important and how they would like to shape the monitoring of airborne particulate matter. On the other hand, it is important that the same technology is used everywhere, so as to ensure the data can be compared across national borders. After all, particulate matter does not take any notice of borders.

The National Institute of Public Health and Environmental Protection has learnt that partnering with citizens in monitoring particulate matter yields valuable data. Citizen science requires a different approach to data collection and the institute’s role in that. A new network is created, a network of partners with whom they work together. In this network, the institute’s role is that of an independent party that facilitates monitoring by citizens and puts openness and transparency first. The institute has learnt how important it is to tie in with the broader system by working together with communities.

Citizen science is based on a philosophy of transparency and data sharing. Collaborating with other parties that do not work based on this philosophy sometimes creates tricky situations for the Dutch National Institute of Public Health and Environmental Protection. As a research institute, the Dutch National Institute of Public Health and Environmental Protection is used to only publishing data when they are 100% sure it is accurate. But now they are publishing data without certainty on its accuracy. For citizens, this is important because it confirms to them that data is shared with maximum openness. The institute does, however, still provide an indication of the quality of the data. This independent assessment is crucial, and legitimises the institute’s role. For the institute, it is crucial that they consistently provide that openness, and keep independently assessing data, because if they do not, they will lose citizens’ trust.

And the institute has furthermore learnt that the best approach to innovation is sometimes to just get started and get stuck into one specific project. In doing so, however, the internal organisation needs to be geared towards this, and internal and external communications about the innovation need to be consistent.