The UK-Environmental Observation Framework strives to change the way the UK perceives, values, archives and uses information from observation activities by working across public departments and agencies, the voluntary sector, industry and academia.

Understanding Citizen Science and Environmental Monitoring reviewed more than 230 "citizen science" projects, and concluded that the involvement of volunteers offers "high value to research, policy and practice".

The review reached a number of conclusions about the value of data collected by volunteers:

• The development of technologies was "revolutionising citizen science", for example through online recording and smartphone apps;
• Data quality could be excellent, but was not fully recognised by all researchers or policymakers;
• It is a cost-effective way of collecting environmental data
• There was potential to make considerably more use of citizen science that currently was the case

The review's authors also produced a Guide to Citizen Science offering advice on how to get the most out of citizen science projects.

Read the full news article from the BBC here.