Theme: Citizen Science
Dr Delany is a Senior Lecturer in Marine Ecology at Newcastle University and Head of the Dove Marine Laboratory. Her research interests lie in marine intertidal community ecology, plankton dynamics and applications of marine science to reduce the risk of marine invasive events. She has 17 years’ experience in participatory marine environmental science, exploring ways in which members of the non-scientific community can be facilitated to engage with and manage their local coastal habitats. Citizen Science plays an increasing part of this research, and Jane is Lead PI on the UK national Capturing our Coast (CoCoast) programme (HLF funded) that has engaged over 4000 members of the public in intertidal ecological research; it is the largest experimental marine citizen science project of its kind, empowering members of the public to contribute to hypothesis testing in marine contexts and exploring the degree to which volunteers can effectively yield robust data that can contribute to marine policy, marine ecology and conservation strategy.
She is a collaborator in the UK OPENER (NERC) project that aims to develop a framework for participatory environmental science research, and is scoping out a National Community of Practice for Public Engagement, with strong consideration of the role of Citizen Science. Jane contributed to the European Marine Board’s Working Group on Marine Citizen Science, publishing their Position Paper in 2017.
