Research shows that early and continuous involvement of the public and patients has a positive impact both on conducting more patient-centered research and on how research is conducted. But there is hardly any empirical data that shows the economic added value and innovation potentials of participation in research and the involvement of citizens in research processes.

The newly published study by the German Stifterverband provides, based on a literature review and interviews with experts, an overview of the added values of participation in research and identifies and systematizes empirical evidence. In this study, Stifterverband names Open Innovation in Science as a young research field next to Citizen Science as well as Crowd Science. The study gives also examples on involvement and cites, as one of the examples for added value, the LBG OIS Center project and paper „Crowdsourcing research questions in science“. Here you can find the paper on Crowdsourcing research questions in science – ScienceDirect.