This study focuses on two Belgian federal research institutes and museums. The Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences (RBINS), also known as the Institute of Natural Sciences, has maintained for several decades links with volunteers who contribute to the enrichment of the collections by participating in the field research of species and, in the collection and identification of biological specimens. For the Royal Museum for Central Africa (RMCA), also known by the public as the AfricaMuseum, citizen science is one step forward towards engaging the Belgian and African public in research on the collections, not without understating the colonial context in which they were acquired. On the other hand, the RMCA runs scientific missions in Central Africa, with an impact on health and security issues. In these cases, citizen science is a way of engaging citizens in most aspects of the research in order to deal with socially relevant issues. The researchers distance themselves clearly from colonial practices and are worrisome of knowledge extraction. In most ongoing RMCA research projects in Africa, the main challenge is to switch from the pure consultation of the population to the co-creation of knowledge, both in the natural and the human sciences.

The mapping and SWOT analysis help these institutions better understand their current practices and constitute the basis for a common reflection on the future of citizen science, a participatory approach to research, in which researchers and citizens act as equals.