30 Understand the context Conduct studies at the early stages of the project to understand the social, institutional, political, and cultural context in which you are going to operate. Citizen science projects are most likely to feed into management plans if they are place-based and firmly rooted in the local context, carried out over multiple years, deliberately designed for management purposes with scientifically robust protocols, and co-created with stakeholders and citizens to identify their needs and decision-making timelines. 28 29 B CS P CS P