From the Nominator

"The University of Sydney alumni community championed the hunt for the elusive Christmas beetle in an innovative approach to citizen science research. Alumni were invited to participate in the project through a multi-tiered communication and engagement strategy that was then amplified via extensive media coverage to reach an estimated audience of over 2.5 million people.   

The campaign leveraged nostalgia that Australians feel for a time when Christmas beetles arrived on masse during the festive season. Christmas beetles (Anoplognathus spp) are a group of iconic Australian insects that emerge in early summer and are associated with Christmas on the Australian coast. In the past, millions of these large, colourful beetles were common in December and January. Researchers have noted that Christmas beetle sightings appear to be in decline. This research project was the first formal monitoring project to confirm the status of the 35 Christmas beetle species.   

Over 2,319 people registered via the alumni application, with a further 1,300 signing up directly as participants, contributing to over 6,500 observations in the iNaturalist app. All 35 known varieties of Christmas Beetles were documented, including Anoplognathus multiseriatus which was last sighted in the late 1970’s, Anoplognathus vietor that was previously know from a single male specimen in 1986 and Anoplognathus rhinastus which hadn’t been officially recorded since 1999.  

The volunteer campaign aligned with the university’s aim to ignite alumni pride. The emotive response of our alumni community fuelled media coverage to gain wider community engagement.  

This project showed the power of volunteering."

From the Judges

The panel felt this initiative was a creative way to engage a wide variety of constituents as volunteers in a citizen science-based project. In addition, the volunteers were able to contribute to a larger goal of the university and science more broadly. While not every institution will have Christmas beetles, there are certainly ways that institutions can think more creatively about engaging their constituents with this initiative as an example.