WildFish’s SmartRivers programme uses citizen science to monitor the health of UK rivers and fill major gaps in freshwater data. With over 6,000 volunteer hours contributed since 2019, SmartRivers combines gold-standard invertebrate analysis with emerging tools such as eDNA and temperature tracking to identify pollution and climate impacts early.

This grant supports the expansion of SmartRivers to additional catchments, subsidises professional lab testing to maintain data quality, and funds development of an open data platform to empower communities and inform stronger environmental policy.