Empowering Citizen Science: IMPETUS Launches its Final Open Call for Innovative Projects The IMPETUS project seeks innovative and impactful projects that harness the power of citizen science to address critical societal challenges. Two Exciting Opportunities in this Open Call: -European Union Prize for Citizen Science -IMPETUS Citizen Science Accelerator Programme This open call runs from January 7th to March 10th, …
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Empowering Citizen Science: IMPETUS Launches its Final Open Call for Innovative Projects The IMPETUS project seeks innovative and impactful projects that harness the power of citizen science to address critical societal challenges. Two Exciting Opportunities in this Open Call: -European Union Prize for Citizen Science -IMPETUS Citizen Science Accelerator Programme This open call runs from January 7th to March 10th, 2025 (23:59 CET) for the European Union Prize for Citizen Science and until March 13th, 2025 (23:59 CET) for the IMPETUS Accelerator Programme. European Union Prize for Citizen Science: IMPETUS wants to put outstanding citizen science front and centre with the European Union Prize for Citizen Science. IMPETUS celebrates the success and diversity of Citizen Science across Europe and ensures that this fantastic work gets the recognition it deserves. The European Union Prize for Citizen Science consists of three main awards. A Grand Prize of 60,000€ and two additional prizes for projects that best demonstrate how citizen science can be used to promote Diversity and Collaboration, and Digital Communities, each will be awarded 20,000€. But we also know that there is so much excellent citizen science happening in Europe right now, so IMPETUS will give honorary mentions to 27 additional projects, who will have their work showcased alongside the winners of the three prizes at the 2025 Ars Electronica Science and Technology Festival, on September 3-7, 2025 Linz, Austria. IMPETUS Accelerator: do you have an idea for a citizen science project or are coordinating an initiative that focuses on: Citizen Science to Promote Circular Communities. -Resource Management. -Infrastructure and Housing. -Disaster Resilience. Citizen Science for a Fair and Just Society. -Democracy and Peace -Inclusion -Public Trust and Empowerment. If your project could benefit from funding, mentorship, and training to take your work to the next level. Then, the IMPETUS Accelerator programme could be for you. To learn more about the Open Call, head over to the IMPETUS website or join us at one of our explainer webinars on the 22nd of January (https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/impetus-open-call-2025-webinar-1-tickets-1145437537509?aff=oddtdtcreator) or the 19th of February at 10:00 CET to have all your questions answered. The IMPETUS project aims to promote citizen science at all levels and to help these projects achieve their impressive goals. Head over to the IMPETUS website to learn more- https://impetus4cs.eu/opencall/.
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Public libraries interested in citizen science are invited to join this exciting new series of online events 'Community of Practice: Public Libraries & Citizen Science' happening throughout 2025. Hosted by SciStarter, ECS Academy, and PL2030 as part of the ECS project, these regular gatherings will connect libraries to share experiences, best practices, and guidance on developing their citizen science activities. …
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Public libraries interested in citizen science are invited to join this exciting new series of online events 'Community of Practice: Public Libraries & Citizen Science' happening throughout 2025. Hosted by SciStarter, ECS Academy, and PL2030 as part of the ECS project, these regular gatherings will connect libraries to share experiences, best practices, and guidance on developing their citizen science activities. Whether you're just starting out or looking to develop your citizen science programme, this is your opportunity to collaborate and grow.
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The SOCIO-BEE journey comes to and end and we want to share with you all the experiences learned together with our findings and results. Three years of work to develop a technology that empowers citizens by monitoring the air around them while assembling communities of informed citizens to change their behavioural habits and influence mobility planning in towns and cities …
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The SOCIO-BEE journey comes to and end and we want to share with you all the experiences learned together with our findings and results. Three years of work to develop a technology that empowers citizens by monitoring the air around them while assembling communities of informed citizens to change their behavioural habits and influence mobility planning in towns and cities with evidence. We want to share with you the technological development we have carried out during this time, as well as the countless engagement strategies we have deployed to facilitate these communities (our ‘hives’), to favour an effective change in their way of understanding and dealing with air pollution. We will also share, as a final reflection, the lessons learned during these 36 months of work and recommendations for working with citizen science methodologies to foster the assembly of these communities. If you work or have worked on similar projects, are interested in air monitoring or plan to work with communities using citizen science methodologies to bring about behavioural change, join us and participate in this event.
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Citizen science (CS) involves public participation and collaboration in scientific research to increase scientific knowledge. Despite its potential, producing CS collected data that is perceived as trustworthy enough to be published in peer-reviewed scientific journals and influence policy-making remains a challenge, in part due to issues involving data accuracy and standardisation. For example, the use of mobile field sensors in …
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Citizen science (CS) involves public participation and collaboration in scientific research to increase scientific knowledge. Despite its potential, producing CS collected data that is perceived as trustworthy enough to be published in peer-reviewed scientific journals and influence policy-making remains a challenge, in part due to issues involving data accuracy and standardisation. For example, the use of mobile field sensors in CS provides us with the opportunity to monitor air quality at a higher spatial resolution, but requires more thorough data analysis. Join us for a webinar featuring three short talks on the lessons learnt and recommendations from leading EU Horizon projects, COMPAIR, FUNsnm and SOCIO-BEE, to improve the reliability of air quality CS sensor networks. The session will conclude with a discussion among the speakers and the audience. This webinar is open to anyone interested in air quality sensor networks and CS. Talks & Speakers: - Local source detection using mobile “low-cost” particle matter (PM) sensors. Bram Verbeek (COMPAIR & VMM) - Metrology, the science of measurement, how does it relate to citizen science? Gertjan Kok (FunSNM & VSL) - Addressing the challenges of citizen science air quality measurements in the SOCIO-BEE project. Sergi Udina (SOCIO-BEE & Bettair Cities) Register here: https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZUpduygrTIoHtb8lISfAYqI48jsvvDCSDqF The event is part of the SOCIO-BEE project. More info here: https://socio-bee.eu/
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The Living Knowledge Network – the formal international network of Science Shops and Community Based Research. The 10th conference of the network “Building and sustaining next generation engagement” will take place from 26-28 June, 2024 at the Universitat de Girona (Girona, Spain). ECSA and the ECS project will engage the public with a Playdecide (playdecide.eu) discussion game to explore the …
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The Living Knowledge Network – the formal international network of Science Shops and Community Based Research. The 10th conference of the network “Building and sustaining next generation engagement” will take place from 26-28 June, 2024 at the Universitat de Girona (Girona, Spain). ECSA and the ECS project will engage the public with a Playdecide (playdecide.eu) discussion game to explore the challenges of citizen science as an more democratic approach to research. Discussion games are participative formats designed to promote discussion between visitors, in a process of comparison of ideas and, at the same time, of learning facts, data and concepts. This Playdecide game is the first dedicated to citizen science, and it will be tested at the Living Knowledge conference.
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Initiated seven years ago, the SDG Summer School offers students a framework for engagement and training in sustainability issues through the prototyping of solutions to concrete problems. For several years, this training program has been carried out in partnership with the University of Geneva This immersion program supported by the Institute of Challenges, co-founded by the Learning Planet Institute and …
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Initiated seven years ago, the SDG Summer School offers students a framework for engagement and training in sustainability issues through the prototyping of solutions to concrete problems. For several years, this training program has been carried out in partnership with the University of Geneva This immersion program supported by the Institute of Challenges, co-founded by the Learning Planet Institute and the Université Paris Cité, will run from June 24th to July 19th. It is exclusively based on project-based learning and will be taught mainly in English. It is intended for students of legal age enrolled in a higher education institution in France or abroad. The diversity of profiles is an asset, so participants coming from natural sciences, humanities, medicine, computer science, design, gaming or arts are encouraged to apply.
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Nature observation marathon invites naturalists to explore the biodiversity in their favorite area. The maraton is following format of BioBlitz, an international species recording scheme. In BioBlitz volunteers and researchers will identify as many species of animals, plants and fungi as possible in a given place in a given period of time. BioBlitz usually lasts 24 hours to observe the …
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Nature observation marathon invites naturalists to explore the biodiversity in their favorite area. The maraton is following format of BioBlitz, an international species recording scheme. In BioBlitz volunteers and researchers will identify as many species of animals, plants and fungi as possible in a given place in a given period of time. BioBlitz usually lasts 24 hours to observe the forms of biodiversity throughout the day. In previous years the marathon was a national event in Estonia, but in 2024 we will also invite other naturalist around Baltic Sea and in Nordic countries to join in. The main event takes place during 24 hours in 8.-9 June, but the observation areas should be registered by May 5th.
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ECS and ECSA will be present at the Ecsite conference 2024 (https://ecsite.wildapricot.org/Programme/). Discover and share skills and training methods to facilitate participatory research and citizen science projects. Science centers and museums, universities and third-places are key players in participatory citizen science projects. These programs aim to give citizens their place in the production of knowledge, and can range from the …
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ECS and ECSA will be present at the Ecsite conference 2024 (https://ecsite.wildapricot.org/Programme/). Discover and share skills and training methods to facilitate participatory research and citizen science projects. Science centers and museums, universities and third-places are key players in participatory citizen science projects. These programs aim to give citizens their place in the production of knowledge, and can range from the simple collection of scientific data to the co-construction or even co-governance of research projects. In recent years, these approaches have beenstriving to become a mainstream approach to scientific research well beyond the classical topics connected to environment and biodiversity. But citizen science faces many challenges, such as reliable data, recruitment and participation of citizens or reluctance to use this approach by scientists and researchers. A less discussed issue, and perhaps a solution to some of these challenges, is that of the skills needed to facilitate this type of project. Indeed it is essential to create the conditions for dialogue and work for all stakeholders (research teams, citizens, partners, associations...). They need support to create together, transform their perspectives, adapt tools to their context, stay involved, understand each other in depth…What specific skills, knowledge and attitudes do facilitators need in these participatory projects? Could a training programme in facilitation and participation help? This session will offer a feedback from institutions involved in citizen science (inter)mediation and facilitation training. These short presentations will break down the problem into several sub-questions. They will form the basis of the workshop, during which participants will collectively identify the list of skills and training methods that are most relevant for the people in charge of facilitating particpatory citizen science projects. Speakers: Catherine Oualian (Universcience, France), Claudia Aguirre Rios (Groupe TRACES, France), Aoife Taylor (Trinity College, Ireland), Simona Cerrato (ECSA), Paul Boniface (Groupe TRACES, France).
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In a 3-minutes show, the representatives of ECSA and of the ECS project showcases the potential of citizen science, the way ECSA works and the main characteristics of the ECS project. They use 3 coloured balls of yarn to create a web that unravels during the show and ultimately involve the viewers. The Ecsite conference is one of the main …
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In a 3-minutes show, the representatives of ECSA and of the ECS project showcases the potential of citizen science, the way ECSA works and the main characteristics of the ECS project. They use 3 coloured balls of yarn to create a web that unravels during the show and ultimately involve the viewers. The Ecsite conference is one of the main events dedicated to public engagement with about 1000 participants from science centres, museum, universities, associations and private companies.
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Based on insights developed in ACCTING (https://accting.eu/) research activities and experience from related projects and initiatives, this webinar will explore the vital role of local communities and indigenous knowledge in responding to natural disasters and preserving ecosystems.

OneAquaHealth aims to identify early warning indicators and enhance environmental monitoring with digital tools such as a Citizen Science App, to raise awareness and engage all relevant stakeholders to jointly achieve thriving ecosystems and healthier communities for the future. Thus, citizen science has a pivotal role in OneAquaHealth participatory research approach and contributes to shape the way in which data …
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OneAquaHealth aims to identify early warning indicators and enhance environmental monitoring with digital tools such as a Citizen Science App, to raise awareness and engage all relevant stakeholders to jointly achieve thriving ecosystems and healthier communities for the future. Thus, citizen science has a pivotal role in OneAquaHealth participatory research approach and contributes to shape the way in which data will be collected, shared, and used in the project to deliver accurate monitoring and decision support tools. OneAquaHealth aims to collaborate with projects and initiatives that tackle similar issues to promote healthier communities. Therefore, OneAquaHealth project and and Wise Angle Consulting S.L (OneAquaHealth work package leader) are delighted to invite you to a webinar dedicated to share experiences and viewpoints on the most successful engagement strategies in Citizens Science projects and the usage of Mobile Applications. This webinar will cover two main themes. The first part will focus on Citizens Science Approaches, featuring presentations from publicly funded projects, namely OneAquaHealth, DRYvER, and E4WARNING. Specifically, it will explore how these projects have engaged with citizens to achieve successful participation for the collection of feedback, which is crucial for the development, diffusion, and utilisation of the projects’ digital tools. The second part will delve into Mobile Apps – Challenges and Solutions, with presentations from PHArA-ON and Invasoras.pt Apps, exploring common hurdles faced in promoting the apps or designing them to be user – centric.
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