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ECSA General Assembly 2017
The BOKU University in Vienna and the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA) in Laxenburg welcomed the ECSA community to celebrate our fourth General Assembly in January 2017. Members from various places in Europe gathered for two days in working groups and plenaries to evaluate and report their achievements in 2016 and to plan and coordinate activities for 2017.
Among the highlights of the meeting, three Task & Finish Groups were established in order to support specific actions within the Working Groups: 1) Bioblitz Task & Finish Group, 2) Mosquito Task & Finish Group, 3) EU Wide Exemplar Task and Finish Group. Soon, also the Open Science Task & Finish Group will be created. Please visit this link to learn more about ECSA working groups, and their plans for this year.
The planning of the Second International ECSA Conference 2018 continued during the GA. It is proposed to be held in June, in Geneva, Switzerland, together with the ECSA General Assembly 2018 and linked to the ECSITE conference!! We look forward to these events!
Collaboration between ECSA and the North American citizen science association (CSA) keeps strengthening; now ECSA members enjoy of a 20% discount for becoming CSA members and for registering to their next conference to be held in Minnesota in May, 17-20, 2017.
Finally we want to sincerely thank Daniel Doerler and Florian Heigl and the Institute of Zoology from the BOKU University in Vienna, and to Dilek Fraisl, Inian Moorthy, Steffen Fritz, and Linda See from the Earth Observation Systems Group in IIASA, Laxenburg for their great support in the organization and for hosting ECSA GA 2017.
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Following up with the ECSA Inclusiveness Challenge
At the ECSA international conference 2016 in Berlin, Claudia Göbel and Marie Grimm from ECSA Headquarters (HQ) participated in the Think Camp that was organized by Margaret Gold and Lucy Patterson with the ECSA inclusiveness challenge. It has already been some time since the conference and work has continued on the issues that were discussed. Now, finally, there was also some time to write up a short report on the session and what has become of it. Read report
Contact: Claudia Göbel
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Citizen Science expands its horizons!
Under the motto "Expanding Horizons" the third annual Austrian Citizen Science Conference took place from March 2 to March 4 in Vienna. 200 participants from natural sciences, the humanities and arts shared their experiences, discussed new concepts and collaborated in eleven workshops and eight sessions, which covered a wide range of topics from archaeology to political sciences and zoology. Participants came from Austria, Germany, Switzerland, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom. We, the organization team from the citizen science platform "Österreich forscht" (www.citizen-science.at), the federal Agency on Health and Food Security (AGES, www.ages.at) and the Austrian Science Fund (FWF, www.fwf.ac.at), were very happy that such a diverse program could be established. We would like to put on record our thanks to all the different session chairs.
While the first two days were characterized by the different sessions that took place at the Federal Agency on Health and Food Security, the conference organised an open session on the third day at the Natural History Museum in Vienna. 1700 visitors to the museum had the chance to interact with 15 different projects, that presented themselves with info boothes located in the current exhibition. A very nice overview on the activities during these three days can be gained when looking on all the conference tweets (#oecsk2017), on Flickr (https://www.flickr.com/photos/agesnews/albums/72157677626592263) and in a few weeks further details will be added to the website www.citizen-science.at.
We are extremely proud and happy that so many different institutions supported this conference: the Federal Ministry of Science, Research and Economy, the Federal Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry, Environment and Water Management, the Austrian Science Fund, the Vienna Business Agency, the Ludwig Boltzmann Gesellschaft and the University of Salzburg.
The next conference will take place at the University of Salzburg from Feb. 1-3. If you want to stay updated on the fourth Austrian Citizen Science Conference at the University of Salzburg you can register for the conference newsletter on http://www.citizen-science.sbg.ac.at/.
Contact:
Daniel Doerler
Florian Heigl
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From left to right: Christoph Unger (AGES), Taru Sandén (AGES), Friedrich Polesny (AGES), Florian Heigl (Österreich forscht), Daniel Dörler (Österreich forscht), Gerit Oberraufner (FWF), Rudolf Novak (FWF), Ina Matt (FWF).
Picture under a creative commons license: CC BY-NC 2.0, AGES, IMG_6903, via flickr (http://bit.ly/2ne5mYH).
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COST Action on Citizen Science
The COST Action on Citizen Science to promote creativity, scientific literacy, and innovation throughout Europe (CA15212) started successfully with the Kick-off on December last year in Berlin. Currently, plans for working group meetings, summer schools, short-term scientific missions (STSMs) are collated in order to plan for the next planning period, starting in May 2017.
Two working group meetings will take place already in March 2017, one to develop concepts for stakeholder mapping, with local Organizers Dr Artemis Skarlatidou (UK) & Dr. Loreta Tauginiene (LT) (https://www.cs-eu.net/events/internal/working-group-4-workshop-london-march-20-and-21-2017), the other on the development of a metadata ontology for citizen science, with the local Organizer Dr. Imre Lendak, Faculty of technical sciences, University of Novi Sad (https://www.cs-eu.net/events/internal/working-group-5-workshop-novi-sad-march-27-28-2017).
For more information, please contact the local organisers or info@cs-eu.net
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Interactivos? '17
Re-imagining movement in the city:citizen science for a sustainable present
Medialab-Prado (Madrid) is launching an open call for the submission of projects and research articles for the international collaborative prototyping seminar and workshop to be held in Madrid from 17 to 31 May 2017. As a theme, Interactivos?’17 suggests mobility in the city (living beings, material goods, pollutants, etc) on the intersection of three wide perspectives: citizen science, environmental sustainability and creativity and art with digital tools.
What do the workshops consist of?
Interactivos? is a research and production platform for the creative and educational uses of technology. Its main goal is to expand on the use of electronic and software tools for artists, designers and educators, thus contributing to the development of local communities of cultural producers in this field.
Interactivos? events are a hybrid between an international production workshop, a seminar and a showcase. After the first days of seminar, projects promoters and collaborators work together to develop the proposed prototypes. Then these prototypes are showcased in a public exhibition in Medialab-Prado. Thus a space for reflection, research, and collaborative work is created. The process is open to the public from beginning to end.
In more detail:
From the proposals people submit, a maximum of 6 articles and 8 projects will be selected. Collaborators can register until few days before the workshop starts.
The workshop will be held from 17 to 31 May. Over the first two days there will be a seminar open to the public in which international experts and the authors of the selected articles will present their work. This will be a space in which to inspire and be inspired, to get to know others and to make yourself known. On these days the promoters of the selected projects will tell us what they aim to do in the workshop and everyone present will have a chance to meet each other.
Following the 2-day seminar the production workshop itself will begin, wherein promoters will develop the proposed prototypes, working hand in hand with collaborators. This workshop will be intensive and exciting: a space for exchange and experimentation. We will be helped along by coaches who will provide assistance and advice throughout the process.
The workshop will end with a public presentation of the resulting prototypes. The prototypes will then be included in an exhibition at Medialab-Prado.
If you want more information, want to submit a project proposal or a research article or want to join as a collaborator, please visit: http://medialab-prado.es/article/interactivos17.
Contact: Chema Blanco
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hackAIR: Citizen science and air quality in practice
What happens when you combine open technology, participatory sensing and air quality in Europe?
Funded through the EU programme on collective awareness platforms for sustainability and social innovation, the hackAIR project aims to enable communities of citizens to easily engage their members in generating and publishing information relevant to outdoor air pollution, leveraging the power of citizen science, online social networks, mobile and open hardware technologies, and engagement strategies.
hackAIR aims to complement official data with community-driven data sources. Community members can collect, analyse and share air quality measurements through low cost open hardware sensors easily assembled by citizens, web and/or mobile phones. The resulting data can be used by scientists and policy makers to gain insights into local air quality patterns and to inform local policy.
By October 2017, hackAIR will be tested in two European countries (Germany and Norway) in order to validate the service platform and how this can contribute towards individual and collective awareness about air quality in Europe, encouraging changes in behaviour towards air quality improvements.
Join us!
hackAIR is active on Twitter (@hack_air) and Facebook (@hackairproject).
http://www.hackAIR.eu
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New citizen science projects in Belgium and the Netherlands
The Belgian citizen science platform iedereen wetenschapper (everyone is scientist) reports on the following recently launched projects:
- Searching for new fungi in the ground. Project Wereldfaam, een schimmel met jouw naam. Westerdijk Fungal Biodiversity Institute, Utrecht
- Measuring air pollution with strawberries. Project AIRbezen Oost-Vlaanderen. Roeland Samson, University of Antwerp
- Platform for metal detector amateurs. Uploading archeological objects for identification, in collaboration with archeologists. MEDEA. Pieterjan Deckers, Vrije Universiteit Brussel
- Collecting street poetry for research. Kila van der Starre, Utrecht University.
If you would like to know more or get in contact with the researchers of these projects and the Belgian citizen science platform, please contact Liesbeth Gijsel
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Evolutionary Knowledge for Everyone
First European meeting on public understanding of evolution
The EvoKE 2017 conference in Porto, Portugal last month initiated the first European-wide discussion to promote the public understanding of evolution in Europe. The meeting successfully brought together and forged collaborations between 95 scientists, educators, policy makers, media and museum professionals from 15 European countries.
One group is now working on introducing evolution education from kindergarten onwards. Another is developing tools to measure the acceptance of evolution across Europe. EvoKE 2017 also marked the relaunch of Evolution Megalab, an existing European citizen science project on evolution that investigates the colour and banding pattern of snail shells. The second edition, will build on the success of the first to foster a deeper engagement of the public in the entire scientific process. Other groups that formed also came up with creative ideas for museum exhibitions on the tree of life, immersive games, podcasts on evolution, collections of stories related to evolution and public outreach events that bring the public closer to evolution research and researchers in metro stations.
The meeting addressed diverse topics such as the role of evolution in formal education to using creative ways to communicate evolution. Common themes that emerged were that evolution is an inherently difficult topic for people to understand. The reason for this is that despite its simplicity, there are common misconceptions. For example, it is difficult for most people to fathom the time-scale of evolution and the position of humans as one among thousands of other species. The discussions pointed to a need for scientists to be proactive in terms of engagement with the public, the media and teachers.
Follow this link to find a complete press release
To learn more about the Evoke project please visit: https://evokeproject.org/
Contact: Tania Jenkins
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Citizen Science Publications & Tools
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Conservation outcomes of citizen science
A paper examining the conservation outcomes of citizen science is now available in Open Access format. The paper can be found here and a news article summarises the findings.
The study, published in Biological Conservation, assessed the conservation outcomes of 44 citizen science projects led by Natural History Museums in the UK and US. It reveals they support conservation both directly, through site and species management, and indirectly through research, education and policy impacts. The paper also demonstrates how a framework developed by the Cambridge Conservation Forum can be used to assess the outcomes of citizen science projects – other practitioners might find this a useful tool.
Please take a look!
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The Rightful Place of Science: Citizen Science
Edited by Darlene Cavalier and Eric B. Kennedy
This book provides an introduction to the field of citizen science and how it can play a role in policy decision. Its six chapters address topics as the quality of information, the various formats of citizen science, the potential of citizen science to change existing processes, the importance of appropriate communication, the social movement on citizen science and spaces where citizen science can play a role in decision-making.
The book is available in Amazon
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Next Generation Internet Initiative - Consultation
Final Report
The open consultation for the Next Generation Initiative (NGI) was held between 10th November 2016 and 9th January 2017. 449 people took part, provided input and shared their views on the Next Generation Internet.
The European Commission explains that the "Next Generation Internet (NGI) should offer more to our society. It should provide better services and greater involvement and participation. It is essential that the next-generation Internet is designed for humans, so that it can meet its full potential for the society and economy. The scope of the European initiative should be broad, addressing technological opportunities arising from advances in various research fields, extending from new network architectures and software-defined infrastructures to new concepts for services and applications".
Please read here the full report
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In this website visitors can find a list of games by platform / genre / theme, articles, interviews scientific publications related to the games.
The aim is to introduce visitors to citizen science games and to scientific research by making it easy to find publications, results and discussions about game and research. A secondary goal is to make this website a contributory project where members could participate to content production.
If you would like to contribute please contact Claire Baert
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Internest and UNESCO are bringing tech&science closer to people
Over 650 submitted projects from all the continents, over 70 international partners including UNESCO, governments, NGOs and media – these are the first facts and figures from the Bringing tech&science closer to people campaign, launched in November 2016. Today, all the best projects were officially presented on www.closertopeople.com. The effect is mind boggling.
Collision-tolerant flying robot, Dengue and Zika diagnostics from a single drop of blood, wave drive imitating squid animals, deep learning in cyber security, greenhouse for Mars are just a few of the innovations popularized in the campaign. Each project is showcased in a clear, visually appealing way, describing the problem and proposed solution, competitive advantages, the way it works and many more.
The "Bringing tech&science closer to people" campaign, aims to build worldwide awareness and recognition on the latest breakthroughs in science and technology. This campaign also will help to showcase science and technology innovations as a main lever for progress and sustainable development, and will provide a platform for knowledge exchange, experiences and the sharing of best practices in science – says Mrs Irina Bokova, General Director of UNESCO.
For the next three months, projects will be presented to tech-oriented crowd, industry representatives and business professionals. Katarzyna Janocha from Internest – technological partner of the campaign – claims that their focus is not only on education but also on bringing growth opportunities to the projects. Everyone can get into a direct contact with tech-owners to discuss ideas or potential cooperation.
The interest in the campaign is already higher than expected. It attracts tech companies and innovators as well as market leaders – Polpharma, LOTOS Group or CANAL+ DISCOVERY were the first ones to support the campaign as its Patrons and Strategic Partners. We are open for everyone interested in innovation - let's accelerate change for better, together - says Marek Kotelnicki, the President of CIKT Foundation, which co-organizes the campaign.
For more information visit www.closertopeople.com.
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ECSA EVENT:
Harnessing Citizen Science to Tackle Mosquito-Borne Diseases: Towards a locally based, yet Global Platform
Geneva, April 3th-4th, 2017
This technical workshop, in collaboration with the Wilson Center and with support by the United Nations Environment Programme, will demonstrate the potential of leveraging observations from the public to address pertinent public health issues such as mosquito-borne illness. Currently, there are multiple projects worldwide that engage the public in the scientific process of learning about mosquito biodiversity or monitoring mosquitoes that carry certain diseases.These projects are executed at different invasion-stages and different scenarios of epidemiological risk based on their country of origin. Some projects are aimed at anticipating invasive and disease vector species arrival to function as an early-warning system. While other projects have demonstrated success at real-time vector management (surveillance and control) based on citizen-supplied information in areas with actual epidemiological risk.
To learn more about this initiative please visit ECSA or the Wilson Center
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European Citizen Science Forum
Citizen Science & DIY Bio: building the bridge between citizens and institutions
Paris, March 25th 2017 | 12:00-20:00
The European Citizen Science Forum is organised by the Center for Research and
Interdisciplinarity (CRI Paris) and Tekiu Ltd, as part of the EU's DITOs (Doing It Together
science) project. With the support of the French Secretary of State for Higher Education and
Research and of the City of Paris, the event will include a European Stakeholder Round Table
on Citizen Science & DIY Bio and a participatory concert.
1) European Stakeholder Round Table on Citizen Science & DIY Bio (12:00-18:45)
The roundtable will cover issues such as motivations for engaging, transparency, support and new visions for the future of science, with a focus on helping to build the relationships between institutions and citizen science communities. The sessions will encourage discussions between representatives of the many different stakeholders that are vital to the practice of citizen science and its future within the research and innovation ecosystem.
2) Participatory Concert (18:45-20:00)
Find here more information and a complete agenda of the event
Please register here
Contact:
Imane Baïz
Aleksandra Berditchevskaia
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Voices of Citizen Science & DIY Bio
Call for video contributions
Deadline March 16th, 2017
As part of the European Citizen Science & DIY Bio Forum: building the bridge between citizens and institutions (Paris, March 25th 2017 | 12:00-20:00).
The "Voices of Citizen Science & DIY Bio" video at the beginning of the event will serve as an introduction of the debates. We would like each of you to share through a 1-2 min video ('3 main issues that [you] see in the theme of building bridges between institutions and the grassroots'). Here we will try to showcase many different voices of citizen science as a "provocation" for further discussions in the room.
Follow this link to learn more about How to contribute to "Voices of Citizen Science"
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Biofabbing convergence
Fabrications and Fabulations
Geneva
May 10th-13th, 2017
Organized by Bruno J. Strasser, Gabriela A. Sanchez, and Sara Tocchetti as program counselor, the conference is part of the project “The Rise of the Citizen Sciences: Rethinking Science and Public Participation”, headed by Bruno J. Strasser at the University of Geneva, and the Horizon 2020 Doing-It-Together Science (DITOs) project, and focuses on bringing together individuals from the social sciences, humanities, life sciences, biohacking, DIYbio, and BioDesign to share their critical insights and perspectives about the politics, meanings, and possible futures of DIYbio.
Find more information and updates on the event here: http://citizensciences.net/biofabbing/programme/#programme
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'Old tensions, emerging paradoxes in health: rights, knowledge and trust'
June 7th - 8th 2018
ISCTE-University Institute of Lisbon, Portugal
Call for session proposals:
dead line April 15, 2017
Health policies have become more aligned with the needs of different social groups (e.g. migrants, ethnic minorities, women, LGBT) and of specific medical conditions (e.g. HIV, mental and age-related diseases). Regulators interfere more and more in professional work models and decisions to better control health systems performance and to enhance transparency, but so do empowered citizens in the defence of their rights as patients. Scientific knowledge is often called upon to improve the governance of health systems by providing clinical protocols and guidelines with evidence on effectiveness and efficiency. Nevertheless, the tensions involving rights, knowledge, and trust in health have been widely acknowledged.
The Scientific Committee is now accepting proposals for high quality, timely, innovative, and also educational, sessions related to the overall idea of tensions and paradoxes related to rights, knowledge, and trust in health resulting from broad social, political, and economic transformations.
Please read here the complete text for the call
Submit proposals
Contact: Tiago Correia, conference host
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ECSA EVENT:
Defining principles for mobile apps and platforms development in citizen science: Interaction, Interoperability, Innovation
Gothenburg, April 25th-27th, 2017
We are pleased to invite you to the second workshop “Defining principles for mobile apps and platforms development in citizen science: Interaction, Interoperability, Innovation” to be held on 25th-27h April in Gothenburg.
In the second three-day workshop we will continue the discussion on principles and guidelines for app and web platform development in citizen science.
On the first day we will have presentations on the results of the first workshop and ongoing activities linked to this process and learn about related relevant efforts such as the data standards developed by the international “Data and metadata working group”. Furthermore, we will hear from the commonalities in natural, social and humanities sciences and learn about the culture of contribution.
We expect to have case studies talks and a poster session about success and failure in development, engagement and user interaction. In working groups we will work on methods to foster reuse, share learning experience and track participant’s contributions.
This is an event co-organized by Naturblick, a project of the Museum für Naturkunde Berlin, the European Citizen Science Association (ECSA), and the University of Gothenburg, with the financial support of the Marianne and Marcus Wallenberg Foundation.
Venue adress: University of Gothenburg, Universitetsplatsen 1, Vasaparken, 40530 Gothenburg, Sweden (http://www.gu.se)
Please follow this link to see the tentative agenda
Find here suggested hotels nearby
Registration will open on March 17th. More information here
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Citizen Science Association Conference
Twin cities, Minnesota
May, 17-20, 2017
REGISTER NOW to attend to this year's Citizen Science Association Conference and share experiences with a diverse group of researchers, practitioners, community organizations, and more participants.
ECSA members enjoy a 20% discount to become a CSA member and register for the Citizen Science Association Conference. Contact ECSA HQ to receive the member promocode.
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Call for Papers in a special issue of Remote Sensing in Ecology and Conservation on citizen science
Submission deadline: 15 July 2017
In this special issue, the editors invite to submit articles that demonstrate the diversity of citizen science, in terms of approach and research themes, and the contributions of remote-sensing techniques. There is special interest in articles about innovative research that identifies the intersection between remote sensing and citizen science for conservation, such as DIY balloon or kite mapping, the use of photo-sharing apps and the integration of satellite observations with ground truth by volunteers.
Visit this link to access the full text of the call
Submit paper
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Debate on Citizen Science
Utrecht University
March 23th 2017 | 17:00-18:30
The first debate night of the Center for the Humanities at the Utrecht University is about citizen science. Panelists will promote the discussion on several aspects that researchers and participants have to address in citizen science, what is the point of citizen science, and examine advantages and disadvantages.
Due to the limited number of places it is advisable you as soon as possible to sign up here.
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