A celebration of the ECS archipelago: Citizen Science Festival in Oulu, Finland

Alexandre Torres Ferreira,
April 28, 2026, 11 a.m.

On 6 March 2026, the Valkea shopping mall in Oulu turned into something you don't usually find between the shops. People on their way to run errands found themselves stopping, lingering, getting drawn into conversations about biodiversity monitoring, river health, and inclusive research. Over two dozen citizen science projects had taken over the mall's public spaces, and the effect was almost immediate: what started as curiosity turned into genuine engagement, even among those who had never heard of citizen science before. For a few hours, citizen science slipped into everyday life.

The festival was co-organised by ECS, ECSA and the University of Oulu as part of the ECSA2026 conference, and as the first stop of the ECS final event series: A celebration of the ECS archipelago. The ECS project station offered visitors several ways in. A problem-solving game challenged passers-by to troubleshoot realistic citizen science scenarios, from participation drop-offs to trust concerns around data use. An inclusive practices quiz invited people to think through how underrepresented groups can be meaningfully involved in research. Visitors could explore the ECS Academy and sign up for courses on the spot, while a Lego Serious Play session had participants building environments, identifying problems, and imagining how citizen science could help address them.

It was the first citizen science festival held in Finland, and it landed a point that's easy to talk about but harder to demonstrate: when you meet people where they already are (literally in a shopping mall on a Friday evening) the distance between "science" and "everyday life" turns out to be smaller than most of us assume.