Through knowledge exchange we continue to grow together
Clea Montanari
July 9, 2026, 11:16 a.m.
The ECS network of educators and trainers was created in June 2023, after the launch of a survey to understand needs of citizen science educators and trainers (see report ‘Identifying needs of citizen science educators and trainers’ https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.8183969).
Since 2023, the network has been engaged in different activities, namely the creation of the Blueprint for the European Citizen Science Academy (See here: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.10521787), a roadmap to the development of the ECS Academy spearheaded by Université Paris Cité/Learning Planet Institute (UPCité/LPI).
The network includes 80 citizen science educators and trainers, an individual that provides both formal and/or informal education to participants in the area of citizen science and Community Science. A definition elaborated with the network. The network has met regularly over the past 3 years, every month and a half. During network meetings, members presented about their respective training, their formats and the context in which they were given, ranging from university context, informal context, museum context, and also early education context. Network members shared that they enjoyed being part of this network for several reasons. One as it was a source of inspiration on how to tweak and adapt content of their own course - to learn from other european, and other educational context. Another mentioned they appreciated this network, as it made them feel less alone in their endeavour to develop citizen science components in their own educational contexts.
The network, being a fundamental part of the ECS Academy will continue beyond the ECS Project, as it has helped build its business plan, facilitated the work of citizen science educators and trainers, helped understand the current and ongoing training across Europe and also beyond. This helps the endeavour of the ECS Academy to be a go to place for learning and teaching citizen science.
To read more about the network :
D4.5 Final report on the engagement with citizen science trainers and educators (https://zenodo.org/records/21100065)
D4.3 Enagement with citizen science trainers and educators (interim report) (https://zenodo.org/records/14795412)
By Cléa Montanari