Citizen Science meets potatoes: Engaging citizens in protecting plant health
12th of May is International Day of Plant Health. We want to use this opportunity to present three different projects dedicated to plant health: ROTATES, CERBERUS and PataFEST. From potatoes to vines, from lab analysis to crop rotation, from collaborative research to citizen science: The webinar will showcase different topics, approaches and ways of engaging with citizens while working on healthy soils and healthy crops.
ScienceUs Info Day: From Knowledge to Action for Biodiversity
Join us on September 23 at 10:00 AM for our ScienceUs Info Day. This session on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services will showcase three inspiring initiatives from the SEED phase of ScienceUs. Among them: Acqua Sorgente, introducing their project on spring water monitoring together with Alpine Clubs. Also connect with: Night Owl 2.0 - Associació Taxus ¡Por otra Alimentación, Jóvenes en Acción! - Sustainable Living Foundation With the Infoday we give inspirations, how to overcome “learned helplessness” in biodiversity action with citizen science approaches: Discover how citizen science can mobilize communities, build resilience, and turn awareness into tangible impact for ecosystems. Take part in this exchange, connect with stakeholders, and explore how collaborative research can drive change for biodiversity.
BOKU River Lab, 3, …
Living Danube Challenge - Ignite NEB Event 2025
Changemakers ignite nature stewardship in the Danube River Basin. Are you a changemaker eager to apply citizen-led, nature-based solutions to local challenges in the Danube River Basin? And do you want to pitch for a 10k-valued development trajectory to transform your idea into a real business or initiative? Join us for DANUBE4All x EIT Community NEB’s Living Danube Challenge! The Living Danube Challenge is a free innovation launchpad for emerging changemakers ready to restore and protect the Danube River Basin through nature-based solutions and citizen-led action. Co-produced by EIT’s Ignite NEB Programme, DANUBE4all, PULSAQUA, and ZSI, the program includes: ️- A dynamic series of three online trainings (17:00-18:00 CET on Wednesdays, September 17, 24, and October 1) on nature-based solutions, citizen science, and social business strategy - A two-day in-person ideation sprint at BOKU University’s River Lab in Vienna (October 10-11 2025) with workshops & arts programming - A pitch process towards an 8-month, 10k-valued development trajectory to bring 3 winning ideas to life. Registrations are now open until September 15th.
Education for Climate Community Café - How do you become an Energy Community?
AURORA - Joint event with the Education for Climate Group Community Café 10th September 2025 from 17.00hrs - 18.00hrs Topic School Energy Communities To join the event register here - https://education-for-climate.ec.europa.eu/community/challenge_hub/event/community-cafe-september, This is an exciting event where you can learn about how the Palomeras Cultural Centre School in Spain has pioneered the first school Energy Community in Madrid with the AURORA project. The school, in a working class area of Madrid, has installed solar energy on the roof tops of their buildings, along with two air source heat pumps to keep the classrooms cool in summer. Funds of €140,000 have been raised from their community, staff and parents of the school, along with students and professors from the Technical University of Madrid as part of a share offer. This means everyone can have a stake in the energy transition. Lower energy bills, no capital cost to the school and a small return on investments from everyone supporting the scheme. It really is true that such transformations not only lower carbon emissions, supporting efforts to reach net zero carbon, but they also lower costs by diverting what would have been fossil fuel profits, back into the local community. The renewable energy generated will also be tracked via the AURORA energy tracker app to allow investors to see the energy being generated and to offset their own personal carbon emissions based on the investment they have made. It will join other projects at Aarhus University Denmark and Ljubljana University Slovenia already connected to the AURORA Energy Tacker app . Could schools in your country follow their lead and be the first school in your town, in your city, moving away from fossil fuels towards the future of clean renewable energy. A teacher from the school will explain what it is has meant to the students and staff of the Palomeras Cultural Centre school in Spain. The whole café event will be an opportunity for open discussion, facilitated by Martin Brocklehurst from the AURORA PROJECT, so that you can understand how to follow the lead that has been set. Looking to the future EU Legislation has also recently changed allowing the export of surplus renewable energy from community energy schemes through the grid to be sold to users around the installation. Once enacted into National law this would allow the export of surplus energy from Schools during holiday periods to users around the school. A great idea for public swimming pools for instance seeking to heat the pool during the summer holidays when usage rates are at their highest. The future looks bright for community energy schemes. In the UK, once the Governments strange block on Power Purchase Agreements on public buildings is removed we can perhaps also follow the EU lead and recommence community energy schemes on schools buildings.
III Workshop Mapeamento Colaborativo e Cartografia Social - MPCS 2025
✅ -- In Portuguese below The Participatory Mapping and Social Cartography Workshop - MPCS, in its third edition, aims to bring together researchers from Portuguese-speaking countries - Angola, Brazil, Cape Verde, Guinea-Bissau, Equatorial Guinea, Mozambique, Portugal, São Tomé and Príncipe and East Timor - who have in common the use of collective mapping methodologies, known as participatory or collaborative mapping. Part of the projects presented at the Mapping Project Exhibition, the preparatory stage for the III Workshop on Participatory Mapping and Social Cartography - MPCS 2025, will be selected by the organizing committee for publication as a book chapter in the second volume of the book of case studies, to be released in early 2026 under the IVIDES publishing label, https://ivides.org/livros. ✅ -- PT -- O evento Workshop Mapeamento Participativo e Cartografia Social – MPCS, em sua terceira edição, visa reunir pesquisadores de países lusófonos – Angola, Brasil, Cabo Verde, Guiné-Bissau, Guiné Equatorial, Moçambique, Portugal, São Tomé e Príncipe ou Timor Leste, que têm em comum, a utilização das metodologias de mapeamento coletivo, conhecidas como mapeamentos participativos ou colaborativos. Parte dos projetos apresentados na Mostra de projetos de mapeamento, etapa preparatória do III Workshop Mapeamento Participativo e Cartografia Social – MPCS 2025, serão selecionados pela comissão organizadora para publicação, como capítulo de livro, integrante do segundo volume do livro de estudos de caso, a ser lançado no início de 2026 com o selo da editora IVIDES, https://ivides.org/livros.
Brussels Town Hall, Grand …
ACCTING final conference. Empowering change: Building a fair and inclusive Green Deal
The European Green Deal aspires to make Europe the first climate-neutral continent by 2050, with a commitment to ‘leave no one behind.’ However, current environmental policies often overlook the diverse social impacts on marginalised groups. Low-income populations, racial minorities, women, or rural communities frequently bear the brunt of environmental challenges, while also facing significant barriers to accessing green solutions. These groups are often excluded from decision-making processes despite possessing the necessary local knowledge and demonstrating resilience and innovation in the face of environmental challenges. ACCTING has critically examined the social and economic impacts of the European Green Deal on marginalised groups. By employing a gender+ intersectional approach, the project has demonstrated how Green Deal policies affect individual and collective behaviours, potentially exacerbating existing inequalities. Based on these extensive research insights, ACCTING has developed innovative, evidence-based solutions, including pilot actions and thematic recommendations that empower vulnerable communities and guide inclusive policymaking. The ACCTING Final Conference, “Empowering Change: Building a Fair and Inclusive Green Deal,” invites a diverse audience of civil society representatives, NGOs, policymakers, researchers, and Green Deal stakeholders to engage with actionable strategies for achieving a socially just and inclusive Green Deal.
Responsible, Trustworthy, and ethical AI in citizen science
The use of AI techniques (such as machine learning, natural language processing, and computer vision) is increasing rapidly across the participatory sciences. Such techniques are used throughout the research process, such as cleaning data before presenting it to volunteers, using volunteers to contribute to the training of machine learning models, in the field data collection aided by computer vision, and creating collaborations between humans and AI to make tasks more engaging and of higher quality. Whilst this can improve the scientific process, it is important to understand the limitations of the use of these techniques, as well as consider the impact on how volunteers understand their role in participatory science. How practitioners communicate the use of AI to volunteers and continue to emphasize the importance of their contributions is also extremely important. To be beneficial to all in the participatory science community, the use of AI must be responsible, ethical, and trustworthy. However, it is not always clear what this means and how it can be applied. This study asks: -What are the opportunities and drawbacks of using AI techniques in citizen science? -What does it mean to be responsible, ethical, and trustworthy in the use of AI? -How should the use of AI in citizen science be advanced? If you are (or have been) involved in planning, carrying out, or taking part in citizen science projects, you are invited to take part in an online survey about your perceptions of the use of AI in citizen science. The survey should take around 20 minutes and you will be asked about -Your experience with citizen science projects -Your experience of AI -Opinions on how/why AI should/should not be used in citizen science -The effects of AI use on volunteers -What the terms ‘responsible’, ‘trustworthy’, and ‘ethical’ mean in the context of using AI in citizen science -How citizen science and human-AI collaboration should develop in the future The results will be presented at the Conference for Advancing Participatory Science in Portland, Oregon, at the end of May 2025.
Nuovi orizzonti per la Citizen Science in Italia
Il secondo convegno nazionale dell'associazione Citizen science Italia, si svolgerà a Bologna dal 9 al 12 aprile 2025.Tre giornate di presentazioni sui nuovi orizzonti della Citizen Science in Italia, che culmineranno nel “Citizen Science Day”, un evento partecipativo aperto a tutta la cittadinanza. Struttura del convegno: - Presentazioni orali: presentazioni “tradizionali” e light talk. Le proposte verranno vagliate dal comitato scientifico tramite una valutazione basata su parametri univoci; - Workshop tematici: momenti di approfondimento su temi specifici basate su metodi inclusivi di interazione fra il pubblico e i facilitatori; - Eventi per il pubblico: durante il Citizen Science Day si svolgeranno diverse iniziative rivolte principalmente al pubblico generico, come il market place per conoscere meglio alcuni progetti e attività dimostrative di raccolta dati; - Assemblea CSI: assemblea dei soci dell’associazione Citizen Science Italia ETS.
Do you want to help build the European Research Infrastructure for Excellence in Citizen Science? The first step is happening in the upcoming ECS Collaboration Session! The RIECS-Concept project will conceptualise the European Research Infrastructure for Excellence in Citizen Science. This RI will integrate citizens’ resources, such as mobile phones and computers, with existing scientific platforms and data collections; and it will offer transversal services, improving accessibility across research communities. The RIECS-Concept project will produce two key outcomes: a conceptual design including a feasibility study, and a five-year implementation plan for the new research infrastructure. These outcomes will provide detailed insights into the diversity and maturity of the concept considering technical, operational, societal, and environmental challenges associated with establishing the permanent and shared infrastructure. This is the very first activity of many to gather inputs and community-based evidence, in collaboration with the ECS project. You will have a chance to not only learn about this important project but also to bring your own input, needs and solutions, independently of your background or scientific domains. Who can join? This Collaboration Session is aimed at the entire Citizen Science community: practitioners, students, researchers, educators, representatives of CS projects and networks, etc.
Citizen science meets potatoes
Join the very first PataFEST Webinar! 📅 Date: Thursday, March 27, 2025 ⏰ Time: 16:00 CET We will explore the intersection of citizen science and the Agri-Food sector! 🔹 Christian Ghidelli (Funditec) will introduce the PataFEST project and its key goals. 🔹 Leo Mensel (European Citizen Science Association) will showcase a variety of engaging activities, including workshops and hands-on molecular biology experiments. 🔹 Anna Verones (European Citizen Science Association) will present the concept of citizen science, sharing inspiring best practices from the Open Soil Atlas and its potential applications in Agri-Food research. Don't miss this opportunity to connect, learn, and get involved! You can register now and be part of the conversation
Community of Practice: Citizen Science & Public Libraries
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.