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.
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.
Peyresq, Thorame-Haute, Castellane, Alpes …
Alternet Summer School: Biodiversity and Society: science, policy and transformative change
Open to graduate and postgraduate scientists (as well as professionals in related fields), the Alternet Summer School creates an innovative atmosphere for considering and resolving the sustainability challenges that society is currently facing. Peyresq, a picturesque village in the Haute-de-Provence Alpes, provides an unparalleled setting for dynamic discussions and transdisciplanry learning. This year’s programme theme is entitled: Biodiversity and Society: science, policy and transformative change. Registration is open from 1 March – 15 April.
Citizen Science Summer School: Transforming research through public participation
What are the potentials of citizen science for increased dialogue between science and society? How can citizen science contribute to solving societal challenges and transforming science? How do I improve equity and inclusion in and through my participatory research project? What skills and competencies do researchers and citizens need to do citizen science? The Citizen Science Summer School tackles these and other issues from 04-09 June 2023 in Zurich, Switzerland. We welcome researchers from all research institutions and disciplines. However, we also encourage practitioners who work in the field of citizen science to apply! The School is organized by the University of Zurich and ETH Zurich. The fee of 290 CHF incl. tax entails access to 5 days of lectures and practical course work, accommodation, lunch and coffee breaks. In cases of special financial burden, we are able to grant a participation fee reduction of CHF 100 for a limited number of applicants. Apply by March 1st, 2023!
Learning from the CitiMeasure pilots
The CitiMeasure project piloted its main outputs in the city of Barcelona (Spain) and Roeselare (Belgium), as well as in the initiative Sensor2School in the city of Prague (Czechia). This online webinar will be an opportunity to get more insights about how the CitiMeasure instruments were tested in real-life cases and interact with the pilot teams. The online webinar will take place on March 9 from 1:30 to 2:45 PM. Below you will find the program of this event: 13:30 - 13:40 - Welcome to the online webinar 13:40 - 13:55 - CitiMeasure and its outputs 13:55 - 14:25 - Roeselare, Sensor2School and Barcelona - The CitiMeasure pilots 14:25 - 14:40 - Q&A 14:40 - 14:45 - Closing You can register here: https://teams.microsoft.com/registration/Cokv0QqVgEaMp1o28Iic0w,E8q7IUWJ2UyrJtA3WOrCQg,n3HBKWnCMkOaOOMTvBoenw,ra6BorIMpUiHu2dqQwGc6w,xe37NWlj9U2XVeXKsRjV0w,S4YzbwCypUySm8YapWluMA?mode=read&tenantId=d12f890a-950a-4680-8ca7-5a36f0889cd3
Cos4Cloud final event: its legacy for the citizen science community
The Cos4Cloud project is coming to an end! To wrap up over three years of the project and its community, Cos4Cloud and ECSA are co-organising a final event for everyone interested to learn about the project’s main achievements, discover how to use Cos4Cloud’s products and celebrate the community that has actively contributed to the project. The event will take place online on 2nd March 2023, 15:00-16:15 CET. What can you expect during the event? 1) Learn about the main project achievements and legacy of the project for the citizen science community. 2) Discover how you can take advantage of Cos4Cloud’s products and outputs and where to find them (13 services to improve citizen observatory technologies, the co-design methodology guide, the educational guideline, etc.). 3) Celebrate the community that has actively participated in Cos4Cloud events to improve the services, the co-design methodology, and to learn how to integrate citizen science into school practice.
Abdus Salam International Centre …
Joint ICTP-IAEA Advanced School/Workshop on Machine Learning in Citizen Science
Citizen Science involves the public in scientific projects and can play an important role in generating large datasets. The convergence of data-driven Citizen Science projects and machine learning techniques can help tackle scientific and societal challenges. The lectures cover the following topics: Introduction to Citizen Science Introduction to Open Science Basic concepts/tools for Machine Learning techniques Challenges and opportunities of using Machine Learning in Citizen Science Ethical aspects of Machine Learning in Citizen Science Machine Learning for nuclear sciences and applications Using Machine Learning and Citizen Science to address the UN Sustainable Development Goals
Nature is vitally important, and nature is in trouble, but we can all help with nature’s recovery by helping fill in the gaps in what we know about the species on our doorsteps. By looking out for wildlife in your own neighbourhood, you can support vital conservation research whilst connecting with nature and enjoying the outdoors. That is why this September, researchers, school groups, citizens and wildlife enthusiasts across the continent are coming together in a race against the clock to put nature on the map, submitting photos and observations of wildlife in their neighbourhoods through the free, easy to use iNaturalist mobile phone app. Join an epic race for wildlife this September as citizens across Europe take part in the worlds’ first 48 hour continental BioBlitz!
Oxford|Berlin Summer School on Open Research 2021
Open research practices have the potential to revolutionise the way research methods and results are communicated, and to facilitate research collaborations and sharing of research outputs in an unprecedented manner. However, adopting these practices requires knowledge and skills that are not normally taught in undergraduate or graduate degrees. To close this gap, we offer a four-day summer school to guide early career researchers (PhD students and postdocs) towards an open, transparent, and reproducible research workflow. These topics will be embedded in a more general curriculum on research ethics and meta-research.
Engaging the society beyond data collection
The challenges of ocean monitoring require data from everywhere at all times, we need to involve society in all steps of the process to achieve the information necessary to implement evidence-based policies in coastal and ocean management. This workshop is a Satellite Activity of the Event “A Predicted Ocean”, an Ocean Decade Laboratory organized in the framework of the United Nations Decade of Ocean for Sustainable Development. The workshop will analyse different challenges in volunteer participation in ocean monitoring projects: from potential barriers for volunteer participation up to how to improve the management of the cost and oceans developing evidence-based policies using in some cases the information generated in these participative processes. REGISTER HERE: https://www.eventbrite.es/e/entradas-workshop-engaging-the-society-beyond-data-collection-in-citizen-science-168961358973 The workshop “Engaging the society beyond data collection” will be divided into two parts: - First part: an overview of lessons learned in previous and ongoing projects. - Second part: moderated discussion (both in English and Spanish) with all the involved actors, including academia, industry, policymakers and civil society WHO CAN PARTICIPATE? This workshop is aimed at all the communities interested in participatory coastal monitoring: Academia, Industry (particularly SMEs), Policy Makers, and Civil Society (NGOs, local groups, environmental associations, Schools, …). PRELIMINARY AGENDA: 1- Welcome and introduction: Jaume Piera (ICM-CSIC) 2- An overview of previous and ongoing experiences: -Ocean Cities. Josep Lluís Pelegrí (ICM-CSIC) -Australian Coasts. Libby Hepburn (CSA) -Wadden Sea. Soledad Luna (W-S World Heritage) -Our Coast. Luigi Ceccaroni (EarthWatch-UK) -Reef Monitoring. Phanor Montoya (Corales de Paz) -Urban Beaches. Andrea Comaposada (Anel·lides) 3- Interactive session: going beyond data collection: -Breakout Room 1. English session -Breakout Room 2. Spanish session
Citizen Social Science School: Social Dimensions in Citizen Science
This virtual experience will take place online from 13-23 September. The main goal of this event is to offer academic researchers a common space and a shared time to reflect, discuss, learn, and receive practical guidelines to explore social dimensions behind a wide set of Citizen Science practices related to social issues and when involving groups and persons in a vulnerable situation acting as co-researchers.
The 3rd biennial conference of the Citizen Science Association will be held in conjunction with Arizona State University’s School for the Future of Innovation in Society in Phoenix, AZ, in May 2021.