Webinar training on VERA, the Virtual Ecosystem for Research Activation, developed through the COESO project

Join our webinar training on VERA, the Virtual Ecosystem for Research Activation, developed through the COESO project (Collaborative Engagement on Societal Issues). 📅 Date: 16 January 2024 ⏲️ Time: 11:00-12:00 CEST 🚩 Register now: https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZEld--rpz4qEtdUv1lf9dydbluoUKHcpYDc Participatory research/ citizen science in social sciences and humanities disciplines usually involves small-scale, intense collaborations between members of academic institutions (universities and other research institutions) and members of non-academic organizations that work directly with the community (community-based organizations, non-governmental organizations, civil associations, small businesses etc.). The VERA platform serves as a “collaboratory” where participatory research/citizen science projects can be realized and new collaborations can be established. Through its profiling and matchmaking tool, its project management features and its funding database, VERA helps projects get started, stay organized, and find the necessary funding. At this webinar, participants will get guidance on how to use VERA platform. The COESO project is a 3-year project funded until Dec 2023 by the European Commission's Science with and for Society grant and supported by the OPERAS research infrastructure.

YouCount: Save the dates for Final Conference 4-5 December 2023

Youth Citizen Social Science contributing to social inclusion How can we shape an inclusive society for young people at risk of exclusion in Europe? What role can Citizen Science play in this endeavour? The Horizon 2020 research and innovation project YouCount explored these questions through co-creative research with youth and local stakeholders in nine countries across ten cases. After two years of hands-on Youth Citizen Social Science work, YouCount will share experiences and look ahead to discuss findings and potential impacts on EU policies and beyond. Program: The first day includes a seminar focusing on hands-on Youth Citizen Social Science and a welcome reception. The final conference takes place on the second day where we will discuss implications of key findings with stakeholders and policymakers. On both days, the voices of our young co-researchers will be amplified during presentations, interactive sessions, round table discussions and an exhibition. The event will be free of charge and partly hybrid. Event location: DECEMBER 4, 2023 | 14.00-17.00 & 18.00-20.30 | Nordic House, Rue du Luxembourg 3/5 DECEMBER 5, 2023 | 09.00-17.00 | Hotel NH Brussels EU Berlaymont, Bd Charlemagne 11/19 - tagg "YouCount"

Connect. Collaborate. Create. Bridging communities to foster participatory research and citizen science

An interactive conference hosted by Horizon 2020 projects COESO and ProEthics to bridge key European communities to: 1) activate participatory research and citizen science involving the social sciences and humanities, and 2) foster ethical participatory approaches to research funding. All citizen science practitioners or supporters are welcome! SSH researchers, civil society professionals & organizations, librarians, science shop coordinators, research funding organizations, policy makers, and more are encouraged to actively participate. Please submit your contribution ideas by August 29th! Registration is open now through September.

Stories from the YouCount Youth - On new perspectives, being heard more deeply and belonging.

YouCount is working to co-create new knowledge and innovations to increase youth social inclusion. Since 2020, 100s of young people from local communities and 30 students from universities have worked with researchers on 10 research questions in 9 different countries. This webinar is a unique opportunity for you to learn about the YouCount project. 16 of these young people co-created this webinar and some of them will share their stories from the YouCount project. This includes lessons learned and what you should consider for future work with youth like them. Join us to learn about their important work, their results, and their valuable perspectives on engaging youth in citizen social science.

Impactful Citizen Science in the social sciences and humanities – a hands-on workshop exploring Participatory Research practices and a new tool to support them

Participatory research/ citizen science in social sciences and humanities disciplines usually involves small-scale, intense collaborations between members of academic institutions (universities and other research institutions) and members of non-academic organizations that work directly with the community (community-based organizations, non-governmental organizations, civil associations, small businesses etc.). The VERA platform serves as a “collaboratory” where participatory research/citizen science projects can be realized and new collaborations can be established. Through its profiling and matchmaking tool, its project management features and its funding database, VERA helps projects get started, stay organized, and find the necessary funding. At this interactive workshop, participants will share their experiences about the various dimensions of practicing participatory research/ citizen science within the social science and humanities domain and will get guidance on how to use the newly published VERA platform to best serve their project’s needs. The VERA developers and community manager will be onsite to collect valuable feedback from participants on how we can improve VERA before the final version is released in December 2023.

CoAct Final Event Week

After three exciting and intense years, CoAct is coming to an end. Citizen Social Sciences intends to collaborate equally between citizen groups and academic actors. As a consortium, we propose a new understanding of Citizen Social Science as participatory research co-designed and driven by citizen groups sharing a social concern. They become co-researchers in processes commonly dominated by academic researchers. Throughout the last three years, we brought together and further developed methods to give citizen groups an equal ‘seat at the table’ through active participation in research, from the design to the interpretation of the results and their transformation into concrete actions. But we also enabled intensive discussions and knowledge sharing regarding the framing of participation and the predominant understanding of science. All these activities generated experiences and lessons learned, which we wish to share and discuss with everyone interested in our Final Event Week. We are organising three days of knowledge sharing, reflecting, and discussing the future of CSS based on these learnings.

Identidades Comunes: II National Meeting of Citizen Science Social Sciences and Humanities in Zaragoza (Spain)

"Identidades Comunes" is a space for cooperation and co-creation between project managers, researchers and participants in Citizen Science, social sciences and humanities projects. The national meeting to be held in Zaragoza on 20 September. Researchers, managers of Citizen Science projects, participants or members of associations working to generate knowledge in the field of social sciences and humanities, you are invited to participate with your initiative in this meeting. There are two options: one is present the project you are involved in through a 6-minute face-to-face talk. Up to 12 projects from all over the country will be presented and other is present your Citizen Science initiative in the form of a poster. There will be two panels discussion: The Gestation of Bottom - Up projects and Heritage digitalisation through Citizen Science The day will be completed with co-creation and prototyping project workshops.

The role of photographic heritage in empowering communities participation in cultural heritage

This event is organized by Photoconsortium in cooperation with the University of Pisa and will be hosted at the Museum of Graphics in Pisa (Italy). The event will take the form of a 1-day conference with leading speakers from the CitizenHeritage consortium partners and other experts in digital cultural heritage, in Social Sciences and Humanities research and in the use of participatory approaches in a cultural and/or educational context. The main aim of the event will be to offer insights about successful stories of citizen participation in Cultural Heritage Institutions and Higher Education Institutions. In addition to the conference programme, a digitization desk will be organized, inviting participants to share heritage photos from their family albums, which will be digitized on the spot by a professional photographer. The stories associated with the image(s) will be collected and converted in appropriate metadata to accompany the digital objects. The collected records will be aggregated by Photoconsortium and offered to Europeana for publication.

Engaging Citizen Science Conference 2022

The Engaging Citizen Science Conference will take place at Aarhus University, Denmark, April 25-26, 2022 and will promote knowledge sharing among the citizen science community. The aim of the conference is to engage citizen science researchers, practitioners, and citizens in sharing research, ideas, and innovations in order to make the field thrive and expand. The conference will be interdisciplinary in scope, inviting workshops, dialogue roundtables, posters, and demos from all main areas of research (natural and technical sciences, life and health sciences, and social sciences and humanities). The main conference language will be English, meaning that keynotes and main track sessions will be in English. Language of individual workshop sessions, dialogue roundtables, posters and demos are at the discretion of the session/roundtable/poster/demo organizer(s) and must be either Danish or English.

YouCount webinar: Transformative & Innovative Impact

Young people in Europe are facing many challenges with regard to social inclusion (e.g. social participation, employment, social belonging). There is a pressing need to develop more knowledge and innovation to create more inclusive and youth-friendly societies. One way to contribute to this is through Citizen Social Science with young people - Youth Citizen Social Science (Y-CSS). The YouCount project has organised a series of three webinars to discuss central questions of Y-CSS and to create a network of interested people. The third and last webinar "Transformative & Innovative Impact" will take place on the 4th of November. These webinars are for practitioners of Citizen Science, Community-based Research and youth engagement, but people without prior experience are also very welcome. These are exciting conversations, and YouCount is working hard to make them happen in inclusive and equitable ways.

Methodologies & Evaluation: Setting up Youth Citizen Social Science

Young people in Europe are facing many challenges with regard to social inclusion (e.g. social participation, employment, social belonging). There is a pressing need to develop more knowledge and innovation to create more inclusive and youth-friendly societies. One way to contribute to this is through Citizen Social Science with young people - Youth Citizen Social Science (Y-CSS). This webinar offers an opportunity for exchange on doing Y-CSS in practice and it seeks to mobilise your expertise and feedback for the YouCount project. Members of the project are developing a framework for setting up case studies in several countries. The challenge is to translate the many ideas surrounding youth citizen social science into practical research and innovations. They will present their concepts and seek your feedback and discussion on how local case studies and integrating frameworks can be designed. Claire Murray (ECSA) will get us started with essential points for practically preparing for youth participation. To illustrate an ambitious ways of how this can be done in a European project, Julie Ridley (UCLan) will give us an overview on the multiple case study approach that is used in YouCount. Then there will be a series of in-depth discussions on key aspects of setting up Y-CSS projects in practice.

How to open up research & innovation to young people?

Young people in Europe are facing many challenges with regard to social inclusion. Social participation, employment, social belonging are important examples. There is a pressing need to develop more knowledge and innovation to create more inclusive and youth-friendly societies. One way to contribute to this is Citizen Social Science with young people - Youth Citizen Social Science (Y-CSS). We organise a series of three webinars to discuss central questions of Y-CSS and to create a network of interested people. The webinars are for practitioners of Citizen Science, Community-based Research and youth engagement. We would be happy to learn from your experience and the questions you bring. We would be particularly grateful for young researchers and youth organisations to take part. We want to learn from their work and perspectives. People without prior experience are of course also very welcome. These are exciting conversations and we are working hard to make them happen in inclusive and equitable ways. Participation in the webinars is open to everybody and free of charge.