No project is an island|Bridges towards a joint legacy for the future of citizen science in Europe

Citizen science thrives on collaboration between researchers, policymakers, innovators, and the public. Yet within the citizen science community itself, a critical question remains: do we have the infrastructure to enable effective, lasting knowledge exchange across initiatives and projects? No project operates in isolation, and the collective learning generated across the field represents an underutilised asset for science and policymaking alike. At a time when public engagement is increasingly recognised as essential to rebuilding trust in institutions and tackling mis- and disinformation, the connections we build within the citizen science ecosystem matter more than ever. Sharing what works and what doesn't strengthens the community's capacity to deliver the scientific, environmental, and societal benefits that make citizen science a genuine return on investment for Europe. This summer, both the ECS and IMPETUS projects reach their conclusion. Before they do, we want to invite the citizen science community to come together to reflect on how these projects have supported citizen science across Europe and to celebrate the real-world impacts this work has made possible. The event will also provide an opportunity to hear from new and established citizen science projects, alongside stakeholders and decision-makers, ensuring that the momentum built can be sustained and that science continues to serve the society it represents. Building on the Citizen Science Archipelago series from the ECS project, this gathering reaffirms a founding principle of the citizen science community: no project is an island. Mutual exchange is not simply a nice-to-have; it is the foundation on which the continued growth and impact of citizen science depends.

A celebration of the ECS archipelago | Bringing citizen science to public libraries

As the European Citizen Science (ECS) project enters its final year, we are celebrating our achievements through a distributed series of events across Europe. Organised in collaboration with the Slovenian Citizen Science Network and Public Libraries, and as part of the ECS final event series, A celebration of the ECS archipelago, we are organising a day of collaboration and capacity building. This event focuses on the journey through the development of the ECS digital meeting point, the citizenscience.eu, showcases citizen science impact stories, delivers training on citizen science and highlights the importance of public libraries in creating community and enhancing scientific literacy. Attendance at the event is free, but as places are limited, participation is by invitation.

Strengthening Public Engagement in Research: Evidence, Impact, and Future Pathways

In collaboration with the IMPETUS and RIECS projects, ECS is organising a final policy event entitled "Strengthening Public Engagement in Research: Evidence, Impact, and Future Pathways" in Brussels. We will present engaging scenarios featuring real-life citizen science projects and share impact stories from European policymakers. These examples aim to highlight not only what has been achieved so far, but also the potential for even greater impact if support mechanisms for citizen science are strengthened. Following the presentations, there will be opportunities for networking and engaging with interactive elements over coffee and light refreshments. This event is primarily targeted at MEPs and European policymakers, but we may be able to open additional attendance spots depending on capacity. To register your interest, please contact Nadia at Nadia.Bates[at]mfn.berlin

REINFORCING Capacity Building session: Making ORRI Fun

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.

ECS project showcase: Sharing insights and facilitating dialogue in citizen science

Join the ECS project at the online event “ECS project showcase: Sharing insights and facilitating dialogue in citizen science” taking place on 27 February 2024, 12-13:30h CET. We will share the project’s insights on the topics of data practices in citizen science, impact evaluation, the ECS Academy (training and capacity building) and policy priorities of ECS in four input presentations. The second part of the event is interactive: engage in conversation with other participants around these topics in breakout rooms, facilitating the exchange of experiences and knowledge. Whether you’re looking to learn more ECS and its related topics or possess an in-depth understanding of citizen science training, policy priorities/recommendations, impact evaluation and data practices, this event promises to offer something valuable for everyone interested. We look forward to seeing you there.

ECS at the Ecsite conference 2023

A representative of the ECS | European Citizen Science project will be at the Ecsite conference 2023 to talk about the opportunity it offers. ECS represents a wide diversity of stakeholders have joined forces to create the capacity, structure, and connections to widen and strengthen the European citizen science community and establish citizen science as a recognised, promoted and funded approach. The four-year EU-funded project European Citizen Science will create capacity-building opportunities, provide open collaborative spaces where citizen scientists can familiarise themselves with open science principles, engage public libraries to attract underrepresented publics, as well as provide support to countries and regions which lack citizen science networks, platforms and policy recognition.

European Science Engagement Conference 2023

On the 3rd and 4th of May 2023 the European Science Engagement Conference 2023 will take place in the Tyrolean city of Bolzano in Italy. Get ready for a swirling programme with exciting keynotes, mind-opening workshops and challenging debates. #EUSEA23 will be held at Eurac Research Headquarters in partnership with EUSEA and the team from Eurac Research Communication. Have a look at the two-day conference programme: https://eusea.info/eusea2023/eusea23-programme-day_1/ Information about the registration process is available here: https://eusea.info/eusea2023/2023-registration/

City Nature Challenge 2023

Started in 2016 as a competition between Los Angeles and San Francisco, the City Nature Challenge (CNC) has grown into an international event, motivating people around the world to find and document wildlife in their own cities. Run by the Community Science teams at the California Academy of Sciences and the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County (NHM), the CNC is an annual four-day global bioblitz at the end of April, where cities are in a collaboration-meets-friendly-competition to see what can be accomplished when we all work toward a common goal. The 2023 CNC takes place in two parts: 1. Taking pictures of wild plants and animals: April 28 – May 1, 2023 2. Identifying what was found: May 2 – May 7, 2023 Results will be announced on Monday May 8, 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

ECS Satellite event on Science Communication

The 2023 Annual Conference of the Marie Curie Alumni Association (MCAA) will be held in Cordoba (Spain) on 24-25 February 2023. The day before the Conference - 23 February 2023 - a Science Communication Training Workshop will be held as a satellite event, organised by the European Citizen Science (ECS) project in collaboration with the MCAA Communication Working Group. The overall objective of the European Citizen Science (ECS) project is to enlarge, empower and strengthen the European Citizen Science community through training, capacity building and awareness raising activities which encompass the whole range of needs and challenges. As a member of the project consortium, the MCAA is taking part in several work packages and tasks. More specifically, through the ECS project, the MCAA will support the co-creation of the European Citizen Science Academy by designing training for educators, trainers, and researchers. As part of the ECS project, the MCAA is organising the training workshop “Science Communication: How to create a successful research blog.” Blogging is a powerful and effective way to communicate research to a wider audience and engage citizen into the science endeavour. Within the general framework of citizen science, in this workshop participants will learn the ins and outs of what it takes to explain their research in a popular science blog that can be understood by anyone. The one-day full-immersion workshop will be highly interactive and aims to teach by doing. It will also be an introductory course into science communication for researchers with and without prior experience. During the training workshop, participants will: - have an overview of citizen science and the ECS project - learn how science communication can positively impact society as well as a researcher’s career - write a short popular science blog that can be published after the workshop - learn to adjust the text to the communication goals and audience - learn how to reduce the scientific complexity and make scientific insights accessible and interesting The training will be guided by Science Matters, a leading European science communication agency led by scientists, with extensive experience in supporting universities, companies, media, and museums. The training workshop is open to both MCAA members and non-MCAA members. In order to make it as interactive as possible and provide personalised feedback, the workshop is limited to only 30 participants. The deadline for registration is 30 January 2023, 23:00 CET. Selection of participants will be done on a rolling basis, until all 30 seats are filled. Thanks to the support of the ECS project, participants will be able to attend the workshop paying a fee of 150 Euro, which corresponds to a 50% discount on the full price.

2022 Ecsite Conference

The 2022 Ecsite Conference will be a unique professional development opportunity, offering an intense mix of intellectual stimulation, purposeful and creative sessions, business opportunities, and unparalleled networking …. all true to the spirit of the Ecsite community - creative, engaging, open and professional. The 2022 Conference edition will be held at a very special place with a unique atmosphere: at a camp in the city of Heilbronn, hosted by experimenta science centre. With its surprising and unusual spaces, it will provide places and moments for stopping to take a deep breath, for reflection, for manifold inspiring encounters – and it will allow us to look at the things we do from new perspectives. Browse the Conference programme, full of sessions submitted by your peers and curated by the Conference Programme Committee. This year the programme focuses on topics of the biodiversity and climate crisis, 21st Century Skills, as well as equity, diversity and inclusion, with much more to discover!