Periodic Reporting for period 1 - ECS (European Citizen Science)
Reporting period: 2022-08-01 to 2023-07-31
Citizen science has become an important mode of research and innovation, in Europe and worldwide. It has gained recognition across policy, research funding organisations, scientists, civic society organisations, NGOs and those working in the interface of science and society. Today, citizen science associations, national and international citizen science platforms, conferences and funding programmes are key promoters of participatory forms of scientific knowledge production. However, citizen science is still limited in its uptake and acceptance across disciplines, actors and institutions. Its potential has not been fully exploited and we still see a lack of institutional embedding, funding structures and policy uptake.
The ECS project aims to build on the momentum and citizen science’s major success story within FP7 and Horizon 2020 to integrate citizen science within current and future research and innovation efforts, making citizen science an integral part of the European Research Area (ERA) and positioning Europe as a leader in citizen science. The overall objective of ECS is to enlarge, empower and strengthen the European citizen science community through capacity building and awareness raising activities, such as setting up the European Citizen Science Academy and establishing a network of 28 ECS Ambassadors. The project activities aim to encompass the whole range of needs and challenges, i.e. inclusivity, open data, national and regional support, mainstreaming through disciplines and areas of the ERA, etc.
The ECS project aims to build on the momentum and citizen science’s major success story within FP7 and Horizon 2020 to integrate citizen science within current and future research and innovation efforts, making citizen science an integral part of the European Research Area (ERA) and positioning Europe as a leader in citizen science. The overall objective of ECS is to enlarge, empower and strengthen the European citizen science community through capacity building and awareness raising activities, such as setting up the European Citizen Science Academy and establishing a network of 28 ECS Ambassadors. The project activities aim to encompass the whole range of needs and challenges, i.e. inclusivity, open data, national and regional support, mainstreaming through disciplines and areas of the ERA, etc.
WP1, on project management and coordination, has established procedures and structures to facilitate, coordinate and monitor all project work to ensure an efficient delivery of the project core actions and the achievement of the milestones and deliverables planned. Quality assurance processes as well as data and risk management are established.
The overall objective of WP2 is to strengthen and expand the citizen science community. WP2 has engaged existing and new actors in co-design workshops, run community engagement events, liaised with ECSA working groups, launched the open call for Citizen Science Ambassadors in the EU+UK and selected them, established a community of citizen science practitioners that meets regularly, and enhanced the eu-citizen.science platform with new functionalities.
Following the motto of "open and FAIR data with open and FAIR tools", the main objective of WP3 in the first twelve months has been to map existing experiences of collaborative development (co-design and co-development) to identify best practices of development for citizen science data services and infrastructures resulting in a report. This work will pave the way for the work to come in the WP.
WP4 has established a network of citizen science educators and trainers, and worked on the roadmap for setting up the ECS Academy to define its services in close collaboration with the network. It has thoroughly analysed existing training and identified training needs of different actors on citizen science, e.g. researchers of networks such as MCAA, MCSA, ERC, Eurodoc and European Global Youth Academy. Surveys, focus groups and workshops have been organised to gather this data.
The main objective of WP5 has been to ensure that an intersectional inclusive perspective in the project activities and participants’ involvement was adopted. This has been achieved through links with sister projects and ECSA working groups, making discussions on inclusiveness an integral part of the project day-to-day and creating spaces for it inside and outside the project. Public libraries that will carry out engagement activities later on have been selected and onboarded.
WP6 has defined a communication and dissemination strategy and run communication campaigns dedicated to engaging with different actors and stakeholders. It has ensured harmonised and mutually reinforcing efforts and established collaboration with all WPs to effectively communicate project progress and disseminate results. The groundwork towards developing an exploitation plan for the platform has been laid.
WP7 has defined a common strategy for policy engagement involving all project partners and affiliated entities in a co-design process and engaged the consortium in a stakeholder mapping process to more effectively engage policy makers later on. The WP has monitored opportunities to support the link between citizen science and the SDGs and started the planning of policy events.
The objective of WP8 is to monitor the envisioned impact pathways of WPs 2-7, provide evidence for the achievement of the expected outputs and outcomes, and investigate causal chains and inter-relations to the expected impacts on science, society and economy. Within the first year, WP8 has planned how to approach and implement impact assessment throughout the project in six predefined impact areas by developing logic models and engaging the consortium in identifying potential indicators and instruments to investigate progress.
The overall objective of WP2 is to strengthen and expand the citizen science community. WP2 has engaged existing and new actors in co-design workshops, run community engagement events, liaised with ECSA working groups, launched the open call for Citizen Science Ambassadors in the EU+UK and selected them, established a community of citizen science practitioners that meets regularly, and enhanced the eu-citizen.science platform with new functionalities.
Following the motto of "open and FAIR data with open and FAIR tools", the main objective of WP3 in the first twelve months has been to map existing experiences of collaborative development (co-design and co-development) to identify best practices of development for citizen science data services and infrastructures resulting in a report. This work will pave the way for the work to come in the WP.
WP4 has established a network of citizen science educators and trainers, and worked on the roadmap for setting up the ECS Academy to define its services in close collaboration with the network. It has thoroughly analysed existing training and identified training needs of different actors on citizen science, e.g. researchers of networks such as MCAA, MCSA, ERC, Eurodoc and European Global Youth Academy. Surveys, focus groups and workshops have been organised to gather this data.
The main objective of WP5 has been to ensure that an intersectional inclusive perspective in the project activities and participants’ involvement was adopted. This has been achieved through links with sister projects and ECSA working groups, making discussions on inclusiveness an integral part of the project day-to-day and creating spaces for it inside and outside the project. Public libraries that will carry out engagement activities later on have been selected and onboarded.
WP6 has defined a communication and dissemination strategy and run communication campaigns dedicated to engaging with different actors and stakeholders. It has ensured harmonised and mutually reinforcing efforts and established collaboration with all WPs to effectively communicate project progress and disseminate results. The groundwork towards developing an exploitation plan for the platform has been laid.
WP7 has defined a common strategy for policy engagement involving all project partners and affiliated entities in a co-design process and engaged the consortium in a stakeholder mapping process to more effectively engage policy makers later on. The WP has monitored opportunities to support the link between citizen science and the SDGs and started the planning of policy events.
The objective of WP8 is to monitor the envisioned impact pathways of WPs 2-7, provide evidence for the achievement of the expected outputs and outcomes, and investigate causal chains and inter-relations to the expected impacts on science, society and economy. Within the first year, WP8 has planned how to approach and implement impact assessment throughout the project in six predefined impact areas by developing logic models and engaging the consortium in identifying potential indicators and instruments to investigate progress.
ECS stands out by offering a significant number of activities and opportunities for knowledge brokering, co-design and collaboration, building infrastructure for citizen science, providing training and building capacity targeted to a variety of actors, groups and organisations both already part of the citizen science community in Europe and newcomers.
ECS aims to contribute to these expected outcomes:
- Strengthened links and collaboration between citizen science initiatives and other research and innovation actors
- Increased capacity to conduct excellent research and innovation through citizen science, while maximising other potential benefits of citizen science
- Data infrastructures better aligned to the needs of citizen science, and improved data practices employed by citizen science initiatives
- Europe positioned as a leader in citizen science throughout the entire research and innovation system with flourishing and mutually beneficial global collaborations
These outcomes contribute to medium and long-term impacts. The latter will need time to unfold as they will be achieved beyond the project lifetime. The impact assessment of ECS will investigate causal chains and interrelations to the expected impacts on science, society and economy by defining impact pathways.
ECS aims to contribute to these expected outcomes:
- Strengthened links and collaboration between citizen science initiatives and other research and innovation actors
- Increased capacity to conduct excellent research and innovation through citizen science, while maximising other potential benefits of citizen science
- Data infrastructures better aligned to the needs of citizen science, and improved data practices employed by citizen science initiatives
- Europe positioned as a leader in citizen science throughout the entire research and innovation system with flourishing and mutually beneficial global collaborations
These outcomes contribute to medium and long-term impacts. The latter will need time to unfold as they will be achieved beyond the project lifetime. The impact assessment of ECS will investigate causal chains and interrelations to the expected impacts on science, society and economy by defining impact pathways.