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Welcome to the latest Scivil newsletter!
In recent months, the Scivil team was present at several interesting events and we're eager to share our experiences. Explore some more Belgian citizen science news and an inspiring interview about the socially binding aspect of citizen science.
Enjoy! |
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Our amai! project at ADAPT's think-in workshop |
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At the end of June, our amai! project on artificial intelligence was present at a 'Think-in' workshop in Dublin. The workshops host ADAPT organised several 'Citizen's Think-Ins', uniting a diverse mix of academics and civil society organisations to delve into AI's various facets. Our colleague Karen shared her experiences of engaging citizens in AI in amai! Explore the workshop report through this link. |
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Scivil at COESO conference Paris |
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From October 19 to 21, our coordinator Annelies was present at the 'Connect. Collaborate. Create.' conference in Paris organised by the COESO and Pro-Ethics projects. Annelies was part of the opening panel discussing 'What does it take to make citizen science grow? Models and experiences to support participatory practices'. The conference offered a wide range of interesting sessions on activating participatory research and citizen science involving the social sciences and humanities, and how to foster ethical participatory approaches to research funding. |
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Citizen jury plays vital role in amai! |
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More news about our amai! project on artificial intelligence: while the public vote just finished, the project has also arranged two gatherings with the citizen jury to consider the projects. 15 citizens gathered for two Saturdays in Leuven to rank the projects in terms of their societal impact. The highest scoring project of the citizen jury, not already selected by the public vote, will also receive funding from amai! Would you like to learn more about the process? Read all about it in this article. |
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Legal challenges for citizen science initiatives |
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In addition to the typical challenges related to communication, engagement, and data management, citizen science initiatives also face legal obstacles. Scivil co-organised an interesting workshop within the Collaboration Group of the ECS project in August, which centred on the theme of 'Citizen Science and the Law'. You can now read the output in a blog post! |
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Annelies is ECS ambassador! |
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The European Citizen Science project (ECS) chose 25 ambassadors in September, and our own coordinator Annelies is one of them! The ECS project wants to broaden and strengthen the European citizen science community, and it achieves this through a variety of activities, including the further development of the eu-citizen.science platform. Have you already added your citizen science project to this European platform? Help us in placing Belgium on the map of the citizen science landscape by adding your project to the platform today! |
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Citizen Science for invasive species: a practical guide |
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The COST Action Alien-CSI developed a practical guide to help initiators set up citizen science projects on alien species. The guide focuses on what's important when setting up and implementing projects on invasive species. It offers valuable recommendations on engaging your target audience, collecting, processing and making your data available, evaluating your project results etc. The Research Institute for Nature and Forest (INBO) and Scivil collaborated on the development of the guide. |
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BELGIAN CITIZEN SCIENCE IN EUROPE |
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- The Citizen Heritage project has launched a self-assessment tool for institutions that want to plan activities with cultural heritage collections where citizen participation will have a prominent role. The tool helps verifying whether citizen science is an appropriate approach for your initiative and if so, it helps you implement the methodology to make the activities as successful as possible for all parties.
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Are you passionate about citizen science and air quality? Join the Citizen Science Global Partnerships's Air Quality working group. The working group was initiated together with 'CurieuzeNeuzen" and is part of the initiative to scale up citizen science projects to developing countries. Register here!
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In recent months, the EUTOPIA TRAIN project held eight 'Citizen Science Clinics'. These sessions united the citizen science community to exchange experiences on specific citizen science subthemes. Explore the compiled outcomes here!
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The SOCIO-BEE project has developed a toolkit for inclusive citizen science. Consult it at this link!
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Several authors, including Carina Veeckman of SMIT-VUB, published an article on storytelling methods in citizen science. Read the publication here!
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EUROPEAN CITIZEN SCIENCE IN BELGIUM |
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Final Conference YouCount |
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Save the date! YouCount is hosting its final conference in Brussels and online from 4 to 5 December. The first day will focus on how to conduct hands-on citizen social science with young people, making it especially relevant for practitioners. The second full conference day will focus on results and implications for policymaking. |
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INTERESTING CALLS AND PUBLICATIONS |
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- The PRO-ethics framework helps research funding organizations implement participatory activities in an ethical manner. Read it here!
- The deadline for papers for the European Science Engagement Association Conference is December 1. Submissions can be made through this link.
- For the Living Knowledge conference in June 2024, the deadline for papers is December 23. You can find more information through this link.
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"Citizen science can create strong connections. Everyone is committed to the landscape and with a citizen science project you can avoid unnecessary polarization between agriculture and nature and you can focus on constructive dialogue.."
– Frederik Gerits |
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In each newsletter we want to inspire you through an interview with a researcher, practitioner or citizen involved in citizen science. This way, we want to share good practices, innovative approaches and success stories of citizen science projects.
This time we interviewed Frederik Gerits, scientific researcher affiliated with ILVO (Institute for Agricultural, Fisheries and Food Research). Frederik will tell you some more about the socially binding aspect of citizen science. |
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Compared to traditional scientific research, citizen science introduces new challenges in the realms of privacy and ethics. These challenges encompass issues related to data quality and authenticity, the dissemination of findings, intellectual property concerns, as well as potential conflicts of interest and the utilization of volunteers. A myriad of challenges awaits, and you can discover valuable guidance on addressing them in our 'Getting Started' and 'Communication' guide. To kickstart your journey, here are three preliminary tips! |
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