Periodic Reporting for period 1 - INCENTIVE (Establishing Citizen Science Hubs in European Research Performing and Funding Organisations to drive institutional change and ground Responsible Research and Innovation in society)
Période du rapport: 2021-02-01 au 2022-07-31
Global challenges like climate change, resource depletion and ecological destruction call for a strong alliance between science and society. How to accelerate and promote scientific excellence while making sure that science and innovation remain inclusive and benefit society? To address these challenges, a handful of world leading universities - University of Twente (NL), Autonomous University of Barcelona (ES), Aristotle University of Thessaloniki (EL), Vilnius Gediminas Technical University (LT) - around the world have made concerted, organisation-wide efforts to establish sustainable transdisciplinary hubs for stimulating and supporting excellent citizen science with engaged roles for all Research and Innovation stakeholders. These ‘Citizen Science Hubs’ apply citizen science as a way of improving the quality, depth and impact of research. But also to interact with society in meaningful and deeply transformative ways and in this way transforming the outcomes of citizen science projects into follow-up projects and policy recommendations. In parallel, Citizen Science Hubs ensure the active involvement of citizens in science, as well as that stakeholders will have the appropriate channels and means in place to initiate, design and conduct such projects.
The Hubs will provide an open and fertile environment where citizens, citizen associations and civil society organisations will be able to set up and run their own citizen science projects, driven by their intrinsic motivations, daily concerns and broader societal challenges. Researchers, academics and students will be able to design and implement meaningful scientific research that bridges the gap between societal concerns and traditional science. And policy makers will be able to bring their own societal challenges in a broad range of topics, addressing them more effectively by means of richer, continuous, and more inclusive flow of data and results. Innovative SMEs and businesses will gain access to communities with whom they will be able co-design and test new products and services, at a much larger scale and with richer and granular inputs from citizen and professional scientists.
The Hubs will provide an open and fertile environment where citizens, citizen associations and civil society organisations will be able to set up and run their own citizen science projects, driven by their intrinsic motivations, daily concerns and broader societal challenges. Researchers, academics and students will be able to design and implement meaningful scientific research that bridges the gap between societal concerns and traditional science. And policy makers will be able to bring their own societal challenges in a broad range of topics, addressing them more effectively by means of richer, continuous, and more inclusive flow of data and results. Innovative SMEs and businesses will gain access to communities with whom they will be able co-design and test new products and services, at a much larger scale and with richer and granular inputs from citizen and professional scientists.
1) Understand the progress of the establishment of citizen science as a means of driving institutional change and embedding RRI in society. During the first period of the project, partners worked together to identify good practices of Citizen Science (CS) and capture insights on the success factors and barriers that may affect CS initiatives. Then, interviews and surveys were implemented to analyse and understand the status of CS. Finally, a large-scale survey ran in the four countries were the RPFOs are based, revealing the drivers, challenges, motivations and perceptions of the local stakeholders and the general public to support and participate in CS.
2) Develop tailored governance and operating models for the Citizen Science Hubs.
A Co-Creation Workshop was organized to engage with the stakeholders of each RPFO aiming to co-define the pivotal aspects of the governance and operation of the prospective CSHs. The outcomes were the starting points of related tasks that defined tailored governance structures and operating models for each CSH. Furthermore, a manual aimed at the establishment of the CSHs was delivered. In the first period also the project's Methodological Guide and Toolkit for setting up CSHs was prepared.
3) Enhance the ability of citizen scientists to meaningfully participate in all facets of R&I, and foster the development of communities around citizen science. The first interaction with different actors of society was through the survey on prospective citizen scientists’ expectations and motivations; 1936 observations from Greece, Lithuania, Spain and the Netherlands were gathered. Then, for the elaboration of the Manual for Citizen Science Community Building the perspectives of 1052 citizens from the above-mentioned countries were gathered on the incentivisation tools for the engagement and Quadruple Helix stakeholders in CS projects. Finally, a hybrid 2-day Mutual Learning Workshop was held to define how the CSHs can incentivise different types of stakeholders.
4) Demonstrate the potential of Citizen Science Hubs to promote institutional change through responsible and high-quality citizen science with greater involvement of R&I stakeholders. During this first period, we have focused on the co-creation of the CSHs. We organised co-creation workshop for the CSHs, in which we interacted with 30 stakeholders from academia, the public sector, the private sector and civil society.
5) Document the contribution of the Citizen Science Hubs in embedding Responsible Research and Innovation in society, as well as to fair, inclusive and sustainable development. During the first period of INCENTIVE, a thorough and robust monitoring and impact assessment framework was developed. To create the framework, we considered previous good practices and involved RPFO stakeholders and M&E experts.
6) Support RPFOs in consolidating sustainable institutional changes to realise their long-term intention to promote and support citizen science, driven by the keys of RRI and the ten Principles of Citizen Science, across their entire institution. A First INCENTIVE Policy Brief was submitted and a Stakeholder Engagement, Dissemination and Communication Plan that describes in details INCENTIVE’s communication strategy.
7) Support other RPFOs to implement institutional changes for the establishment of Citizen Science Hubs, establishing links between RPFOs and society and expanding citizen engagement in science. A series of concrete dissemination, communication and stakeholder engagement activities were implemented during the first reporting period. In total, more than 9.500 stakeholders were reached.
2) Develop tailored governance and operating models for the Citizen Science Hubs.
A Co-Creation Workshop was organized to engage with the stakeholders of each RPFO aiming to co-define the pivotal aspects of the governance and operation of the prospective CSHs. The outcomes were the starting points of related tasks that defined tailored governance structures and operating models for each CSH. Furthermore, a manual aimed at the establishment of the CSHs was delivered. In the first period also the project's Methodological Guide and Toolkit for setting up CSHs was prepared.
3) Enhance the ability of citizen scientists to meaningfully participate in all facets of R&I, and foster the development of communities around citizen science. The first interaction with different actors of society was through the survey on prospective citizen scientists’ expectations and motivations; 1936 observations from Greece, Lithuania, Spain and the Netherlands were gathered. Then, for the elaboration of the Manual for Citizen Science Community Building the perspectives of 1052 citizens from the above-mentioned countries were gathered on the incentivisation tools for the engagement and Quadruple Helix stakeholders in CS projects. Finally, a hybrid 2-day Mutual Learning Workshop was held to define how the CSHs can incentivise different types of stakeholders.
4) Demonstrate the potential of Citizen Science Hubs to promote institutional change through responsible and high-quality citizen science with greater involvement of R&I stakeholders. During this first period, we have focused on the co-creation of the CSHs. We organised co-creation workshop for the CSHs, in which we interacted with 30 stakeholders from academia, the public sector, the private sector and civil society.
5) Document the contribution of the Citizen Science Hubs in embedding Responsible Research and Innovation in society, as well as to fair, inclusive and sustainable development. During the first period of INCENTIVE, a thorough and robust monitoring and impact assessment framework was developed. To create the framework, we considered previous good practices and involved RPFO stakeholders and M&E experts.
6) Support RPFOs in consolidating sustainable institutional changes to realise their long-term intention to promote and support citizen science, driven by the keys of RRI and the ten Principles of Citizen Science, across their entire institution. A First INCENTIVE Policy Brief was submitted and a Stakeholder Engagement, Dissemination and Communication Plan that describes in details INCENTIVE’s communication strategy.
7) Support other RPFOs to implement institutional changes for the establishment of Citizen Science Hubs, establishing links between RPFOs and society and expanding citizen engagement in science. A series of concrete dissemination, communication and stakeholder engagement activities were implemented during the first reporting period. In total, more than 9.500 stakeholders were reached.
The results of a large-scale survey, suggest that CS is not a term widely diffused to the general public, as most people have not had experience with CS activities. However, younger generations and people with higher educational levels are more familiar with these concepts. For instance, Spanish and Greek survey participants, mostly under 40 years of age and owning a university degree, show a higher familiarity with these concepts. The survey also highlighted how social trends and the attitude toward CS are very different across countries and stakeholder groups, ranging from openness and active desire for involvement to a less enthusiastic view. This reflects the countries’ cultural differences, suggesting that civic engagement and active retainment in CS depend on many different factors, both at the macro (structural) and micro (individual) levels. To engage local communities requires attracting a wide range of stakeholders. Therefore, using effective engagement tools is necessary to achieve higher participation from all of society.
The impacts that have been distinguished within INCENTIVE are: Results should contribute to a greater involvement of all stakeholders in R&I, a better and more sustainable engagement with citizens and society as a whole, and a more scientifically interested and literate society; Consortia are expected to contribute to one or more of the MoRRI (Monitoring the Evolution and Benefits of Responsible Research and Innovation) indicators and the Sustainable Development Goals; The topic will support a significant number of impactful and sustainable institutional changes in partner organisations.
The impacts that have been distinguished within INCENTIVE are: Results should contribute to a greater involvement of all stakeholders in R&I, a better and more sustainable engagement with citizens and society as a whole, and a more scientifically interested and literate society; Consortia are expected to contribute to one or more of the MoRRI (Monitoring the Evolution and Benefits of Responsible Research and Innovation) indicators and the Sustainable Development Goals; The topic will support a significant number of impactful and sustainable institutional changes in partner organisations.