Periodic Reporting for period 1 - GREENGAGE (GREENGAGE - engaging citizens - mobilizing technology - delivering the green deal)
Reporting period: 2023-01-01 to 2024-06-30
GREENGAGE aims to promote innovative governance process and help public authorities in shaping their climate mitigation and adaptation policies. To achieve this aim, the GREENGAGE project leverages citizens’ participation and equips them with innovative digital solutions thus providing the basis to co-create and co-design innovative solutions for monitoring environmental problems at ground level. The developed GREENGAGE Observatories will be further incorporated into the urban planning decision-making process.
GREENGAGE’s mission is to enhance intelligence applied to city decision-making processes and governance by delivering innovative governance models and to harness the social and cultural opportunities by promoting active engagement of citizens in data collection and use of urban decision-making via GREENGAGE Observatories.
Through the establishment of GREENGAGE Observatories, we strive to foster a collaborative ecosystem where citizens actively participate in data collection and contribute to informed decision-making processes. By doing so, the project will transform citizen’s engagement and cities’ effectiveness in delivering the European Green Deal objectives for carbon neutral cities.
The main objectives are:
-Raise citizens’ awareness, interest, and engagement in urban environmental issues
-Provide scientifically-sound and rigorous methods for citizen understanding of environmental data
-Promote and ensure broader acceptance and implementation rates of data collected by citizens in policy- and decision-making
-Promote the co-creation of data solutions for the urban environment
-Establish synergies among partner cities, with other Citizen Observatories and environmental agencies to exchange best practices, ensure transferability, uptake, and replication of successful Citizen Observatory experiences
GREENGAGE’s mission is to enhance intelligence applied to city decision-making processes and governance by delivering innovative governance models and to harness the social and cultural opportunities by promoting active engagement of citizens in data collection and use of urban decision-making via GREENGAGE Observatories.
Through the establishment of GREENGAGE Observatories, we strive to foster a collaborative ecosystem where citizens actively participate in data collection and contribute to informed decision-making processes. By doing so, the project will transform citizen’s engagement and cities’ effectiveness in delivering the European Green Deal objectives for carbon neutral cities.
The main objectives are:
-Raise citizens’ awareness, interest, and engagement in urban environmental issues
-Provide scientifically-sound and rigorous methods for citizen understanding of environmental data
-Promote and ensure broader acceptance and implementation rates of data collected by citizens in policy- and decision-making
-Promote the co-creation of data solutions for the urban environment
-Establish synergies among partner cities, with other Citizen Observatories and environmental agencies to exchange best practices, ensure transferability, uptake, and replication of successful Citizen Observatory experiences
The co-design of GREENGAGE Observatories began in WP2, pooling theoretical and experiential knowledge from GREENGAGE pilots using a background and context questionnaire as part of the CoReS method. This focused on stakeholders, citizen science, data, ethics, privacy, impact, and technology. It led to co-creating initial environmental use cases and the GREENGAGE Methodological Framework. These use cases were refined with pilot owners, deriving requirements and exploring governance models, providing a foundation for GREENGAGE technology innovation.
WP3 further refined the framework through workshops and collaborative writings. We established an organizational structure with WP1 to implement GREENGAGE, forming Pilot Support Teams to support contextual learning and co-design thematic explorations. WP3 also co-developed pilot-specific Roadmaps for operationalizing local citizen science experiments and establishing GREENGAGE Observatories.
In the first 18 months, WP4 developed the infrastructure and toolbox for GREENGAGE Citizen Observatories, releasing the GREEN Engine v1. Initial efforts integrated partner technologies with open-source tools, resulting in the GREEN Engine's design, which organizes tools into Community and Co-production Process Management, Data Crowdsourcing and Curation, and Analysis and Visualization. By month 12, WP4 delivered a comprehensive suite of tools and services, including GREENGAGE apps and tools like Apache Superset and NiFi.
Under WP5, the project implemented the Methodological framework for GREENGAGE Observatories, integrating citizen participation with environmental governance. The GOs brought together public authorities, researchers, and local communities to collaborate on citizen-led data collection and analysis to influence local policies. Community-building events fostered mutual learning and strengthened bonds between participants. Continuous training and campaigning efforts equipped Pilots and participants with skills to collect, analyze, and share environmental data for local decision-making.
WP6's Evaluation and Continuous Impact Assessment began in June 2023, establishing a methodology based on Criteria Indicators and Metrics (CIM) from previous EU projects. The evaluation process involves Design, Co-Development, Implementation, and Reporting stages. WP6 also explores data privacy and impact assessment of GREENGAGE assets.
WP7 handles scientific outreach by engaging with the broader scientific community to discuss the conceptualization of GREENGAGE Observatories. The approach was presented at three major international events exploring the intersection of science, technology, and society, contributing through presentations, panel discussions, and workshops.
WP3 further refined the framework through workshops and collaborative writings. We established an organizational structure with WP1 to implement GREENGAGE, forming Pilot Support Teams to support contextual learning and co-design thematic explorations. WP3 also co-developed pilot-specific Roadmaps for operationalizing local citizen science experiments and establishing GREENGAGE Observatories.
In the first 18 months, WP4 developed the infrastructure and toolbox for GREENGAGE Citizen Observatories, releasing the GREEN Engine v1. Initial efforts integrated partner technologies with open-source tools, resulting in the GREEN Engine's design, which organizes tools into Community and Co-production Process Management, Data Crowdsourcing and Curation, and Analysis and Visualization. By month 12, WP4 delivered a comprehensive suite of tools and services, including GREENGAGE apps and tools like Apache Superset and NiFi.
Under WP5, the project implemented the Methodological framework for GREENGAGE Observatories, integrating citizen participation with environmental governance. The GOs brought together public authorities, researchers, and local communities to collaborate on citizen-led data collection and analysis to influence local policies. Community-building events fostered mutual learning and strengthened bonds between participants. Continuous training and campaigning efforts equipped Pilots and participants with skills to collect, analyze, and share environmental data for local decision-making.
WP6's Evaluation and Continuous Impact Assessment began in June 2023, establishing a methodology based on Criteria Indicators and Metrics (CIM) from previous EU projects. The evaluation process involves Design, Co-Development, Implementation, and Reporting stages. WP6 also explores data privacy and impact assessment of GREENGAGE assets.
WP7 handles scientific outreach by engaging with the broader scientific community to discuss the conceptualization of GREENGAGE Observatories. The approach was presented at three major international events exploring the intersection of science, technology, and society, contributing through presentations, panel discussions, and workshops.
The project will result in GREENGAGE Academy where pool of resources provides essential starting kit for public authorities. The actual impact of these resources will be evaluated in the second phase of the project.
To enable ongoing onboarding and to achieve high numbers of participants in pilot’s Observatories, storytelling on social media channels needs to accompany the whole process of Observatories. To achieve policy innovation, GREENGAGE stories need to be linked to issues that are publicly discussed or of shared concern. To demonstrate and maintain the GREENGAGE approach beyond the project, strategic storytelling about the Innovation Action as such and networking with sister projects, policy influencers and is key.
To enable ongoing onboarding and to achieve high numbers of participants in pilot’s Observatories, storytelling on social media channels needs to accompany the whole process of Observatories. To achieve policy innovation, GREENGAGE stories need to be linked to issues that are publicly discussed or of shared concern. To demonstrate and maintain the GREENGAGE approach beyond the project, strategic storytelling about the Innovation Action as such and networking with sister projects, policy influencers and is key.