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Extreme Citizen Science Techniques And Tools In the Cloud

Project description

Advancing technology for co-created citizen science

Over the past decade, the Extreme Citizen Science group has developed a methodology for involving low-literate participants in co-producing scientific knowledge, thereby benefitting native communities and their environments. This methodology includes the use of technical tools such as the Sapelli Collector, Sapelli Designer, and Sapelli Viewer, which have proven highly successful in the Global South. The ERC-funded ECSTATIC project recognises the advantages of engaging larger communities and aims to create a scaled-up, streamlined successor to such data collection and visualisation technology. This new toolset will facilitate use, provide a simpler path to future support services, and enable collaboration with other organisations.

Objective

Over the past decade, the Extreme Citizen Science group has developed a methodology to engage low literate participants in the co-production of scientific knowledge, in an inclusive and ethical methodology that ensures community involvement and shared benefits. The methodology involved a set of technical tools, that are named Sapelli Collector, Sapelli Viewer, Sapelli Designer, and GeoKey. Prototypes of these tools were developed through the ERC-AdG-2015 ECSAnVis project and have been shown to be effective and useful in over twenty case studies in twelve countries in the Global South. Our research has thus demonstrated that any community with low technical literacy can play a part and collect data with smartphones in all the different landscapes of the planet, from rainforest to drylands and croplands. Enabling this has the potential of engaging 1 billion people, currently excluded from knowledge co-production.

The ECSTATIC project is taking the next step in scaling up the use of this novel socio-technical approach to develop large scale community-led social-ecological services. The approach holds the potential of addressing a wide range of social and environmental issues - from protecting resources that are critical for Indigenous people, to mitigating climate change risks, and monitoring supply chains in remote locations through co-created citizen science. The aim of the project is to develop the next generation of Sapelli technology so it is streamlined and integrated, and therefore can be used more easily by third parties, as well as identify the necessary pathway for the development of a knowledge-based social business with Software as a Service and support services at its core. This way, the technology can remain free and open source, including guidelines and tutorials, while securing the necessary funding to develop it further. Collaborations with Non-Governmental Organisations in Cameroon and Ethiopia will ensure the efficacy and relevance of the project.

Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)

Keywords

Programme(s)

Topic(s)

Funding Scheme

HORIZON-ERC-POC - HORIZON ERC Proof of Concept Grants

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Call for proposal

(opens in new window) ERC-2023-POC

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Host institution

MUSEUM NATIONAL D'HISTOIRE NATURELLE
Net EU contribution
€ 150 000,00
Address
RUE CUVIER 57
75005 Paris
France
Region
Ile-de-France Ile-de-France Paris
Activity type
Higher or Secondary Education Establishments
Links
Total cost
No data

Beneficiaries (1)