Doing it Together Science (DITOs) was a 3-year project, aimed to increase awareness of and participation in citizen science across Europe and beyond. The challenge that DITOs addresses was the need for higher level of public engagement with science, and science engagement with the public in the development of new technologies and scientific projects. These relationships are identified within the Horizon 2020 research programme as part of the effort to develop a Responsible Research and Innovation (RRI) framework.
By its nature, the RRI framework is dealing with many aspects of scientific practice – from public engagement with science, inclusion of underrepresented groups, and in particular women, in science, as well as the ethical conducts of scientists. Citizen science, which is the participation of people from outside research institutions and universities in scientific projects, is seen as an increasingly important part of the public engagement with science. This area has emerged rapidly over the past 10 years, and require sharing of best practice as well as promotion. The project is aimed at elevating public engagement with science across Europe from passive engagement with the process of developing science to an active one.Citizen Science and Do It Yourself (DIY) scientific efforts demonstrate that this is possible, and our aim is to ensure that the European Research Area will become leader in ‘deep’ public engagement that is afforded by these advances.
As a 'Coordination and Support Action', the project is focused on communication, coordination, and support of activities related to citizen science. Therefore, the project promotes the sharing of best practices among existing networks for a greater public and policy engagement with citizen science through a wide range of events and activities.
Some of these activities include doing citizen science, as 'engaging by doing' is central to the effort of the project. Other activities, both online and offline, are focused on communicating different facets of citizen science, from in-depth engagement with small and organised groups to large-scale engagement via social media.
In this way, DITOs supports existing and new projects across the landscape of citizen science: top-down projects, in which people join an activity that is designed and coordinated by scientists; bottom-up science activities, in which people, scientifically trained or not, organise a research project around a problem of direct concern (this is sometimes known as Do It Yourself - DIY - science); as well as collaborative projects that are created jointly by scientists and participants. For strengthening Citizen Science in Europe in the long run, the project is linked to the European Citizen Science Association.
To achieve these overall aim of the project, we have set a set of objectives to create a tangible ‘Do-It-Together Science’ method for
a) wider and deeper public participation in science and awareness of Responsible Research and Innovation (RRI);
b) raising governments' awareness of the benefits of the citizen science approach for both society and for science; and
c) guiding funding agencies to set up schemes that take into account the different levels of engagement and their impact.
