Welcoming Guillermina Actis as a Visiting Scholar at ZSI // ZSI

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Welcoming Guillermina Actis as a Visiting Scholar at ZSI

1. Nov. 2024

Supported by an Ernst Mach Fellowship from OeAD.

We are thrilled to announce that for the coming months Guillermina Actis has joined the ZSI team as a visiting scholar, supported by an Ernst Mach Fellowship from the Austrian Exchange Service (OeAD). Guillermina, a PhD candidate in Science and Technology at the National University of Quilmes (UNQ) in Argentina, has been actively engaged in studying open and collaborative practices in knowledge production and science policy at the Research Centre for Transformation (UNSAM) since 2018.

From 2020 to 2023, we worked together with Guillermina in the international Citizen Social Science project CoAct. Guillermina contributed to CoAct’s Research and Innovation Action in Argentina, focusing on environmental justice in the contaminated Matanza-Riachuelo river basin. Her work led to the co-creation of an open digital platform for citizen data collection, a policy brief on citizen science in policymaking, and national recognition by the Argentinian government.

Since the CoAct project, Guillermina has continued to advance citizen science initiatives in Argentina. Together with her supervisor, Valeria Arza, CoAct’s Argentinian coordinator, Guillermina has recently co-authored a policy brief, “Citizen Science in Latin America: Perspectives and Policies,” for UNESCO’s Regional Bureau for Science in Latin America and the Caribbean. Additionally, she collaborates with the Open Environmental Data Project in the United States, exploring the role of open infrastructures in environmental research with frontline communities.

As a visiting scholar at ZSI, Guillermina will focus on studying Austria’s institutional approach to citizen science frameworks, aiming to produce a comprehensive report on Austria's policies, strategies, and instruments promoting openness in science and technology. This research will identify pathways for societal engagement in science and technology and Austria's distinctive role in fostering participatory research.

We look forward to the insights Guillermina will bring to our citizen science and participatory research initiatives, and we are excited to support her research journey over the next three months.