REINFORCE was aiming at closing the gap between citizens and Research Infrastuctures (RI) by launching four cutting-edge Citizens Science projects

Large Research Infrastructures in the field of frontier Physics have opened new observational windows to the universe and explore the structure of matter in extreme detail. These advancements require high levels of expertise and sophistication. On the other hand, society, lacking this level of expertise, merely observes these developments through outreach activities but does not actively contribute in the development of new scientific knowledge. This fact induces a gap between frontier science and society that can spawn misconceptions about the content, context and mission of public funded frontier science.
The REINFORCE project wanted to find answers to the questions: a) Can citizens contribute in the development of new knowledge in frontier science? b) Can citizens apply this new knowledge to solve societal problems? c) How can we integrate citizen feedback? REINFORCE goes beyond outreach  programmes and aims to minimize the gap between Society and Large Research Infrastructures in the field of Physics through the: i) Development and implementation of 4 cutting-edge Citizen Science projects in the fields of Gravitational Waves, Neutrino Astronomy, Particle Physics and Cosmic Ray interplay with geoscience and archaeology with citizens: Citizens analyzed data and supported the optimization of sensitive detectors in order to enhance their discovery potential. ii) Implementation of a participatory design in citizen science: Communities of citizens developed, trained and empowered to contribute in the scientific mission of Large Research Infrastructures. iii) Effective inclusion of sensitive citizen groups as well as the active interaction with secondary and tertiary education. iv) Aggregating best practices in a pan-European policy roadmap. REINFORCE was aiming to engage more than 100,000 citizens across Europe and beyond, to help enhance society’s science literacy and awareness and to contribute in the production of scientific knowledge by citizens for society.

Team:

• Magª. Dr. Elisabeth Unterfrauner (project leader)
• Dr. Claudia Magdalena Fabian
• Dr. Barbara Kieslinger
• Dr. Johannes Simon
• Juliet Tschank, M.A.

Section: Technology and Knowledge

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