ECS aims to widen and strengthen the European Citizen Science community through capacity building and awareness raising activities.

ECS capitalises on EU-funded actions such as the EU-Citizen.Science platform and Cos4Cloud to support links and collaboration between members of the European Citizen Science community, who are involved in the co-design and co-creation of a large variety of services, strategic priorities, training opportunities and policy recommendations. A key focus is on inclusivity, which is achieved through dedicated actions such as engaging libraries affiliated to the Public Libraries 2030 network to attract underrepresented publics, as well as ad-hoc support to countries/regions lacking citizen science networks, platforms and policy recognition.

ECS creates extensive capacity building opportunities by engaging in particular excellent researchers in a variety of disciplines, for example through the involvement of the Marie Curie Alumni Association, and emerging Horizon Europe Missions, Clusters, and wider ERA activities, to allow easy access for newcomers in citizen science activities. ECS is committed to push modern science towards open science as its modus operandi by providing open collaborative spaces where citizen scientists can familiarise with the concept of "open and FAIR data with open and FAIR tools" and get actively engaged, while connecting with existing e-infrastructures such as EOSC through the collaborative development of data/metadata services. The engagement of the Global Citizen Science Partnership guarantees wide international cooperation. These efforts will result in a number of key scientific, societal and policy impacts which will strongly contribute to securing Europe's global position as a leader in citizen science throughout the entire research and innovation system.

ZSI is responsible for impact assessment of all project activities, including the definition of impact pathways and metrics, and focusing on the assessment of 1) scientific and institutional embedding; 2) societal and political embedding; as well as 3) economic and technological embedding. 

Team:

• Dr. Barbara Kieslinger (project leader)
• Magª. Teresa Schäfer / Schaefer, (formerly known as Holocher-Ertl)
• Stefanie Schuerz, MA

Section: Technology and Knowledge

Partners:

• Agencia Estatal Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas
• Blue World Institute
• Fondazione Grosseto Cultura
• Fundacion Ibercivis
• Institute of Geonics of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic
• Marie Curie Alumni Association
• Museum für Naturkunde
• Nordic Agency for Development and Ecology
• Nordlicht Management Consultant Gmbh
• Norsk institutt for luftforskning
• Public Libraries 2030
• Science for Change
• Stickydot
• The Mofet Institute
• Trinity College Dublin
• Universiteit Leiden
• Université Paris Cité
• Web2Learn
• European Citizen Science Association (Coordinator)

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• News: Trust in Science and Democracy
• Event: Webinar on “Spreading Citizen Science in the Western Balkans”