4th Newsletter of ScienceUs
Citizen Science in Action: Flourishing Together for Climate Resilience
🌱 Flourish Phase: A New Chapter Begins
The Flourish phase is now underway — the heart of the ScienceUs Upscale Academy, where intense support, mentoring, and networking converge to help selected citizen science initiatives scale across Europe.
The five projects chosen for this phase span diverse approaches toward climate adaptation and community resilience. During Flourish, they will deepen their impact through tailored support, access to infrastructures, and strategic planning.
Meet the projects:
- Blue-Green Tops – transforming rooftops in dense urban areas into climate-resilient, green infrastructures through citizen-driven data collection.
- Aqua Sorgente – empowering citizens to monitor and protect freshwater springs while raising awareness of water resources.
- Alleviating Energy Poverty in Vulnerable Households – using citizen science tools to help households monitor and optimize energy use for greater efficiency and climate resilience.
- CoRe-ACTS (Coastal Resilience: Action Through Citizen Science) – monitoring coastal erosion with innovative “Smart Pebbles” and citizen-led data collection.
- The Future is Climate (FIC) – mobilizing citizens in Spain to identify barriers to climate action and build collective intelligence for systemic solutions.
The Flourish phase provides tailored support, funding (up to €25,000 per project), and access to expert mentoring, helping these initiatives scale their impact and deliver transformative change.
📍 Flourish Phase Kick-off Meeting
On June 25–26, 2025, the Kick-off Meeting (KoM) for the Flourish phase took place at Aix-Marseille Université.
Highlights included:
- Inspiring presentations from the five Flourish projects.
- Hands-on workshops on citizen science infrastructures, stakeholder mapping, and open science.
- Expert contributions from ODS, OPERAS, CIVIS Open Lab, and the ScienceUs team.
- A vibrant exchange of ideas, challenges, and strategies to guide the upscaling journey.
This gathering marked the official start of a dynamic new chapter for ScienceUs, bringing projects and partners closer together in pursuit of climate resilience through citizen science.
🎓 ScienceUs Upscale Academy
During the Flourish phase, the five projects will participate in the Upscale Academy, receiving training and mentoring in:
- Research data collection and management
- Fundraising strategies (public and private)
- Communication and citizen engagement
- Open Science practices
- Policy development and regional analysis
- Intellectual property and ethics in citizen participation
By strengthening their capacities, these initiatives will be able to connect with European repositories like OpenAire and Zenodo, embed themselves into research strategies, and ensure long-term scientific and societal impact.
📢 2nd ScienceUs Info Day — From Knowledge to Action for Biodiversity
The ScienceUs 2nd Info Day was held online on 23 September 2025 (10:00-11:00 CET) under the theme “From Knowledge to Action for Biodiversity”.
What Took Place
- Three projects showcased how they are translating citizen science into on-the-ground biodiversity action:
• Acqua Sorgente, focusing on spring water monitoring in collaboration with Alpine clubs
• Night Owl 2.0 (Associação Taxus)
• ¡Por otra Alimentación, Jóvenes en Acción! (Sustainable Living Foundation) - Adaptation Agora project presented tools for climate change adaptation.
- The event probed how citizen science can counter “learned helplessness,” mobilize communities, and channel awareness into concrete impact.
- An open exchange allowed participants to network and explore collaboration across regions
🔭 What’s Next & How You Can Engage
- Follow the Flourish projects’ journeys: with periodic updates, insights, and stories of scaling impact.
- Join upcoming events: keep an eye on the ScienceUs website and newsletter for future Info Days, webinars, and workshops.
- Connect & collaborate: if you are working in citizen science, climate resilience, or biodiversity, reach out — there are many synergies to explore.
- Share & amplify: help spread the word about ScienceUs, its projects, and events to your networks.
- The results of the project will be published soon and you can be involved and have access to them.
Stay tuned for the updates and stay tuned as we follow these five initiatives on their path to flourish and make lasting contributions to climate resilience and citizen science in Europe!
Download the PDF version of Newsletter here
“Funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or European Research Executive Agency. Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them.”