1st Meeting of ScienceUs Project in Madrid, Spain!
The ScienceUs project officially commenced with a significant inaugural meeting held in Madrid on January 26. Picture a gathering of enthusiastic individuals unified by a common goal: to establish a European network of interconnected citizen science projects. As we explore the essence of ScienceUs, envision a dynamic consortium striving to transcend geographical boundaries and foster collaborative relationships across the European Union.
Cultivating Change: The Core Objective
The main objective of ScienceUs is to create an EU-wide network of interconnected citizen science projects. A combined support program of direct funding and support services will be provided to a group of high-potential citizen science initiatives. A strong set of communication, dissemination, and knowledge transfer activities will be implemented to engage all actors in the quadruple helix around the citizen science networks.
Imagine a future where citizens actively contribute to addressing climate change challenges through science – that is the vision behind ScienceUs. The project is set to implement a comprehensive 3-phase support program, providing direct funding and support services to exceptional citizen science initiatives. These initiatives have been carefully selected for their potential to be upscaled and make a significant impact across EU regions.
A Three-Phase Support Program Unveiled
ScienceUs will launch an open call to select outstanding proposals to upscale citizen science initiatives to other EU regions. The project will have to address the challenges related to ‘adaptation to climate change’ identified during the benchmarking period, applicants must be able to justify the impact of their projects on other global challenges or other EU missions.
Phase One: Laying the Foundation
ScienceUs begins by nurturing the roots of outstanding citizen science initiatives. Through direct funding and support services, we aim to fortify the foundations, ensuring the viability and sustainability of these projects. ScienceUs will help these initiatives in defining a transnational citizen science campaign plan.
Phase Two: Scaling the Heights
As promising projects emerge, ScienceUs provides the necessary support to scale them to greater heights. This phase is about amplifying impact and expanding the reach of citizen-driven solutions to climate change adaptation. ScienceUs will support the initiatives in Implementing the transnational campaign plan by facilitating the matchmaking between EU citizen science initiatives and the involvement of quadruple helix actors in the projects.
Phase Three: Interconnecting Dreams
The final phase is a visionary one, where ScienceUs envisions these projects blossoming into interconnected networks across different EU regions. The aim is to create European citizen science networks in various research and technological areas related to “Adaptation to Climate Change.” ScienceUs will support the initiatives in Facilitating that these supported citizen science projects transfer the best practices and lessons learnt to other initiatives and projects and to quadruple helix actors (mainly policy makers) generating a knowledge spillover effect.
Connecting Minds, Transforming Futures
Together, we connect minds, transcend boundaries, and lay the foundation for a resilient and united Europe, ready to face the challenges of tomorrow.
ScienceUs is led by the Universidad Autonoma De Madrid (Spain). The 7 European partners participating in ScienceUs are Universite D’aix Marseille (France), Ethniko Kai Kapodistriako Panepistimio Athinon (Greece), Universitatea Din Bucuresti (Romania), Universite Libre De Bruxelles (Belgium), Universita Degli Studi Di Roma La Sapienza (Italy), Eberhard Karls Universitaet Tuebingen (Germany) and Museum Fur Naturkunde (Germany) offering diverse experiences and know-how, which represent a broad, balanced, and targeted geographical area.
Join us in this adventure as we unfold the chapters of ScienceUs, where every citizen science initiative is a protagonist in the epic tale of climate change adaptation. Together, let’s write a story of innovation, collaboration, and a greener, sustainable future for us all.
“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.”