Upscale Academy Session – Co-creation and Design Thinking
Session Overview
Date: 05/02/2026
Type: online
Led by: Science for change (Barcelona) – Héloïse Vilaseca (& Gloria Koepke)
Participating CS sub-projects:
– Alleviating Energy Poverty in Vulnerable Households (ENERPOV-CRE),
– Acqua Sorgente,
– Coastal Resilience: Action Through Citizen Science (CoRe-ACTS),
– Future is Climate
In this session, participants first received deep insights into the different steps of and methods for design thinking: Empathize, Define, Ideate, Prototype, Test.
Then, through an interactive case study (using a Miro board) ScienceUs projects practiced on designing together an imaginary 3-hour session and chose the best methodologies to explore 1) stakeholder’s motivations and barriers, 2) identify common patterns, relevance and priorities, and 3) finally define data collection strategy.
Finally, Science for change shared valuable tips on how to behave and best support the session’s goal as a facilitator, in terms of time management, participation and roles management, how they seek to collect data.
Topics of the Session
- Different steps of and methods for design thinking: Empathize, Define, Ideate, Prototype, Test.
- Methodologies to explore 1) stakeholder’s motivations and barriers, 2) identify common patterns, relevance and priorities, and 3) finally define data collection strategy.
- Workshop facilitation
Quotes from Participants
“Very productive session”
“I really liked the guidelines to react to unexpected (actually expected) situations such as inappropriate comments, someone who monopolizes the conversation, etc.”
“Everything was rich with information.“
Tools, Methods & Resources
- Different steps of and methods for design thinking: Empathize, Define, Ideate, Prototype, Test.
- 3 basics rules of workshop facilitation:
Think with your hands, « Yes » rule, build on the ideas of the others.
- Resolve conflict, interrupt a diverging conversation.
What’s Next?
This boucle’s up the Academy sessions on Participation. Next up will be a series of sessions on Policy Advice starting on the 10th of February with and introduction to the dimensions of policy impact, launching the transition towards the Harvest Phase of the project and the upcoming Kick-Off Meeting in Brussels.
“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.”