CA15212 - Citizen Science to promote creativity, scientific literacy, and innovation throughout Europe (CS-EU)

We are witnessing a remarkable growth of citizen science (CS), that is, the participation of people from all walks of life in scientific research. The main aim of this Action is to bundle capacities across Europe to investigate and extend the impact of the scientific, educational, policy, and civic outcomes of citizen science with the stakeholders from all sectors concerned (e.g., policy makers, social innovators, citizens, cultural organizations, researchers, charities and NGOs), to gauge the potential of citizen science as enabler of social innovation and socio-ecological transition. The Action will explore the potential transformative power of citizen science for smart, inclusive, and sustainable ends, and will provide frameworks for the exploitation of the potential of European citizens for science and innovation. The relevance and timeliness of the Action derive from the recent explosion of activity around citizen science, as ordinary people and researchers begin to understand the power of technological devices which allow them to record the environment around them and share and collectively interpret data and knowledge to advance science and society.

Given the trans-disciplinarity of citizen science, the Action will benefit from the different contributions and perspectives from a range of disciplines and research cultures. As the latter rarely overlap and engage directly, the Action provides an ideal means for knowledge sharing and focused development on the topic by enabling better integration of separate national activities at a European and international scale.