The University of Bucharest, involved in organizing the citizen science project competition relevant for the mission of the European Union “Adapting to climate change”

Within the ScienceUs project– Integration of citizen SCIENCE best practices to Upscale and maximize projects impact related to Green Deal and EU missions, financed by the European Commission through HORIZON-WIDERA-2023-ERA-01, the University of Bucharest is involved in developing a competition of science projects in the field of adapting to climate change.

The interdisciplinary Romanian team is coordinated by professor Cristian Ioja, PhD, teaching staff at the UB Faculty of Geography and includes researchers in the field of biology, geography and communication sciences.

ScienceUs aims to contribute to the creation of a European network of citizen science initiatives which can make the efforts to approach climate change challenges more efficient, by means of science. By encouraging the collaboration between the projects financed by the EU and the current citizen science initiatives, ScienceUs wishes to valorize collective efforts and the knowledge of citizens, researchers and organizations to develop innovative solutions for increasing climate resilience.

This approach democratizes scientific research and ensures that the perspectives and contributions of the public are integrated in the politics and decision-making processes, thus consolidating the impact the climate adaptation strategies in Europe.

The competition, launched in October

To complete this goal, the ScienceUs Academy will include direct financing and support services, which will be offered to citizen science initiatives with a high potential to be implemented at transnational scale. A consistent ensemble of communication activities, dissemination and knowledge transfer will be implemented to engage all actors from the quadruple helix (the academic environment, the business environment, government institutions, community) around the selected citizen science networks.

The competition is addressed to all juridical entities in the European Union and from all partner countries who have already implemented citizen science initiatives, which are relevant for the efforts to adapt to climate change, that are interested to extend their use to other regions of the EU and wish to benefit from the services of the  ScienceUs Academy.

The competition will be launched in October, with the University of Bucharest being the coordinator of the activity of creating the information and support materials package destined for this competition.

The competition will have 3 phases:

1. Phase 1 – SEED – 25 citizen science initiatives will be selected, that are relevant for the topic of adaptation to climate change and with a potential to be upscaled. Eligible projects will be invited to participate at a bootcamp in Berlin and will receive a support grant of 1000 euro, destined for the mobility in Berlin.
2. Phase 2 – FLOURISH – 5 of the 25 initiatives will be selected, and will benefit from the support of ScienceUs Academy, to develop the projects proposed. The maximum support grants is worth 25,000 euro, covering the participation to the events and activities organized.
3. Phase 3 – HARVEST – the 5 citizen science initiatives will consolidate their approach, so that they can have an effective contribution to the efforts of adapting to climate change. The support grant is worth 14,000 max, which will cover the participation to the events and activities organized.

The result of this project is a visionary one, in which ScienceUs aims to make these projects flourish in interconnected networks in different regions of the EU. The goal is to create European networks of Citizen Science initiatives in various research and technology fields regarding the adaptation to climate change.

The selected citizen science projects will benefit from support

ScienceUs will support the initiatives to facilitate transforming these projects into good practices and to transfer the lessons to other initiatives and projects and to the actors of the quadruple helix – mainly to the decision-making factors and the business environment – thus generating a knowledge propagation effect.

Within the ScienceUs Academy, citizen science projects will benefit from:

• Informational support: access to training materials, protocols and work manners in citizen science, open to all interested parties on the project’s website.
• Web seminaries and face-to-face training: involvement in various training ways which cover citizen science projects and work manners.
• Creating networks: facilitating connection with interested parties relevant to the quadruple helix, encouraging collaboration and synergy.
• Mentoring and coaching: offering guidance and support to face the challenges of the citizen science initiatives.
• Financing opportunities: access to public and private supplementary funds to nurture the increase and impact of the project.

The interdisciplinary team from Romania, significant contribution to the development of the project

ScienceUs is a project developed within CIVIS, a university Alliance comprising 11 of the most known European universities which reunites approximately half a million students and over 70,000 staff members, including over 37,400 teaching staff and researchers. The CIVIS network consolidates the connections in research among the member universities through interdisciplinarity and common research and financing infrastructures, meant to stimulate the projects developed in partnership.

Thus, CIVIS member universities are engaged in implementing the principles of the Bologna process with the aim to create a European higher education area. CIVIS has become a space of responsible and innovative education, of research, cultural exchange and citizen action in Europe. From the Baltic Sea to the Mediterranean Sea, CIVIS is permanently connected to all that is happening in the world, to its citizens and institutions. Next to the six other universities from the CIVIS consortium participating to the competition, Universidad Autonoma de Madrid, Aix Marseille Université, Ethniko Kai Kapodistriako Panepistimio Athinon, the University of Bucharest, Université Libre de Bruxelles, Sapienza Università di Roma and Eberhard Karls Universität Tübingen, the project also includes two other institutions of international prestige which are not affiliated to CIVIS, Protisvalor Mediterranee Sas and Museum für Naturkunde – Leibniz-Institut für Evolutions.

The University of Bucharest will have a significant contribution to this project, collaborating with other prestigious academic institutions and research organizations from the entire Europe to identify barriers, necessities and challenges that citizen science projects are confronting and to implement the best practices which can overcome these obstacles.

At the same time, the University of Bucharest will actively participate in evaluating the impact of the projects and in transferring the results to decision marking factors and the large audience.