NEWSERA is announcing its final conference!
Join the event in Brussels – or follow the livestream – on March 29th 2023 to learn about the project’s journey and results, and join the conversation around the emerging fields of citizen science communication and citizen science journalism.
- citizen science | open science
- Wednesday 29 March 2023, 09:00 - 16:30 (CEST)
- Brussels, Belgium
Practical information
- When
- Wednesday 29 March 2023, 09:00 - 16:30 (CEST)
- Where
- VenueBIP Meeting Centre, 1000 Brussels, Belgium
- Languages
- English
- Website
- Event website
Description
The NEWSERA project (Grant Agreement n. 873125), a Horizon 2020 project leading the research on citizen science communication, will host its final event in Brussels on March 29th, 2023. During the three years of its course, NEWSERA has studied how citizen science initiatives can innovate the way they communicate science, to engage multiple parts of society and create common benefits. The results of this research will be presented during the final event with the showcasing of the "NEWSERA Blueprints and a Guide for Citizen Science Communication and Citizen Science Journalism", a set of documents that will provide tools, channels, and case studies for citizen science initiatives to design effective science communication strategies addressed to quadruple helix stakeholders (citizens, academia, policymakers and industry) and journalists.
Citizen science – a participatory research approach that involves non-experts in scientific research – has a great potential to generate alliances across science and society, increase trust in science and science communication and promote scientific literacy among the general public.
The data generated by participants in citizen science projects, for example, can be exploited to inform evidence-based policies to tackle local environmental or social issues – a power that makes citizen science the ideal ally for policymakers and local administrators. Participatory research can also drive responsible innovation in industry and SMEs, as well as bring new approaches and resources to academic research, and be a source for local, public-interest stories for science and data journalists.
During its course, NEWSERA involved 39 citizen science initiatives across Southern Europe to co-design and test innovative communication strategies addressed to quadruple-helix stakeholders and journalists. The NEWSERA final event will feature roundtables with its Pilot projects’ representatives, who will share their lessons learnt.
There will also be talks on science communication and citizen science by Aleksandra Hebda (Policy Officer, DG R&I, European Commission), Roberta Monachello (NEWSERA Project Officer), and Vita Crivello (Policy Analyst, European Science Media Hub). The future of research in this field will be explored, with a speech on the ENJOI project for high-quality science journalism by Elisabetta Tola (ENJOI Coordinator), and presentations on fellow Horizon Europe projects COALESCE, IMPETUS, and ECS.
According to Rosa Arias, NEWSERA’s coordinator: “During our work in the #CitSciComm Labs with 39 Citizen Science initiatives, we realised there is a widespread lack of resources and knowledge in science communication and a common need of CS projects to communicate well with multiple stakeholders. We tested strategies, learned from each other and translated our results into blueprints to help other projects to better engage their target stakeholders to multiply their impacts. We have also boosted the connection with journalists to produce beautiful data stories in connection with society."
The NEWSERA final event will be held in the historic centre of Brussels (BIP Meeting Centre) and live-streamed on the project’s YouTube channel. Participation is free with mandatory registration on the NEWSERA website.
After the event, participants are invited to visit the DATA4CitSciNews exhibition at 19.00 (at Au Bassin). It will showcase several artworks to spark a discussion about how citizens and journalists and well-designed data collection can be the drivers behind investigation to ultimately respond to societal needs and benefit communities.