The 5th European Citizen Science Association (ECSA) conference will take place in Vienna, Austria, from 3 - 6 April 2024. This is one of the leading citizen science events in Europe, where people from multiple backgrounds and disciplines will discuss citizen science and explore its potential for addressing societal and environmental issues. Colleagues from the Novel Data Ecosystem for Sustainability (NODES) Research Group are involved in ECSA and will run workshops and give presentations throughout the event.
Hosting institutions of the upcoming ECSA conference are ECSA, the University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Vienna, the Natural History Museum Vienna (NHMW) and the Citizen Science Network Austria - Österreich forscht. ECSA is a network of hundreds of individuals and organisations who share a vision of making science and research more open, accessible, and valuable for everyone. It supports the growth and recognition of citizen science in Europe and advocates for its inclusion, promotion, and funding as a valid and beneficial approach.
The conference theme is 'Change', as it reflects the current challenges and opportunities that citizen science faces in a time of rapid social and environmental change. As change can be both positively and negatively viewed, different perspectives on any given change can reach varying conclusions. The aim of the ECSA conference is to explore different ways of understanding and influencing change through citizen science and participatory research. The potential of citizen science to be a change maker in research and society, and as a tool to manage the change happening around us will also be highlighted.
Research Scholar Dilek Fraisl is on the ECSA Conference organizing committee, and the NODES research group of the Advancing Systems Analysis (ASA) program at IIASA will be strongly represented at this year’s conference. Several colleagues are organising workshops and giving talks covering areas such as the Urban ReLeaf and the CROPS project, and citizen science and the Sustainable Development Goals, in particular, how change is needed by governments to embrace this new source of valuable data.
IIASA Participation at ECSA 2024
Wednesday, 3 April
*(13:00 – 14:30) How Citizen Science has Changed SDG Monitoring of Marine Plastic Pollution in Ghana (Oral presentation)
Thursday, 4 April
*(10:30-12:00) Citizen Science for Policy – Is the citizen science community ready for change? (Workshop)
*(13:00-14:30) CROPS: Creating transnational communities to support the upscaling of citizen (Workshop)
*(13:00 – 14:30) Outlining the landscape of citizen-powered data ecosystems for inclusive and green urban transitions | Gerid Hager, Laura Temmerman, Carina Veeckman, Katerina Karagiannopoulou, Inian Moorthy
*(13:00 – 14:30) Exploring Ways to Enhance Diversity and Inclusivity in Citizen Science Workshop | Núria Castell, Uta Wehn, Margaret Gold, Carina Veeckman, Jan Peters-Anders, Inian Moorthy, Vanessa Boas, Gerid Hager, Anna Kozlowska, Milena Vuckovic, Karin Ekman, Julia Costa Carneiro, Oscar Gonzalez, Jessica Guy
*(15:00-16:30) Achieving change through global citizen science (Open format)
*(17:00 – 18:30) Innovating together for green urban transitions: Stories from Urban ReLeaf Cities | Inian Moorthy, Gerid Hager, Vanessa Boas, Ilia Christantoni, Noami Clarke, Barbara Coelho, João Dinis, Johanna Doerre, Nora Gāgane, Gitty Korsuize, Viola Marx, Georg Pins, Sabine Skudra, Dimitra Tsakanika, Stephan van Aken, Liesbeth van Holten, Marielle Versteeg
Friday, 5 April
*(10:30 – 12:00) Urban Innovation Rally: the Green & Just Transition Quest | Marcelo Lampkowski, Sophie Callahan, Karen Naciph Mora, Inian Moorthy, Gerid Hager, Vanessa Boas, Mel Woods, Husam Al Waer, Kevin Frediani
*(10:30 – 12:00) Citizen Science Global Partnership - Changing the course of global CS activities (Oral presentation)
Saturday, 6 April
*Empowering Urban Transformation in an Era of Rapid Change: CitiObs, GREENGAGE, and Urban ReLeaf | Georgia Simadi, Efstathia Chatzitheodorou, Núria Castell, Uta Wehn, Joan Masó Pau, Francisco Sanz, Milena Vuckovic, Inian Moorthy, Gerid Hager
Upcoming Events
Austrian Academy of Sciences, Dr. Ignaz-Seipel-Platz 2, 1010 Vienna