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Africa is the continent that will be most adversely affected by climate change. IIASA researchers are collaborating on Yoma OR – an ambitious project aimed at helping young people grow their digital skills as a first step on a journey from learning to earning using AI, blockchain, and crowdsourcing.

A new Horizon Europe project led by IIASA called Urban ReLeaf leverages citizen science for public sector innovation.  

On 3 October 2022, citizen science networks and practitioners from around the world welcomed the formation of the Citizen Science Global Partnership (CSGP), a newly established association which seeks to promote and advance citizen science for a sustainable world.

To mitigate the adverse effects of mining activities, high-resolution maps of mining sites are necessary. In a new study, researchers created a large-scale, openly accessible, global map that almost doubles the coverage of previous datasets.

Citizen science is increasingly recognized as an important vehicle for democratizing science and promoting the goal of universal and equitable access to scientific data and information. IIASA researchers actively contribute to the development of this scientific approach and have recently published a primer aimed at both established and aspiring practitioners of citizen science to highlight key issues and how to address them.

The autumn campaign of the CAMALIOT project is underway! Add the processing power of your Android phone to help collect raw data from the Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) to use machine-learning algorithms to improve weather-forecasting systems and win prizes.

A new policy brief from the EU-funded Crowd4SDG project offers guidelines for National Statistical Offices on how to unleash the potential of citizen science in monitoring progress on the UN Sustainable Development Goals.

In recent years, crowdsourcing, which involves recruiting members of the public to help collect data, has been tremendously helpful to provide researchers with unique and rich datasets, while also engaging the public in the process of scientific discovery. In a new study, an international team of researchers explored how crowdsourcing projects can make the most effective use of volunteer contributions.

IIASA recently instituted a new system of awards to recognize outstanding contributions towards meeting the strategic priorities and values of the institute. We are proud to announce that five IIASA research activities have been recognized in the inaugural 2022 award cycle.

Despite successes in reducing poverty globally in the last two decades, almost one billion people are still living without access to reliable and affordable electricity, which in turn negatively affects health and welfare, and impedes sustainable development. Knowing where these people are is crucial if aid and infrastructure are to reach them. A new IIASA-led study proposes a novel method to estimate global economic wellbeing using nighttime satellite images.

To combat forest loss in the tropics, a new study uses crowdsourcing to identify the drivers of deforestation. The resulting dataset can be used to create high-resolution maps and help policymakers apply the best protection measures.

National biodiversity monitoring programs in Europe face many challenges, according to the first report of the Europe-wide EuropaBON project released today. The analysis includes data from more than 350 experts from policy, science, and environmental protection practice. The team is also drafting a proposal for a transnational monitoring of Europe's biodiversity and ecosystems.

Deforestation continues to be one of the greatest challenges in the fight against biodiversity loss and climate change. Countries all over the world have instituted protected areas, but there is still mounting human pressure on many of these areas. A new study looks at tropical deforestation and the key factors driving it.

Ahead of World Meteorological Day, you can help improve weather forecasting models with CAMALIOT, an infrastructure and app that uses GPS from smartphones to support scientific research. Join our crowdsourcing campaign on 17 March 2022  ̶  any person with access to an Android cellphone is invited to download the free app and participate.

The big data revolution is here, but what does it mean for creating a life-supporting sustainable food system? Can technological innovation help us feed the world and protect against biodiversity loss? IIASA hosts this special episode of the Prophets, Wizards & The Quest to Value Nature podcast.

Monitoring progress on our way to successfully achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) is key to their achievement, but there are significant data gaps that make this crucial exercise difficult. A new IIASA-led study explored the use of a citizen science tool known as Picture Pile to see how it could contribute to SDG monitoring.

The Global Citizen Science Partnership is a network-of-networks that aims to advance the use of citizen science to support the monitoring and implementation of the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

IIASA researchers have contributed to a study that provides a new model to monitor and predict food insecurity in the coming decade. It finds that while overall global levels of food insecurity are set to decrease an increase is implied for lower income countries.

IIASA researchers have contributed to a new global campaign that illustrates the centrality of data to sustainable development with a project that uses citizen science to monitor marine litter in Ghana for official UN Sustainable Development Goals reporting.

IIASA researchers have used Sentinel 1 satellite imagery from the European Space Agency to produce a map of the extent and year of detection of oil palm plantations in Indonesia, Malaysia, and Thailand that will help policymakers and other stakeholders understand trends in oil palm expansion to inform landscape-level planning.