Check out the new Results in Brief report on NEWSERA’s CORDIS profile!
Both science and society can benefit from citizen science (CS), which brings the two closer together. Opening up science to industry, commerce and policymakers sparks funding and collaboration opportunities, and the prospect of gathering large data sets through citizen participation. At the same time, developing greater scientific literacy increases citizens’ ability to counter misinformation, increasing their trust in science.
“CS also lends credibility to awareness-raising campaigns, with an informed public contributing to decision-making, policies and behavioural change,” says Rosa Arias, coordinator of the EU-funded NEWSERA (Citizen Science as the new paradigm for Science Communication) project and founder of Science for Change (website in Spanish). “But CS initiatives operate within complex stakeholder ecosystems, facing multiple challenges, summarised as a lack of trust, of knowledge and of resources.”
To help overcome these barriers, NEWSERA is developing the CitSciComm Labs, to co-design, implement and validate CS communication strategies, targeted at clearly defined stakeholders.
The five ‘Labs’ currently being piloted, operate through communities of practice composed of CS practitioners, including members from 38 projects in Italy, Portugal and Spain.
So far, NEWSERA has undertaken over 50 activities – including workshops, mutual learning and training – with more than 100 stakeholders. A programme matching projects with journalists is currently under way.
NEWSERA has also produced a series of policy briefs on improving science communication.
Read the full report on CORDIS.
Cover photo: Science for Change
