This editorial gives a brief overview of the many contributions published in the Proceedings of the Austrian Citizen Science Conference 2023.
Citizen Science can contribute to the transformation and enrichment of existing research and innovation processes. Nevertheless, we see big differences in the institutional support of citizen science in research performing organizations (RPOs), like universities. Which institutional measures lead to a better and more effective involvement of citizens in research and innovation processes and how can these be supported? TIME4CS - a Horizon 2020 project - is dedicated to this question and examines both social and organizational aspects of implementing support for citizen science. The project has defined four intervention areas that, alone or in combination, can stimulate the necessary institutional changes to foster public engagement in R&I activities. For each intervention area, a set of grounding actions are defined and considered as seeds to be sown, paving the way to institutional changes within research institutions. To find out if this works in very different contexts, the project collaborates with four RPOs operating in different academic contexts, research fields and geographical locations. These institutions implement the grounding actions and share their experiences throughout the evaluation process. Lessons learned from these practical implementations after the first 18 project months were presented at the 7th Austrian Citizen Science Conference and show that starting from very different points the four RPOs identified some common key challenges and potential solutions.
This article addresses citizen science as an approach to transformative experimentation in urban planning and research. On the basis of the research project "Open Urban Sustainability Hubs" the role of knowledge infrastructures such as libraries and museums is exemplified, and how their potentials can be investigated in applied research processes and their capacities strengthened at the same time.
In the unique ecosystem of the Hohe Tauern National Park (HTNP), balancing agricultural activities with conservation efforts presents a complex challenge. This study addresses the critical issue of communication between the national park and the agricultural sector, aiming to bridge the gap between these two vital stakeholders. Two primary research questions guide this inquiry: firstly, the evaluation of participants' perspectives on the developed transdisciplinary citizen science approach; secondly, the identification of specific aspects crucial to agriculture within the HTNP. These research questions employed a transdisciplinary citizen science format that took place for the first time in Mallnitz (Austria) in 2022. Local actors and researchers met for visits to ten agricultural hosts, engaging in discussions that were recorded and subsequently subjected to content analysis. The results indicated a high positive assessment of the transdisciplinary format. Key factors identified as pivotal in the agricultural context of the HTNP include grants, contracts, and notifications, appreciation and recognition, time constraints, the entrepreneurial spirit within the region, and the return of wolves. The study concludes that the transdisciplinary citizen science format is effective and adaptable for similar settings. Additionally, the findings serve as a foundational resource for the ongoing development of the national park and its management plans, providing invaluable insights for decision-makers and stakeholders involved in the conservation-agriculture interface.
The Hans Sauer Foundation is supporting transformative citizen science projects on societal aspects of sustainability. These receive marginal support, while at the same time offering innovative collaborative or co-creative approaches to social transformation. Based on the experience with the funding program, the foundation developed 17 criteria for transformative citizen science. A first draft was discussed at the Austrian Citizen Science Conference 2023 in Linz. The revised version is presented in this article. The criteria can offer orientation for actors who want to initiate a citizen science project that aims to generate social-ecological impact, and assistance to institutions developing (funding) programs to support such projects. This article is an invitation to the citizen science community to adapt and further develop the criteria for their contexts.
Design and the arts are recognized to expand their fields as research approaches enabling new insights, questions and methods in science and education. Design thinking as well as speculative and participatory design provide approaches between composition, craft and (collaborative) knowledge production. Design thinking is a systematic and at the same time flexible process that can enable volunteer researchers and lay designers to work in transdisciplinary teams taking over a strategic role in citizen science (CS) projects. The author claims the potential of design thinking and likes to inspire further experimentation with creativity and idiosyncrasies as resources for CS and open innovation. The article provides an overview on related approaches and highlights potential benefits to CS based on a literature research and inspired by two workshops – including “Kollaboratives Forschen und Spekulieren – Design thinking für Citizen Scientists” at the occasion of ACSC2023.
The underrepresentation of women in the IT sector is a persistent issue that hampers diversity and innovation. The project "Let IT Dance!" addresses this problem by aiming to inspire and engage girls and young women in the IT sector, and related subjects by letting them experience computer science with dance and music. This paper explores the objectives and strategies of the project, which include reducing the gender gap in IT interest, drop-out, and performance, simplifying complex IT and programming concepts, integrating innovative teaching concepts, developing a learning analytics platform, and raising awareness about cybercrime. The target group of the project spans from kindergarten to university level, as inspiring individuals for IT from an early age is crucial. By consciously integrating stereotypes and incorporating creative content, such as dance and music, the project seeks to shed a different light on computer science, to spark interest among girls and encourage them to pursue educational and professional careers in the IT sector.
The aim of the project "Circus of Knowledge" is to investigate the extent to which art in science education, for example drama and dance, contributes to increasing pupils’ interest in STEM topics. As there are no comparable studies in Austria yet, both primary and secondary level are researched. To do so, we surveyed 419 children aged between of 10 and 15 years. Specifically, we investigated whether students from a socially disadvantaged background (i.e., students who rarely or never speak German at home or students with parents having less prestigious jobs) report less experience with art and science than students from a more privileged background. Our analyses showed that students’ social background is not linked to students’ STEM and Art experiences. Rather, gender and age play a significant role inpredicting experiences with STEM and Art.
Storytelling Cafés are well established in different fields of action and research: oral history, education, community work, care for elderly people. Within the project “Storytelling about caring cultures at the end of life. Students and Citizen Scientists are doing research in intergenerational and intercultural exchange (SoKuL)" the method will be established as collaborative social science research method within a Citizen Scientists framework. In formulating theses on the contribution of Storytelling Cafés to principles of Citizen Science we argue how this narrative group method can be integrated into the methodological repertoire. Citizen Science takes place in a kind of in-between space where appropriate methods are needed to enable good understanding between citizens and scientists and also to be able to work well together. The Storytelling Café is a particularly suitable method for Citizen Science projects in this respect.
While citizen science is gaining a foothold in more and more disciplines, the exchange of data between citizen science projects is rather low. Citizen science boasts of its societal relevance, but projects are often only disciplinary. Many natural science citizen science projects address biodiversity loss. However, diversity loss is not limited to biodiversity, but also affects the diversity of human cultures and languages. Diversity in all these areas plays a major role in the resilience of systems, whether biological or social. However, the complex interrelationships between biological and cultural diversity can only be studied by involving society in academic projects and by exchange across projects. This contribution therefore presents a concept for citizen science practitioners on how citizen science projects from the natural sciences, social sciences and humanities can contribute to the analysis and appreciation of biocultural diversity.
This paper outlines the participatory approach in Zeit.shift and provides insight into strategies and challenges of the exploratory approach to public involvement in this project.
Citizen Science is not yet established in moral psychology, but it has potential, as context and everyday applicability have been neglected frequently in research. There is a gap between moral thoughts and actions, which the theory of moral disengagement (MD) aims to bridge. Its eight strategies enable individuals to behave against their moral compass without a guilty conscience. The goal of this ongoing Citizen Science project is to transfer MD to everyday life. For that purpose, Citizen Scientists document instances of immoral behavior in daily life, stories, and media. Preliminary results revealed relevant contextual factors for MD and differences in judgments of immorality, harm, and intention. These insights can in turn inspire further, more conventional research.
Urban community gardeners create important habitats for pollinators in cities through their gardening practices. In a collaborative research project in 33 community gardens in Berlin and Munich, we examined the link between pollination and garden features under real-life conditions. We aimed to collaboratively develop insect conservation interventions to enhance pollinator diversity and harvest success simultaneously. Most citizen science participants consistently conducted fruit production measurements of their study plants. Nevertheless, the data showed a trade-off between a protocol designed to interfere as least as possible with the gardener's routine and the data’s fit for purpose regarding the research question. Our main lessons learned were (1) to invest in establishing and maintaining a good relationship with participants and (2) to develop hypotheses and methods in close collaboration with participants. We believe it is crucial to foster the integration of different perspectives and knowledge in order to realize the potential of citizen science in pollinator research.
This report provides a summary of a workshop held at the Austrian Citizen Science Conference 2023 in Linz, Austria. After a short introduction of the challenge and incentives for developing a German research award for citizen science, the participants discussed the criteria that render citizen science research “excellent”. Additionally, they identified the information required to assess its quality and its societal and scientific impact.
“Die Sprach-Checker” (Eng. “Language Checkers”) - these are young citizen scientists from Mannheim’s highly diverse district Neckarstadt-West. Together with linguists, they are investigating a tremendous treasure: their own multilingualism. They are exploring and (re)discovering their own languages and the other languages used in their environment while documenting and reflecting on their daily experiences in and with different linguistic practices. Our aim is to raise awareness for their strengths and promote appreciation for their language biographies, thus fostering a sense of identification with one’s own linguistic surroundings. Such a joint research endeavour offers empirical opportunities to address (linguistic) issues of societal relevance by collecting authentic data from the multicultural district and involving its residents and local stakeholders. In this paper, we will provide insights regarding the project’s background, conception, and outcomes. We address everyone who is planning or conducting a citizen science project with young people, especially children and adolescents, or who works at the interface between science and society.
Ragweed (Ambrosia artemisiifolia), originally native to North America, was introduced to Europe in the 19th century through contaminated seed consignments. Since then, this invasive neophyte has rapidly spread, particularly in Eastern and Central Europe. In Austria, ragweed has been established since the 1970ies and has gained significant attention due to its high allergenicity and negative impacts on crop yields. Therefore, the Ragweed Finder platform was established in 2017 to inform allergy sufferers and policymakers about ragweed distribution. This platform, available as a website and app, allows citizen-scientists to document ragweed populations. The reporting process involves completing a checklist, after which experts review the reports. Verified findings are collected and forwarded to the local authorities, who decide on further actions. Between 2017 and 2021, over 5000 reports were registered with a positivity rate of 91% resulting in the first legal regulation that deals with the control of ragweed in the federal state of Burgenland. The Ragweed Finder has since become the official reporting platform to enforce this law.
The concept of data sprint is tested and implemented in the citizen social science project "Exploring Society Together" (GINGER), to explore the issue of how to provide co-interpretation of big data sets with citizen scientists and what infrastructure is needed to design research in dialogue with citizens. Therefore we tested in GINGER the participatory research format of a public data sprint in which big data sets are analyzed and interpreted in cooperation between researchers and citizen scientists according to scientific standards. Public data sprints are innovative formats in the transitive field of science communication and citizen sciences. The innovation of public data sprints in citizen social science formats lies in the short and intensively research collaboration between citizens and scientists who explore a research topic and data set together within just multiple consecutive days. Each data print focuses on a specific topic, in this case digital social and political network analysis and polarization tendencies of politicians on X (formerly Twitter). The data and digital infrastructure in this discussed format is provided by „Exploration of Political Information Networks“ (EPINetz). With the support of extremely low-threshold applications to analyze data digitally, as by EPINetz, data sprints provide excellent opportunities for broadening perspectives in social science disciplines by having many people working and thinking in a concentrated way on one or more small topic-related problems or puzzles of social phenomena analyzed, based on big data information.
Since 2022, the Technisches Museum Wien (Vienna Museum of Science and Technology) has been conducting the project funded by “Sparkling Science 2.0” through the “OeAD Center for Citizen Science” in collaboration with nine partners from Austria, Great Britain and the USA. The basic idea is to reflect the current developments in space travel and to establish a research collaboration with the partners in the use of space-based resources in the New Space Age. Connecting young people with stakeholders from a wide range of fields related to “New Space” in Austria The most important research partner is “Bildungsgrätzl Schönbrunn”, an association of educational institutions for children and young people in the immediate vicinity of the museum’s location. This also strengthens and deepens the connection between the museum and the educational institutions in the area – beyond the scope of the project. The project involves more than 200 children and young people ranging from kindergarten age till graduation. The most important goal is to involve young people in the current discourse on New Space and to initiate independent research on this topic. For this purpose, a "mission control" in the form of a youth advisory board for the Technical Museum Vienna will be established as a steering committee for the project and co-curators for the exhibition "Space Habitats" within the exhibition series "weiter_gedacht_" 2025/26.
The quality of scientific data is essential for ensuring reliability and reproducibility and can be affected by several factors. In this study we show how some aspects of project design may impact the quality of the contributions of the volunteers in an online Citizen Science project. The online platform is Zooniverse and the project is NestCams, which is about bird breeding behaviour.
The Mieming Schneeferner project is an extreme citizen science initiative that uses remote sensing to gather and analyze climate data from a remote glacier. Initial findings spanning the last four years corroborate earlier research while revealing new avenues for scientific inquiry, highlighting the impact of climate change at a local scale and educational level.
