White Paper on citizen science for Europe. Outcomes of the participatory policy making process.

SOCIENTIZE is a project funded by the European Commission dedicated to enhance citizen science models and their take up. In this conference, SOCIENTIZE will present the set of policy recommendations created after two years of... [ view full abstract ]

SOCIENTIZE is a project funded by the European Commission dedicated to enhance citizen science models and their take up. In this conference, SOCIENTIZE will present the set of policy recommendations created after two years of networking, coordination and research activities. Socientize analyzed the main initiatives, funding programmes and actors in Europe to consolidate a common vision of citizen science as a wide concept with multiple models of participation and many positive outcomes. We extracted a set of cross-cutting concerns and major areas in need of change and policy action. Each key question was shared with the community in order to propose one single collective response, endorsed and refined as policy recommendations. Those instructions were grouped in three levels: macro (European and national policy actors, including research funders), meso (citizen science infrastructures, scaffolding and mediator initiatives) and micro level (research groups, public organizations, citizen associations, NGOs, grassroots movements...). As a result, this White Paper presents elaborated instructions for topics including: funding strategies, evaluation and monitoring, incentivation and modification of value systems, engagement and training plans deployment of technologies, and the creation of new infrastructures within national member states as well as on a European level. All these outcomes will be presented in this conference. It is important to highlight that the resulting roadmap is not based only on the expertise and ideas of one consortium, but this consortium has actively engaged with relevant stakeholders in Europe and beyond to coherently consolidate these proposed issues. This collective process finds new paths for enhanced research and social innovations leading to actions that respond to the need of the paradigm shift in which we are engaged.