Citizen Science and Public Engagement

Description

This course is an introductory course for both PhD students and researchers on the main concepts, methods and tools of Citizen Science. Citizen Science actively involves the public (citizens) in scientific research that generates new knowledge or understanding. It has the potential to bring together all the social actors (academia, administration, companies and citizens) tackling real challenges, appearing as a tool for potential positive social transformation. As a core dimension of Open Science, it opens up the opportunity for all members of society to take an active role in research, innovation and the development of evidence-based policy, at local, national and EU levels. It is a flexible concept, capable to be applied in different contexts and across different disciplines.

Lecturers

Eglė Butkevičienė (Kaunas University of Technology)
Fernando Vilariño (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona)

Learning outcomes    

At the end of the course, participants should be able to:

• Explain the concepts of public engagement, science communication, citizen engagement in science and citizen science;
• Understand the history and modern trends in citizen science;
• Classify citizen science projects applying different typologies;
• Analyse the multidisciplinary nature of citizen science projects and explore specifics of citizen social science;
• Design a citizen science project, addressing ethics and data management issues;
• Explore volunteer engagement patterns, understand their motivation and rewards;
• Recognize and use mobile and web toolkits for citizen science projects;
• Explore the role of living labs for citizen science - Evaluate the impact of citizen science projects.
• Develop a perspective regarding the transformative power citizen science as a positive social transformation tool.
  

Format

The course will be held online, comprising 10 lectures of 2 hours each, and personal and teamwork, and an assignment.

Evaluation

The requirement to successfully complete the course is a positive evaluation of the final assignment.

Registration

2 May – 20 May 2022 (only applications received within the above dates will be considered).

Support

smarter_academy@ua.pt