The latest outputs from researchers, alumni and friends at the UCL Centre for Advanced Spatial Analysis (CASA).
In previous posts, we have written how large language models (LLMs) like ChatGPT can be used in various urban analytical applications. We have kept exploring this potential especially with respect to citizen science applications. To this end we have…
Continue reading »The ECSA conference is now over, and for me, it ended with the final excursion of the citizen science day. On a lovely spring evening, we joined the coordinators of the amphibiom project at Bednar Park, observing and hearing the story of a unique green toads community that is managing to hang on in a … Continue reading ECSA 2024 reflections – policy and STS attention, turbulent futures and a celebration
Continue reading »The final keynote of the ECSA 2024 conference was given by Katja Mayer on “Participatory Turns: The Bumpy Roads to Recognition of Participatory Approaches in Social Sciences and Lessons for Citizen Science.” The starting point is the need to consider the increase “participation” across disciplines and what participation means. She covers the participatory turns. In … Continue reading Notes from ECSA 2024 – Katja Mayer’s keynote on participatory turns in the social sciences and lesson to citizen science
Continue reading »Shannon titled her talk “The Challenges of Continuous Adaptation: Citizen Science for a Changing World. Shannon is leading the Open Environmental Data Project. Her thinking is done with collaboration with a lot of colleagues over the years – and recognising them. What can we contribute to citizen science in a changing world? The Mississippi and … Continue reading Notes from ECSA 2024 – keynote Shannon Doesmagen
Continue reading »The European Citizen Science Association is celebrating 10 years, and the bi-annual conference is dedicated to change. The opening session at the BOKU university. Opened by the rector Eva Schulev-Stiendl. She noted that citizen science is a powerful tool for democratising science. Empowering individuals and communities to be involved in science. At BOKU there is … Continue reading Notes from ECSA 2024 conference – Day 1 opening session
Continue reading »The colloquium on STS and Citizen Science was organised by Katja Mayer and Claudia Gobel at Vienna University. The workshop brings in the tension between being a researcher and understanding society through STS lenses about knowledge production and the way participatory research develops. The second aspect is the activities of people who are involved in … Continue reading Notes from STS and Citizen Science colloquium 02/04/2024
Continue reading »Last year, I’ve contributed to the Toposophy podcast, which is called “Common Ground”. It covers a wide range of topics in urbanism and urban planning, from culture to technology. The episode that I spoke on is dedicated to direct democracy and citizen science, exploring the links between deep engagement forms of citizens in the management … Continue reading Toposophy’s “common ground” podcast episode on citizen science
Continue reading »The roundtable took place on 18th September 2023, at the European Commission in Brussels. The people who participated include people from research funders, people with interest at local, national and European level, people who are involved in the engagement of civil society. Policies can be at universities, municipalities, R&I organisations, national bodies and European. Georgios … Continue reading INCENTIVE/TIME4CS EU policy roundtable – institutional adoption of citizen science
Continue reading »At the end of May, the Citizen Science Association (CSA) celebrated its 10th year anniversary in its conference – C*Sci 2023, held at Arizona State University (ASU) in Tempe, Arizona. The conference (22-26 May) provided the opportunity to meet face-to-face colleagues in the area of citizen science, which I haven’t had a chance to talk … Continue reading C*Sci 2023 and the new name of the (US) Citizen Science Association
Continue reading »As part of the Swedish presidency of the European Union, an event on the 16th May focused on open science from policy to practice. The event marked the end of the Mutual Learning Exercise (MLE) on citizen science initiatives. There are several useful outputs that were shared at this final event, with a lot of … Continue reading EU Mutual-learning exercise: citizen science – final report
Continue reading »Back in 2020, in the middle of the pandemic, I was happy to contribute to the Post-Normal Science 5 conference (PNS5), with a presentation about the relationships between citizen science and post-normal science. Following the conference, I developed the presentation into a paper. The peer review provided robust and useful advice on how the paper … Continue reading New paper “Citizen science and Post-Normal Science’s extended peer community”
Continue reading »A new paper has been just published in “Health Expectation”, building on the co-production strategy of the ActEarly project. The paper is the result of the extensive work of Alex Albert and Shahid Islam in development the strategy. The paper abstract is provided below, it’s open access and you can find it here https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/hex.13709: Introduction … Continue reading New paper from ActEarly project “Nothing about us without us”
Continue reading »The second day of the MLE visit to Berlin started with a focus on Plastic Pirates and the development of the project. The presentation was given by the PP team – Johaness, Valerie, Sarah, and Philip. The original initiative started during the EU presidency of Germany. This project is an example of the political interest … Continue reading Notes from the Mutual Learning Exercise (MLE) visit to Germany – 8 Nov 2022
Continue reading »The visit started with the Falling Walls Engage pitches and experiencing the effort of communicating and engaging with science across the world. Alan Irwing started the discussion about MLE in general and focused on the topic of this meeting – Scaling up Citizen Science. Anna Overbeck, from the ministry of education and research, pointed out … Continue reading Notes from the Mutual Learning Exercise (MLE) visit to Germany – 7 Nov 2022
Continue reading »The ministry of education, science and sport hosted the meeting, in Ljubljana on the 10-11 October. For the ministry, the MLE is a very helpful exercise for Slovenia, in working with experts, the commission, and the member states. Citizen science cannot be measured in the same way as ordinary science – no H-index, citations, etc. … Continue reading Notes from the Mutual Learning Exercise (MLE) visit to Slovenia – 10 Oct 2022
Continue reading »Eötvös Loránd University (ELTE university) was the site of the second day of the visit, at the natural science faculty. The university has about 4000 students and 400 PhD students in their science faculty. This is one of the main universities in Hungary. The post from day one is available here. The first talk of … Continue reading Notes from the Mutual Learning Exercise (MLE) visit to Hungary – 13 Sep 2022
Continue reading »The visit to Hungary by the participant of the European Union’s Mutual Learning Exercise on Citizen Science Intitatives took place in Hungary, on 12 and 13 Sep. The visit is the second part of the sessions on enabling environment for citizen science, which continues the work that started in Vienna. The visit to Hungary started … Continue reading Notes from the Mutual Learning Exercise (MLE) visit to Hungary – 12 Sep 2022
Continue reading »This October, I will start a new chapter in my academic career. After 25 years at UCL, starting as a PhD student in September 1997 and then as an academic since 2001, I will reduce my time at UCL to 60% and start working on the European Citizen Science (ECS) project at the Learning Planet … Continue reading A partial new begining!
Continue reading »At the end of September 2021, I received an email from Nature Reviews Methods Primers (NRMP) with an invitation to lead a paper on citizen science. NRMP is a journal that commissions methodological papers on different topics, so they can be used by early career and experienced researchers, to learn about a new methodology and … Continue reading Nature Reviews Methods Primers paper on citizen science
Continue reading »Today is the first day after the end of the European Research Council (ERC) funded “Extreme Citizen Science: Analysis and visualisation”. For me, it’s an important milestone. In July 2007, Jerome Lewis got in touch with me about the need to develop data collection and visualisation to protect and nurture forest communities. This effort evolved … Continue reading Extreme Citizen Science Analysis and Visualisation – final event
Continue reading »Information from the session that is stated at https://unece.org/sites/default/files/2022-06/WGP-26_Programme_PPIF_session.pdf “The thematic session on the promotion of the principles of the Aarhus Convention in international forums will include panel presentations and round table discussion on rules of procedure and practice with regard to access to information and public participation in the international decision-making on legally binding … Continue reading Notes from thematic session on the promotion of the principles of the Convention in international forums, 23 June, 2002
Continue reading »Notes from the roundtable on environmental defenders. I have not tried to capture the exact words of the presenters. This is part of the Aarhus ExMOP from 24 June 2022. The chair of the session, Teresa Weber, noted that the appointment of the special rapporteur on environmental defenders, elected yesterday is a way in which … Continue reading Roundtable on environmental defenders – Aarhus convention ExMOP
Continue reading »These are notes from the meeting on topic 4 of the Mutual Learning Exercise on citizen science initiatives, it’s the notes from the day, and don’t represent any official view of the event, which is available on the European Commission’s website. The meeting took place 7-8 June 2022 in Vienna, at the Palais Harrach. Important … Continue reading Mutual Learning Exercise – Citizen Science Initiatives (Vienna meeting)
Continue reading »Early in May, I had the pleasure of participating in the University of California at Davis (UC Davis) Center for Community and Citizen Science Collabinar. The event was an opportunity to reflect on the development of teaching citizen science at UCL – the creation of a graduate-level course, the development of training modules within the … Continue reading Recording of the collabinar: teaching citizen science (UC Davis)
Continue reading »Dick talk – scientific and civic engagement in citizen science: time to talk about societal effects? Talking from a Swedish perspective to explore if the issues are generic. There are some disturbing issues – paradoxes, inequalities, and gender issues. Democracy: Infrastructures, how trust plays out and how CS is used at “the limits of the … Continue reading Engaging Citizen Science – Dick Kasperowski keynote: scientific and civic engagement in citizen science: time to talk about societal effects?
Continue reading »The Engaging Citizen Science conference is organised by the Danish citizen science network and took place at Aarhus University (25-26 April). The conference started with a keynote by Heidi Ballard, UC Davis. Heidi Ballard – engaging communities. Multiple crises: Covid-19, climate change, racial injustice, refugee crisis. Young people feel paralysed about it. Science has a … Continue reading Conference notes: Engaging Citizen Science – Aarhus. Keynote Heidi Ballard
Continue reading »There is something special in the first peer-review publication. It’s a milestone and an important stage in the development of the researcher that is leading on it. For PhD students, it is an important stage – instead of a consumer of academic publications, you’re becoming a producer of scientific knowledge. This new publication “Citizen science … Continue reading New paper: Citizen science in China’s water resources monitoring: current status and future prospects
Continue reading »There is something special in the first peer-review publication. It’s a milestone and an important stage in the development of the researcher that is leading on it. For PhD students, it is an important stage – instead of a consumer of academic publications, you’re becoming a producer of scientific knowledge. This new publication “Citizen science … Continue reading New paper: Citizen science in China’s water resources monitoring: current status and future prospects
Continue reading »At the end of 2019, just before the pandemic, I was lucky to be hosted and supported by the Centre for Research and Interdisciplinarity in Paris (CRI-Paris.org) and with colleagues from ECSA and the European project EU-Citizen.Science carried out a survey to help identify what are the boundaries of citizen science, in terms of the … Continue reading Contours of Citizen Science paper published in Royal Society Open Science →
Continue reading »At the end of 2019, just before the pandemic, I was lucky to be hosted and supported by the Centre for Research and Interdisciplinarity in Paris (CRI-Paris.org) and with colleagues from ECSA and the European project EU-Citizen.Science carried out a survey to help identify what are the boundaries of citizen science, in terms of the … Continue reading Contours of Citizen Science paper published in Royal Society Open Science
Continue reading »This is the recording from earlier this month from a meeting of the Citizen Science Association (CSA) meeting of the law and policy working group which was dedicated to Aarhus convention and its relevance to citizen science. The main speakers in the session were Lea Shanley, who co-chair the group, Anna Berti Suman (check her … Continue reading CSA law and policy group: the Aarhus Convention and Citizen Science
Continue reading »This is the recording from earlier this month from a meeting of the Citizen Science Association (CSA) meeting of the law and policy working group which was dedicated to Aarhus convention and its relevance to citizen science. The main speakers in the session were Lea Shanley, who co-chair the group, Anna Berti Suman (check her … Continue reading CSA law and policy group: the Aarhus Convention and Citizen Science →
Continue reading »The DITOs escalator was developed as part of the “Doing It Together Science” project and represent a conceptual framework that positions citizen science within the wider set of activities that we can consider as public engagement in science – from the act of reading an article about scientific discovery in a newspaper to developing your … Continue reading New paper: Exploring factors associated with participation in citizen science among UK museum visitors aged 40–60
Continue reading »The DITOs escalator was developed as part of the “Doing It Together Science” project and represent a conceptual framework that positions citizen science within the wider set of activities that we can consider as public engagement in science – from the act of reading an article about scientific discovery in a newspaper to developing your … Continue reading New paper: Exploring factors associated with participation in citizen science among UK museum visitors aged 40–60 →
Continue reading »This text and video is reblogged and edited from https://blogs.ucl.ac.uk/open-access/2020/10/29/launch-week-summary/ Last week marked the launch of the UCL Office of Open Science & Scholarship which is part of the library at UCL. The office includes support for citizen science activities at UCL, and as such, marks an important milestone in the institutional support for such … Continue reading UCL Office of Open Science & Scholarship launch – citizen science webinar
Continue reading »This text and video is reblogged and edited from https://blogs.ucl.ac.uk/open-access/2020/10/29/launch-week-summary/ Last week marked the launch of the UCL Office of Open Science & Scholarship which is part of the library at UCL. The office includes support for citizen science activities at UCL, and as such, marks an important milestone in the institutional support for such … Continue reading UCL Office of Open Science & Scholarship launch – citizen science webinar →
Continue reading »The Citizen Science and Sustainable Development Goals (or in its full name “Knowledge for Change: A decade of Citizen Science (2020-2030) in support of the SDGs” was held on 14 and 15 October 2020 as a hybrid conference in Berlin and online, using the Hopin platform. I attended the conference in person, as I was … Continue reading Citizen Science & SDG, Berlin 14-15 Oct – a hybrid conference
Continue reading »The Citizen Science and Sustainable Development Goals (or in its full name “Knowledge for Change: A decade of Citizen Science (2020-2030) in support of the SDGs” was held on 14 and 15 October 2020 as a hybrid conference in Berlin and online, using the Hopin platform. I attended the conference in person, as I was … Continue reading Citizen Science & SDG, Berlin 14-15 Oct – a hybrid conference →
Continue reading »The Post-Normal Science 5 symposium moved, like many other scientific meetings this year, to an online meeting. If you haven’t come across the term, it is worth looking into – post-normal science (PNS) is, for me, one of the foundations for how citizen science can be integrated into policy processes. PNS is a conceptual framework … Continue reading Citizen Science & Post-Normal Science zones
Continue reading »The Post-Normal Science 5 symposium moved, like many other scientific meetings this year, to an online meeting. If you haven’t come across the term, it is worth looking into – post-normal science (PNS) is, for me, one of the foundations for how citizen science can be integrated into policy processes. PNS is a conceptual framework … Continue reading Citizen Science & Post-Normal Science zones
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