(STEP CHANGE) Science Transformation in EuroPe through Citizens involvement in HeAlth, coNservation and enerGy rEsearch

Science Transformation in EuroPe through Citizens involvement in HeAlth, coNservation and enerGy rEsearch (STEP CHANGE)

Project funded by the European Union’s Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Programme
Grant Agreement n. 101006386
Duration: 36 months
Start date: 01/03/2021
The project official website

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Citizen science is one of the many participatory approaches that have developed in recent years in the broader field of public engagement in science and innovation. However, it is the approach that more directly puts the very practice of science in the spotlight. For such a reason, citizen science can play an even broader societal and scientific role than is generally acknowledged, particularly in those critical fields of research – such as energy, health and environment – where human and non-human factors are deeply entangled. In this sense, citizen science can play a pivotal role by making science more socially robust, inclusive and democratic while strengthening the capacity of scientific investigation over emerging phenomena that cannot be easily caught within narrow disciplinary boundaries.

STEP CHANGE is precisely aimed at exploring and exploiting the potential of citizen science in terms of knowledge and innovation advancement and science and society alignment, through the development and evaluation of 5 hands-on Citizen Science initiatives in three different areas (Energy, Health and Environment). The five initiatives will be respectively conducted in Slovenia (on wildlife conservation), United Kingdom (on non-alcoholic fatty liver diseases), Germany (on energy communities), Italy (on infectious disease outbreak preparedness) and Uganda (on off-grid renewable energy in agriculture). Based on the experience emerging from the five Citizen Science initiatives and their results, a set of recommendations will be formulated and some tools will be developed to a better anchoring of citizen science in scientific institutions.

The project includes three different stages. The first stage will be devoted to preparing the ground for the Citizen Science initiatives, especially for what concerns the recruitment of citizen scientists and the involvement of stakeholders (WP1). The second stage will focus on the development of the Citizen Science initiatives by the different teams (WP2 to WP6). The initiatives will be supported through training and mutual learning activities (WP7) and a participatory monitoring and evaluation system (WP8). Finally, the stocktaking stage (WP9) is planned to support the sustainability of the Citizen Science initiatives and to take stock of the project outcomes. STEP CHANGE also includes two cross-cutting work packages respectively devoted to communication and dissemination activities (WP10) and the management of the project (WP11).

Overall, the project consortium includes 11 partners led by the University of Primorska (Slovenia).

News

Evaluation process completed

The evaluation process of the five Citizen Science Initiatives implemented as part of the Step Change project has been completed. Between mid-December, 2023 and February, 2024, the last three CSI final evaluation workshops were held at the University of Tor Vergata, Rome (with the participation ofLuciano d'Andrea and Claudia Colonnello, K&I), the University of Primorska in Koper, and the NIHR Oxford BRC in Oxford (both led by Luciano d'Andrea, K&I, and Evanthia Kalpazidou Schmidt, Aarhus University). The results of the workshops were then summarised in the final evaluation report, which was reviewed by each team and submitted to the European ...

STEP CHANGE final event

On April 5, 2024, the final event of STEP CHANGE took place in Vienna. The initiative was organised in the context of the annual conference of the European Citizen ScienceAssociation (ECSA), which is also a member of the project consortium. The event included different participatory and dialogue moments which allowed a reflection, not only on the results of the project but, more generally, on the potential of citizen science in a moment of a strong change in how scientific and technological research is conducted. Luciano d'Andrea (K&I) attended the event, presenting the Model for the socialisation of research and innovation ...

R&I socialisation model through citizen science

The report on the R&I socialisation model through citizen science was finalised in April 2024. The report is based on the evaluation of the five STEP CHANGE citizen science initiatives, the results of the mutual learning process, led by a consortium partner (ZSI), and a series of meetings with STEP CHANGE partners. The model proposes mainstreaming citizen science in the European research context, to permanently integrate participatory tools and engagement mechanisms of citizens and stakeholders in research projects, in particular, to address the risk of producing low-quality research or R&I projects with poor social and economic impact ...

Final Evaluation Workshops in Germany and Uganda

The first two evaluation workshops of the Citizen Science initiatives implemented within the Step Change project were held in November 2023. The first workshop took place in Darmstadt (Germany) on 7 November 2023 and focused on WECF's activities to develop renewable energy communities. The second workshop was held in Kiboga (Uganda) on 29 November 2023 to evaluate the CS initiative implemented by ARUWE on the use of renewable energy in rural areas. As the persons in charge of monitoring and evaluation of the five CS, Luciano d'Andrea (K&I) and Evanthia Kalpazidou Schmidt (Aarhus University) participated in the Darmstadt workshop, and ...

Meeting on the socialisation of R&I through Citizen Science

On 22 November 2023, a meeting was held between STEP CHANGE partners on the Report on the socialisation of R&I through Citizen Science. The Report will be based on an analysis of the experiences of the five citizen science initiatives carried out within the project and aims to define a model to support the socialisation of scientific and technological research by leveraging the principles, practices, and experiences of citizen science. The Report will be developed by K&I in the framework of Work Package 9 (Stocktaking process), led by ECSA ...

The third Steering Committee Meeting in Munich

The Step Change project's third Steering Committee Meeting was held in Munich (Germany) on 5 and 6 June 2023, hosted by Women Engage for a Common Future (WECF). The meeting allowed the participants to make a shared analysis of the state of advancement of each work package and to plan the activities to be conducted in the next 10 months. Luciano d’Andrea (K&I) participated in the meeting, presenting the activities of WP8 (Participatory Evaluation) and launching a roadmap for the development of the Model of R&I socialisation through Citizen Science, which is one of the products of WP9 “Stocktaking process” ...

The third wave of Monitoring Meetings completed

Between January and March 2023, the third wave of Monitoring Meetings with the organisations involved in the implementation of citizen science initiatives, namely the NGOs Action for Rural Women's Empowerment (ARUWE) and Women Engage for a Common Future (WECF), Primorska University of Koper, the University of Rome Tor Vergata and the NIHR Oxford Biomedical Research Centre, was concluded. The meetings were led, in the framework of Work Package 8, by representatives of K&I (work package leaders) and Aarhus University. The third wave of monitoring was aimed not only at analysing the activities carried out and those to be carried out ...

Article on evaluation in the STEP CHANGE project

An article entitled 'Evaluating Citizen Science initiatives through a citizen-science based approach' has been published in the fteval Journal for Research and Technology Evaluation (April 2022). The publication, whose first author is Luciano d'Andrea (K&I), presents the approach to evaluating citizen science initiatives implemented within the STEP CHANGE project. The article is accessible on the journal website ...

The second series of Monitoring Sessions

Between September and October 2022, the second series of Monitoring Sessions has been conducted under WP8, led by K&I. The meetings aim at supporting the five project partners involved with the implementation of the CS initiatives through a monitoring and evaluation activity, analysing critical aspects and possible opportunities. The results of each meeting have been summarised in the meeting minutes shared with the CSI teams. The sessions have been jointly organised by K&I and Aarhus University ...

The second Steering Committee Meeting in Koper

The University of Primorska hosted the second Steering Committee Meeting of the Step Change project, held in Koper (Slovenia) on 17 and 18 May, 2022. Some members of the Committee participated in the meeting online. During the event, the state of advancement of each work package has been presented and discussed. Special attention has been devoted to the five Citizen Science initiatives, which are now in the implementation phase. As for the K&I team, Luciano d’Andrea and Claudia Colonnello were present at the meeting while Fabio Feudo participated in online mode ...