EPS NEWS
The EPS Citizen Science Competition :
Bringing civil society closer to the scientific community
Scientific breakthroughs continuously open new frontiers in knowledge , changing the way humans interact with the world around them . Society constantly needs to adapt to new realities that only a few years ago were abstract ideas or scientific principles without any real impact on our daily lives .
Citizens who feel that they are part of the scientific endeavour are able to better understand the essential role that scientific and technological breakthroughs play in today ´ s world and alternative teaching and learning methods can help to increase their inclusion . Over the past decade , powered by a series of digital transformations , individual citizens have been able to actively participate in current scientific projects and have become major providers of knowledge and data analysis .
The European Commission has recognised the importance of fostering the engagement of citizens with science through participation in experiments as investigators , a term that is commonly referred to as Citizen Science 1 . This interplay between citizens and the scientific community may lead to more effective policies at European level . Citizen Science can be described as the active participation of the public in collaboration with the scientific community in scientific research to increase scientific knowledge . Through Citizen Science , civil society shares and contributes to data monitoring and collection programs .
Citizen science is one form of informal science education , where people learn about science outside the classrooms of schools or universities . Whilst informal science education is known to increase citizens ’ scientific knowledge and engagement the exact impacts of different forms of informal science education are still being explored .
Surrounded by Science ( SbS ), a project by the Horizon 2020 Framework programme , promotes and advocates for citizen science and other forms of informal scientific education . SbS brings together experts in science education research , science centers and museum educators , providers of outreach and informal learning activities , strong user communities and policymakers in Europe to design alternative schemes for science education providers and offer guidance on their effective integration to ( formal ) science education policies .
The eight partners in the SbS consortium include the European Physical Society ( EPS ). The partners will conduct field studies and use other innovative data collection methods designed to assess the impact of specific out-of-school science related activities . The project will draw from a digital toolbox of innovative research instruments to collect data from citizens actively participating in science-related activities .
The EPS supports and fosters activities that demonstrate the importance of science , and physics to social , cultural and economic development in Europe . Within the framework of SbS , the EPS organised the EPS Citizen Science Competition , which launched on September 1 st 2022 . The competition invited science enthusiasts to collaborate with researchers in the fields of High Energy Physics and Gravitational Wave Astronomy on a project to optimise detectors in these fields in order to make groundbreaking new discoveries . The winners of the competition will receive four travel grants to visit two of the most renowned research facilities in Europe : CERN , in Geneva ( Switzerland ) and EGO-Virgo , in Pisa ( Italy ). Over 350 science enthusiasts joined the competition , participating in two different citizen science projects . The participants made classifications using real data from the CERN and the EGO-Virgo facilities using the Zooniverse platform . Zooniverse is an online citizen science community which grew out of one of the first citizen science projects GalaxyZoo . Zooniverse now hosts projects ranging from astronomy to zoology . One example allows armchair astronauts to virtually explore distant galaxies , study the surface of the Moon , and investigate solar explosions — all just a click away on the computer .
The competition winners were announced at the beginning of 2023 . The selection was based on a rigorous analysis of the number and quality of the classifications conducted and the motivation letters expressing their interest to visit CERN and EGO-Virgo . Mr . K . Rochowicz ( Poland ) and Ms . H . Balcioglu ( Cyprus ) won the two travel grants to EGO-Virgo , and Mr . R . Bayliss ( the United Kindom ) and Mr . P . Ralf ( Germany ) won the two travel grants to CERN . The awardees will have the opportunity to spend one full day enjoying guided tours through the research facilities , including visits to the control rooms , and labs . The winners will be accompanied by inhouse scientists and engineers who will be their guides during the visit to the research facilities .
After their return , the EPS will publish another article collecting their experiences . We hope they enjoy very much their visit to CERN and EGO-Virgo !
If you want to participate in any other SbS experiment , stay tuned to our social media and the SbS website !
A report by Monica Constantin & Enrique Sánchez-Bautista
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Citizen Science for EU Policies , Joint Research Center , European Commission , accessed online via https :// joint-research-centre . ec . europa . eu / scientific-activities-z / citizen-science-eu-policies _ en
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