Success of Socientize Conference on Citizen Science

The conference was held at Charlemagne building in Brussels and it was moderated by Fermín Serrano, Socientize project coordinator. The event opened by talks about policy makers and Citizen Science, started with MEP Mr. Pablo Echenique, with a powerful phrase aout Citizen Science value: " Thousands brains think better than one. Collective thinking is the key". John Magan, deputy head of Unit Digital Science at DG Connect said "it's a great conference, modest size but hopefully large impact, like the project itself!". He invited the audience to participate in the ongoing consultation about Science 2.0. ITU Telecom representative Joseph Gaylord presented case stories of social innovators worldwide via the Young Innovators Competition; and José Miguel Rubio, research program officer of DG RTD, made some fine comments about the environmental, technological and scientifics values of citizen science, also announcing a very interesting event about Citizens Observatories.

After this, Fermín Serrano, introduced the White Paper of the Citizen Science in Europe, highlighting the most important conclusions and recommendations at the diferent levels. Then it was the time to review two of the Socientize's experiments: UrbanBees, introduced by his PM Isabelle Bonhoure, Universidad de Barcelona, and Antimatter, by Michael Doser, Researcher at CERN.

The review of EC funded projects related with Citizen Science, started with Citizen Cyberlab, Francois Grey, Coordinator CCC; Scientix, Gina Mihai, Science Team EUN; ICT-ART-CONNECT, Pieter Jan Valgaeren, Researcher iMinds; FET2020, Giuseppe Saija, Project Manager Youris; and RRI Tools, Daniel Garcia, Science Communication Officer Fund. La Caixa.

After a coffe break, it was time to review Citizen Science initiatives like Ibercivis, with Victor Castelo, e-Infrastructures advisor, CSIC-MINECO; the European Citizen Science Association, ECSA, represented by Claudia Göbel, Museum für Naturkunde Berlin, who invited the audience to the General Assembly; the Open Knowledge Belgium, Pieter Colpaert, Researcher OKFN; the iMAL, Yves Bernard, Director iMAL; and the well known Zooniverse, represented by Sarah Kendrew, Scientist Zooniverse. Unfortunatelly and due to logistic issues, FutureEverything could not be represented by Drew Hemment, member of the Socientize advisory borad.

During the debate, we discussed about data policy, digital social sciences, educational aspects, grassroots funding and future plans. Another future event was also mentioned

The Brussels event was organized by a Socientize committee run by Francisco Sanz and Eduardo Lostal from University of Zaragoza, and was live streamed by EC.

Socientize thanks all the speakers and participants for the talks and interactions. We hope this event contributed to strengthen links among people and project, towards a better future and, as Pieter said, to change the world. Check the pictures of the event in this Flickr album.

Download the Whitepaper of Citizen Science in Europe