European Citizen Science Association

European Citizen Science Association
AbbreviationECSA
Formation2014
DE262426477
Legal statusCharitable Organization
HeadquartersNatural History Museum, Berlin
Location
  • Invalidenstraße 43, D-10115 Berlin
Coordinates52°31′48″N 13°22′46″E / 52.53000°N 13.37944°E / 52.53000; 13.37944
FieldsCitizen Science
Executive Chair
Prof. Johannes Vogel, PhD
Executive Vice-Chair
Muki (Mordechai) Haklay
Executive Vice-Chair
Luigi Ceccaroni
Dorte Riemenschneider (Managing Director)
AffiliationsCitizen Science Association, Australian Citizen Science Association
Websiteecsa.citizen-science.net

The European Citizen Science Association (ECSA) is a membership based networking organization for practitioners and researchers of citizen science in Europe. ECSA was founded in 2014 in Germany and is registered as a charitable and member-based professional organization.

History

ECSA was launched in 2013.

ECSA has a board of directors, elected by its members, and a collection of professional working groups that establish standards, identify best practices, help to focus research and technology, and explore the ethics of citizen science. In addition, it has an advisory board and a steering committee, which support the executive board.[1]

Activities

It has held general assemblies each year since 2014, at which ECSA members and working groups present their initiatives and discuss how the organization’s vision can be further developed.

The first biannual international ECSA conference was held in Berlin in May 2016.[2]

ECSA has initiated several strategic capacity-building programmes at the European and national scale, which have led to the development of outputs such as the Socientize Green and White Papers on Citizen Science in Europe and the Green paper Citizen Science Strategy 2020 for Germany.[3][4] The European White Paper provided the basis for several actions and policies related to public engagement in science directed by the European Commission, such as the "Science with and for Society" programme 2018-2020.[5]

ECSA is an active consortium member in several projects funded by the European Commission’s Horizon 2020. These include:

  • Distributed Network for Odour Sensing, Empowerment and Sustainability (D-NOSES).[6]
  • Doing It Together Science (DITOs).[7] (This project has now ended).
  • EU-Citizen.Science - Sharing, Initiating, and Learning Citizen Science in Europe.[8]
  • LandSense - Urban Landscape Dynamics.[9]
  • Panelfit - Participatory Approaches to a New Ethical and Legal Framework for ICT.[10]
  • WeObserve - An Ecosystem of Citizen Observatories for Environmental Monitoring.[11]
  • iTechExplorers - Collation & Sharing of Data Related to Affects of Technology on Circadian Rhythms.[12][13]

The ECSA is also a member of the Citizen Science Global Partnership.[14]

ECSA ten principles

To complement the definition of citizen science, ECSA also developed Ten Principles of Citizen Science, which have been translated into numerous European languages and have been published as a chapter in the open access book Citizen Science - Innovation in Open Science, Society and Policy.[15][16][17]

See also

References

  1. ^ Storksdieck, Martin (2016). "Associations for Citizen Science: Regional Knowledge, Global Collaboration". Citizen Science: Theory and Practice. 1 (2): 10. doi:10.5334/cstp.55. ...a steering committee has supported the executive board since January 2015 with a range of important decisions, including the development of a strategic plan ...
  2. ^ "ECSA Conference 2020". Retrieved 8 August 2019.
  3. ^ Fermin, Serrano Sanz (2014). "White Paper on Citizen Science in Europe" (PDF). zsi.at. Retrieved 8 May 2019.
  4. ^ Bonn, Aletta (2016). "Greenpaper Citizen Science Strategy 2020 for Germany" (PDF). buergerschaffenwissen.de. Retrieved 8 May 2019.
  5. ^ "Science with and for Society". 11 November 2013. Retrieved 8 August 2019.
  6. ^ "D-NOSES". Retrieved 8 August 2019.
  7. ^ "Doing-it-Together Science". Retrieved 8 August 2019.
  8. ^ "EU-Citizen.Science". Retrieved 8 August 2019.
  9. ^ "LandSense". Retrieved 8 August 2019.
  10. ^ "Panelfit". Retrieved 8 August 2019.
  11. ^ "WeObserve". Retrieved 8 August 2019.
  12. ^ "ECSA Member Individual | European Citizen Science Association (ECSA)". ecsa.citizen-science.net. Retrieved 2020-02-19.
  13. ^ "iTechExplorers – Citizen Science Project – A Citizen Science Project". Retrieved 2020-02-19.
  14. ^ Citizen Science Global Partnership website, Network, retrieved September 19, 2024
  15. ^ "Ten Principles of Citizen Science" (PDF). theoryandpractice.citizenscienceassociation.org. 2017. Retrieved 8 May 2019. ...Citizen science projects actively involve citizens in scientific endeavour that generates new knowledge or understanding...
  16. ^ Hecker, Susanne (2018). Citizen Science: Innovation in Open Science, Society and Policy. doi:10.14324/111.9781787352339. hdl:10398/44634f0b-4883-46c3-b896-20bf19b65e62. ISBN 9781787352339. S2CID 240058543. ...the European Citizen Science Association has also developed ...
  17. ^ Shun-Ling Chen (1 June 2019). "How Empowering Is Citizen Science? Access, Credits, and Governance for the Crowd". East Asian Science, Technology and Society. 13 (2): 215–234. doi:10.1215/18752160-7497711. S2CID 181878425.