SHINE’s commitment to advancing participatory research was showcased by Miriam Cabrita and Inês Saavedra at the OpenLab.Brussels conference in Brussels, themed “Creating Knowledge through Participatory Research.”
Miriam presented SHINE’s approach in fostering participatory activities funded by the European Commission under the Horizon Europe programme. She explored how different engagement methodologies can address specific project needs—ranging from co-research to collaboratively designing pathways for the practical implementation of new technologies and services. Miriam described the activities performed in four projects, three in the healthcare domain – RadioVal, AI4HF, and Liveration, and one in the context of smart-farming (Guardians). The presentation finalized with a reflection on the complexities of participatory approaches in transnational and transdisciplinary research. Miriam emphasized the importance of flexibility to adapt to unexpected changes and advocated for the creation of structured, step-by-step guides to support local sites in coordinating and executing engagement activities. These insights underline the necessity of a practical yet adaptable framework for successfully implementing participatory research across diverse contexts.
Inês presented the team’s work on the OneAquaHealth project which includes the project’s innovative approach to Citizen Science and ethical sustainability, a key focus area led by SHINE.
OneAquaHealth explores the interdependence between the health of freshwater ecosystems and human well-being in urban contexts, aiming to demonstrate how improvements to one benefit the other. In a mission to predict disease risks linked to ecosystem degradation, the project engages citizens and stakeholders to collect crucial data on urban streams, with a focus on developing early warning indicators to protect public health.
In the presentation, “Engaging Local Stakeholders and Citizens in Monitoring Urban Aquatic Ecosystems: the OneAquaHealth Research Framework”, it was emphasised the role of Local Alliances — coalitions of stakeholders from government, academia, industry, environmental organisations, and civil society. These alliances, tailored to each research site (Coimbra, Oslo, Benevento, Ghent, and Toulouse), are essential to co-developing and sustaining the project’s solutions. Through workshops, meetings, and even guided urban stream tours, each site builds its alliance with a local approach, fostering discussions on roles and responsibilities while addressing community-specific issues.
Additionally, Inês shared insights from focus groups conducted with local citizens at each research site, exploring exploring perceptions of urban streams and motivations for environmental observation. These perspectives will be integrated into the Citizen Science Protocol, which was also presented, to ensure consistent data collection across research sites while allowing for local adaptation.