SHINE 2Europe participated in the conference of the European Citizen Science Association (ECSA) Conference, held in Oulu, Finland, between 3-6 March, bringing together around 600 researchers and practitioners from across Europe to discuss the role of citizen science in advancing environmental sustainability and societal change.
SHINE 2Europe was represented by Angela Freitas, who contributed to the workshop “Co-created citizen science for transformative environmental and sustainable futures”. During the session, she presented the citizen science framework developed within the OneAquaHealth project, in a contribution titled “Co-creating citizen science for healthy urban aquatic ecosystems: the OneAquaHealth framework”.
The presentation highlighted how citizen science activities are being implemented across five European cities: Coimbra, Benevento, Ghent, Oslo and Toulouse.
As Leader of WP4. Citizen Science and Ethical Sustainability, SHINE 2Europe coordinates the development and implementation of citizen science activities. The project adopts a shared methodological framework to guide recruitment, training, data collection and knowledge transfer, while remaining flexible enough to adapt to the specific contexts and challenges of each city. A key component of this approach is the establishment of Local Alliances, bringing together citizens, researchers, NGOs and local authorities to support collaboration and strengthen the link between citizen engagement and environmental governance.
The workshop also highlighted the increasing shift in citizen science from contributory models towards co-creation approaches. In the OneAquaHealth project, citizens have been involved in workshops and river walks where they tested and provided feedback on the project’s Citizen Science App (https://apps.oneaquahealth.eu/), contributing to improvements in its usability and functionality. The digital tool enables participants to record environmental observations along urban streams, supporting the monitoring of urban freshwater ecosystems and generating data that can inform research and policy.
The event also provided an opportunity to reflect on the long-term sustainability of citizen science platforms and their potential to support evidence-based environmental decision-making.
OneAquaHealth is a 4-year Horizon Europe project exploring the connections between urban freshwater ecosystem health and human health, developing digital tools and citizen science approaches to support environmental monitoring and better decision-making.
Stay tuned to learn more: https://www.oneaquahealth.eu/