The BILAT USA 4.0 project hosted a Citizen Science workshop in conjunction with the conference on Citizen Observatories for natural hazards and water management (COWM) which took place in Venice, Italy, November 27-30, 2018. The workshop was co-organised by Dietmar Lampert of the Centre for Social Innovation (ZSI) and Anne Bowser of the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars. It was moderated by Barbara Kieslinger and Dietmar Lampert (both ZSI).
The aim of the workshop was to:
- identify topics of collaboration that are of mutual benefit to the US and the EU,
- prioritise the identified topics according to their relevance,
- link them to existing and new measures on the policy and the community level, and
- assign responsibilities (as far as possible).
The workshop accommodated about 30 participants and comprised invited experts from policy and funding, academia, citizen science associations, and practitioners from the EU and the US - most notably, the European Commission (RTD and JRC) and ECSA (both board members and from headquarter) on the European side, and the EPA, NOAA, the State Department, and CSA on the US side.
The invited experts managed to generate to work out priorities for four focus themes for citizen science, namely for
- data quality and standards,
- empowering citizens to participate in scientific endeavors,
- sensible means for policy and funding to support citizen science, and
- citizen science evaluation and impact assessment.
results will be made available on the project website shortly.