European Citizen Science Association
The European Citizen Science Association (ECSA) is a membership and networking organisation for practitioners and researchers of citizen science in Europe. ECSA was founded in 2014 in Germany and is ruled as charitable and member-based professional organization.
| Abbreviation | ECSA |
|---|---|
| Formation | 2014 |
| DE262426477 | |
| Legal status | Charitable Organization |
| Headquarters | Natural History Museum, Berlin |
| Location |
|
| Coordinates | 52°31′48″N 13°22′46″E |
| Fields | Citizen Science |
Executive Chair | Prof. Johannes Vogel, PhD |
Executive Vice-Chair | Muki Haklay |
Executive Vice-Chair | Luigi Ceccaroni |
| Dorte Riemenschneider (Managing Director) | |
| Affiliations | Citizen Science Association, Australian Citizen Science Association |
| Website | ecsa |
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]
Vision and mission
At the heart of ECSA’s work is its role as a platform to support the exchange of ideas and experiences around citizen science among practitioners and other interested parties. Other roles include capacity building, promotion and evaluation for citizen science projects. ECSA fosters a vibrant citizen science community across Europe and works closely with its partner organizations, the Citizen Science Association (CSA) in the USA and the Australian Citizen Science Association (ACSA).
Activities
It has held general assemblies each year since 2014, at which ECSA members and working groups present their projects and 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. The second international ECSA conference was held in June 2018 in Geneva, where the emphasis was on the role of citizen science for grassroots organizations, for empowering individual citizens and increasing scientific literacy. The next international conference will be held in Trieste in May 2020.[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 Greenpaper 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]
Partnerships
ECSA is one of the founders of the Citizen Science Global Partnership, and through that is working with the United Nations on how CS can best be applied to help tackle the Sustainable Development Goals.
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.[14][15][16]
See also
References
- Storksdieck, Martin (2016). "Associations for Citizen Science: Regional Knowledge, Global Collaboration". Citizen Science: Theory and Practice. 1 (2). 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 ...
- "ECSA Conference 2020". Retrieved 8 August 2019.
- Fermin, Serrano Sanz (2014). "White Paper on Citizen Science in Europe" (PDF). zsi.at. Retrieved 8 May 2019.
- Bonn, Aletta (2016). "Greenpaper Citizen Science Strategy 2020 for Germany" (PDF). buergerschaffenwissen.de. Retrieved 8 May 2019.
- "Science with and for Society". Retrieved 8 August 2019.
- "D-NOSES". Retrieved 8 August 2019.
- "Doing-it-Together Science". Retrieved 8 August 2019.
- "EU-Citizen.Science". Retrieved 8 August 2019.
- "LandSense". Retrieved 8 August 2019.
- "Panelfit". Retrieved 8 August 2019.
- "WeObserve". Retrieved 8 August 2019.
- "ECSA Member Individual | European Citizen Science Association (ECSA)". ecsa.citizen-science.net. Retrieved 2020-02-19.
- "iTechExplorers – Citizen Science Project – A Citizen Science Project". Retrieved 2020-02-19.
- "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...
- Hecker, Susanne (2018). Citizen Science: Innovation in Open Science, Society and Policy. doi:10.14324/111.9781787352339. ISBN 9781787352339.
...the European Citizen Science Association has also developed ...
- 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.