I’ve recently come across a call for members for an European Citizen Science Association Working Group on the SDGs and Citizen Science via Future Earth.
In summary:
Invitation to join the ECSA Policy Working Group; SDG and CS Task and Finish Group. To maximize citizen science contribution to and benefit from the UN 2030 Agenda and Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)
The ECSA Policy Working Group, (working closely with the Citizen Science Global Partnership CSGP) is seeking people who can see the opportunities for both SDGs and CS in developing ways for citizen science to contribute significantly to the UN 2030 Agenda and SDGs. We are establishing a Task and Finish Group to explore the possibilities and establish the frameworks and networks to maximise the benefits to both.
You can read more about it and undertake the simple registration process here.
Hi ! I ‘ve worked before on SDGs and I am very familiar with the concept , as well as my participation in an SDG camp back in 2016 in Both Gabes and Tunis where me and my team came up with a brilliant idea lf a project on SDG #1 “ no poverty “ and we qualified for the regional camp in Tunis but I we didn’t qualify for the international event ! But I am following up with the team that I ‘ve worked with by catching up and discussing topics about SDG from time to time . So my question here is do this program accept international participants ? @anique.yael
Good catch, @anique.yael. And @AnesB, this seems like a UN thing, so there is no “international”, the whole world is their jurisdiction. I think you can just go ahead and apply if you care about citizen science.
ECSA is a European organisation, but I know @thomasmboa is in the open science working group… So I assume that means it’s more international than just European folks.
It could be interesting, but I know that ECSA tends to have a rather institutional focus, concentrating on top-down approaches to citizen science (some of us from the DIY communities have had a few run-ins with them over this since they founded a few years ago and they don’t really show signs of changing anytime soon - eg their recent conference had ~400€ registration fees). But, perhaps the SDG connection presents an opportunity to shift to a different framing and a more equitable approach… i know Shannon Dosemagen from publiclab was invited to advise the UNEP last year on something linking SDGs and citizen science (trying to find the link for that).
Would also be interested to hear what @thomasmboa thinks about this idea…
Re: top-down approaches. I’ll stress again that I like how the H2020 proposal came together It supported both ends and the questions asked were a common problem: how to do citizen science better, and do it in a way that’s relevant for broader society? And with decent funding allocated to both the execution and research.
Thx for sharing @anique.yael. Looks like an interesting opportunity to connect SDG and CS. So I’ll try to join this working group, in particular to help connect citizen science policies to real life CS hands-on action planned. Does anyone have experience with these policy groups? Do they actually get things done or do they mainly stick to formulating recommendations?
It supported both ends and the questions asked were a common problem: how to do citizen science better, and do it in a way that’s relevant for broader society? And with decent funding allocated to both the execution and research.