Science Communication and Citizen Science: Vademecum - a Handbook for the IPM-Popillia Horizon 2020 Project
Under the title "Integrated Pest Management of the invasive Japanese Beetle, Popillia japonica", a Horizon 2020 project took place from 2020 to 2024, looking at the impact of invasive beetle species on the plant health. Although the project has succe...
The 2026/2027 Horizon Europe Work Programmes - Draft Versions Publicly Available and Includes Public Engagement & Citizen Science
When one project calendar year is turning to the end soon, another is on the horizon! The Horizon Europe Work Programmes for 2026-2027 are in the making and for the first time the draft versions are publicly available. We took a look at the recent dr...
Project Activity System for Citizen Science Apps
In many Citizen Science projects, there are geographical location-related events or activities to interact with as a participant. Such activities can, for example, be simply a workshop taking place or something more permanent like an exhibition, a na...
SPOTTERON FOUR PREVIEW - A new generation of Citizen Science Apps is on the horizon
The SPOTTERON platform is always extending and together with projects across Europe, Australia, America, and Africa, new features and functionalities are constantly developed. With a new set of major core extensions and the overhaul of important syst...
Does Data Validation improve with the community's help in Citizen Science Apps?
The new "Community Data Validation" Feature on the SPOTTERON Platform allows Citizen Scientists to be more deeply involved in the scientific process. The feature update in the ClimateWatch App by Earthwatch Australia allows u...
Spatial Data Recording for Citizen Science Apps
Many Citizen Science and User Engagement projects utilize more than only point data for locations and spatial dimensions. Examples are plentiful - from setting up transects for counting butterflies to recording habitats and transformations. Spatial D...
User Mentions and Push Notifications - Enabling immediate direct communication for all Citizen Science Apps
Imagine a Citizen Scientist asking a question inside your project's App. What if a reply directly reaches the user on the smartphone with a beep as soon it is posted? This next level of immediacy is now a reality with the new "User Mention" feature f...
A Milestone for Citizen Science: SPOTTERON 3.0 is here!
It has been a busy year here at SPOTTERON. Despite the ongoing global pandemic, we are happy that a new platform generation is finally ready for your Citizen Science Apps! After months of building up the groundwork, thorough evaluation, testing and i...
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Project Activity System for Citizen Science Apps
In many Citizen Science projects, there are geographical location-related events or activities to interact with as a participant. Such activities can, for example, be simply a workshop taking place or something more permanent like an exhibition, a nature trail, or a project-related area that needs highlighting. With the integrated system called "Pr...
From Participation to Community: citizen-to-citizen and scientist-to-citizen interactions in Citizen Science Apps on the SPOTTERON platform
One of the most important aspects of Citizen Science is recognizing that participants voluntarily invest their time and effort into contributing to scientific projects—without compensation. While their passion for nature and curiosity about the environment drive participation, another crucial motivator is often overlooked: the desire to engage and ...
EFFECTIVE Meeting in Cyprus, January 2025
On January 15th and 16th, 2025, leading scientists, researchers, and stakeholders gathered in Larnaca, Cyprus, for the latest meeting of the EFFECTIVE Consortium. This international collaboration is dedicated to advancing environmental data management, coastal sustainability, and innovative technological solutions to address ecological challenges i...
Hey, we made it full circle! Have some wonderful winter holidays and see you in 2025!
The year 2024 is coming to a close, and soon we are off for the winter holidays! It was an exciting year, new technologies have been developed and integrated, new Horizon Europe projects rolling on, new team members joining SPOTTERON and so many new Citizen Science Apps and projects starting on the platform. As it is tradition, we design ...
NatureSpots Citizen Science App Spotlighted in Podcast Episode “Citizen Science and Biodiversity” (Amsterdamse Bos, Athena Institute)
How do science, citizen science, and nature reinforce each other to address social issues? This key topic was the focus of a podcast recorded last summer by Amsterdamse Bos (Amsterdam Forest) and the Athena Institute, a research institute of the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam. Last week, the podcast was published, and given the interesting insig...
Live Route Recording in Citizen Science Apps
Every so often, the journey is the reward. When it comes to Citizen Science projects that include data about paths and routes traveled by citizens in the research, recording such geospatial data live is a crucial feature. Projects from areas like environmental health, urban transportation, or social science studies can benefit from being able to en...
Biodiversity in Urban Space - Ars Electronica Festival 2024
Is it strange to live still optimistically and in hope in times of the polycrisis? This question was posed at this year's Ars Electronica Festival in Linz with the theme HOPE. We attended the festival in early September, and in this blog, we'll briefly discuss the workshop "Plant Life on the POSTCITY Roof" led by botanist Friedrich Schwarz. Togethe...
Understanding Climate Crisis Through Citizen Science: The P51 Project in Costa Rica
The climate crisis is undeniably reshaping our world, with its impacts becoming increasingly evident across various aspects of life. From record-breaking temperatures and shifting habitats to declining biodiversity and changes in infrastructure and politics, the effects of climate change are both vast and complex. Many of us can easily perceive war...
AI for Citizen Science Apps - Update on the SPOTTERON AI Image Recognition System for species ID or object identification
Artificial intelligence (AI) is a useful tool for analyzing data and supporting research. While the currently more popular forms of generative AI is impacting our daily lives and society and carries a considerable amount of risks, the intergration of predictive AI in interactive Apps can be highly beneficial for data analysis an...
Collaboration for Effective Sea Action: Release of the EU Marine Citizen Science App COSEA
COSEA is a collaborative, participatory, and community-driven project, funded by the European Union. It focuses on marine environments, marine species, and their habitats, as well as on various innovative approaches to their protection: TRANSEATION and EFFECTIVE are the two science projects that collaborate within COSEA with individual methods and ...
Discover biodiversity — explore biodiversity: The new Citizen Science Game for the Natural History Museum NHM in Vienna, Austria
While we made our preparations for the European Citizen Science Association ECSA conference in Vienna, we had another task on our to-do list: let's make a game for the public day in the museum! But it is not any kind of game, it is the (probably) the largest computer game in Austria! In the Natural History Museum in Vienna, there is the "Deck ...
Citizen Science Dissemination for the IPM Popillia Project
In the last months, the IPM Popillia project, funded by Horizon 2020, has collaborated with SPOTTERON to create informational and dissemination materials about the invasive Japanese beetle (Popillia japonica), which has been spreading across Europe for several years. As part of the IPM Popillia Consortium, SPOTTERON created...
The very first App in the Indigenous Language Trio
Suriname has roughly 14 languages - the official and most spoken language is Dutch. One of Suriname's indigenous languages is Trio, which is spoken by the Tarëno, a conglomeration of analogous subgroups and distinct Amerindian groups (Mirella Nankoe, 2017). The total Tarëno population (Tarëno means "people from here") in Suriname can...
Data Security Layer: Protecting sensitive data in Citizen Science Apps
In many Citizen Science projects, there are distinct data categories which have a sensitive nature. From endangered species to details about personal lives in social science programmes, working with such data elements requires an additional level of protection and security. An integrated feature for better data safety in Citizen Science Together wi...
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SPOTTERON FOUR PREVIEW - A new generation of Citizen Science Apps is on the horizon
The SPOTTERON platform is always extending and together with projects across Europe, Australia, America, and Africa, new features and functionalities are constantly developed. With a new set of major core extensions and the overhaul of important system-related functionalities, the new platform version, SPOTTERON FOUR, brings new innovative tools an...
Citizen Science and iOS 17 - taking care of Citizen Science Apps
As you may have heard, iOS version 17 is on the horizon. A new operating system version introduces new features, polishes existing ones, and carries the torch further. But it also means that the App Store enforces an update of the "base system" on which mobile Apps for iOS are built on, and all existing Apps must be updated to the new software gene...
Designing a Youth Social Citizen Science Handbook for the YouCount Horizon EU 2020 Project
The Horizon Europe 2020 YouCount project recently concluded, summarizing its experiences and findings in a comprehensive Handbook. SPOTTERON has been a steadfast supporter of the Social Citizen Science project, e.g., in designing the YouCount Citizen Science App, the final conference, and now in creating the design for the recently published handbo...
Design process for Citizen Science project AmphiApp (BOKU Vienna)
The AmphiBiom project from BOKU Vienna focuses on comprehensive protection of the green toad and has therefore launched a new amphibian Citizen Science project: AmphiApp. SPOTTERON had the honor of visualizing the project and designing the Citizen Science App AmphiApp, the amphi.at website, the logo and visual ide...
Thank you for all the Citizen Science in 2023!
The year 2023 is slowly coming to an end, but before everyone goes into the well-deserved holidays, here is a quick update about SPOTTERON, new upcoming features, and also a nice season card handcrafted for you. But to start off with the most important thing: thank you very much for bringing so many interesting projects and features to SPOTTERON th...
Conference Design for the YouCount Social Citizen Science Project
The Final Conference for YouCount occurred in Brussels at the start of December. YouCount is a Social Citizen Science project that unites young individuals and stakeholders to collaboratively generate new knowledge and innovations that can contribute to addressing one of the complex societal challenges being faced by Europe: How to increa...
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