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...
Conference Folder for the Citizen Science Project IPM Popillia
For IPM Popillia, we designed a folder for the Italian Citizen Science Conference in Pisa, which took place last weekend. This folder serves as an introduction to the project for fellow Citizen Science initiatives and individuals potentially interested in becoming Citizen Scientists. It includes key details about the project, insights on ...
Sharing the Soundscapes: Audio Recording in Citizen Science Apps
Besides the visual component of a Citizen Science observation, in some projects, recording audio is as important. From bird songs to amphibian calls, from city noise to dialects - sound recordings offer a distinct form of data in natural science projects, in linguistic citizen science, or even in capturing reports about environmental quality. ...
New ways of Science Communication: Ars Electronica Festival 2023
The European Space Agency and its new way of communicating with the public The climate crisis was one of the thematic focal points at the Ars Electronica Festival 2023, which took place in early September. The European Space Agency, whose observational data provides the basis for national and international efforts to predict future changes in clima...
Citizen Science at the Ars Electronica Festival 2023 - the European Union Prize for Citizen Science
Last weekend marked a historic moment for Citizen Science in Europe. The first-ever European Union Prize for Citizen Science was awarded on Thursday, Sept. 7, 2023 at this year's Ars Electronica Festival in Linz. The theme of the event was "Who owns the truth?" - a question that is particularly relevant for Citizen Science. We were on-site and...
Automated Reports from Citizen Science Apps about occuring observations
Sensitive topics like invasive alien species can lead to challenges when utilizing Citizen Science and public involvement. Observations can be time-sensitive, like disaster reports, or topic-sensitive, like controlled pests in agricultural monitoring. Some data categories even include legal requirements, like in the latter example, where new sighti...
HydroCrowd: Citizen Science App Release
The Citizen Science App for measuring rainfall and weather from HydroCrowd has only recently been released. HydroCrowd is a research project of the Justus Liebig University Giessen. The project explores the potential of participatory monitoring in selected mountainous regions in Ecuador, Honduras and Tanzania to increase the availability of hy...
2x Falling Walls Global Call Finalist
Recently the Falling Walls Global Call selected 50 finalists for the best science engagement projects from around the world! Among them are two Citizen Science projects whose Apps run on the SPOTTERON platform - YouCount, funded by Horizon Europe and Soils for Science from the University of Queensland, Institute for Molecular Bioscience. As pa...
Our Poster of Community Effects in Citizen Science Apps
For our participation in Citizen Science conferences, we have designed one of our this year's conference posters about the Community Effects in Citizen Science Apps and the effects that science communication and interaction have on a Citizen Science project's success. The poster was accepted and presented on several occasions, such as the Aust...
Featuring Future Conference by BOKU
We recently attended this year's Featuring Future Conference at the BOKU Vienna (University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences) and were able to listen to significant lectures on the major topics of the future. In this blog, we want to share some exciting impressions of the conference and also talk about how essentially the concept of Citizen S...
European Union Price for Citizen Science
IMPETUS, a Europe-wide project to promote Citizen Science, recently awarded Citizen Science projects and published the selected award winners of the European Union Price for Citizen Science. Among them are two Citizen Science Apps running on the SPOTTERON App platform: Roadkill by the University of Natural Resources and Applied Life Scien...
Citizen Science Award 2023
The Citizen Science Award 2023, organized by OeAD, is currently taking place in Austria from April 1st to July 31st. Those who participate in one of the eight projects, will have the chance to win and be part of the Young Science Conference in October 2023. We are proud to announce that two of our project partners belong to the ...
New Video! An introduction to the SPOTTERON Citizen Science App Platform
In the course of our submission to the current "EU Prize for Citizen Science", we have produced a new video as an introduction to the SPOTTERON Citizen Science platform. The clip showcases the core aspects of what the platform brings to Citizen Science projects across Europe and beyond. As an interactive toolkit, every Citizen Science App not only ...
Discover how a Citizen Science App is helping to protect Kenya's Mammals: the new Video about MAKENYA
The MAKENYA Mammal Atlas App is a Kenyan citizen science mobile-based application that allows users to monitor and track rare and common mammals. It allows users to use their map location or GPS coordinates of the area they spotted a particular mammal, share pictures, and identify the species. The project has been the first Citizen S...
Thank you for all the Citizen Science 2022!
As the year comes to a close, we wanted to take a moment to express our heartfelt gratitude for all the partnerships and support in 2022. A wide range of new exciting projects has helped to expand the platform for improving the impact and quality of Citizen Science Apps. Our collaborations with stakeholders, institutions, and project partners from ...
How to work with young people in Citizen Science? - Complying with privacy laws and parental consent requirements in Apps
In many Citizen Science Apps, participants are younger than 16 or 18 years of age. From educational school-based projects to including the youth in workshops, feedback, or data collection: the engagement of younger people is often at the core of Citizen Science projects. To invite underaged children to be active in a digital tool like Citizen ...
New Direct Communication Tools for Citizen Science Apps: User Message Boards
User-to-user communication and project-to-user communication are essential parts of modern interactive Citizen Science. In the new platform update, we extend the already present features in all Apps on the SPOTTERON platform with another significant upgrade: User Message Boards. Exchanging messages, enabling discussion Being able to contact each ot...
Quo vadis, Twitter? - A Statement on the current situation on Twitter
As you may know, the ownership of Twitter has changed. Since then, the dynamic has spun increasingly out of control on that social platform. The new owner first changes core moderation policies to allow "free speech" (which means more radicalism in a social network) while censoring everything he dislikes. Secondly, there is chaos. The new owner ins...
This was the ECSA Citizen Science Conference 2022 in Berlin
From the 5th to the 8th of October, the ECSA Citizen Science Conference 2022 took place in Berlin under the motto "Citizen Science for Planetary Health."We have been attending this fantastic bi-annual event (for sure) and spent four days in Germany's capital to learn more about citizen science and various approaches, definitions, and projects while...
The ECSA European Citizen Science Conference 2022 takes place in October in Berlin - Meet us there!
The ECSA European Citizen Science Conference is Europe's major meeting point every two years for actors and stakeholders in Citizen Science. In 2022, it takes place in Berlin, Germany, and we look forward to traveling to the North of Europe for Citizen Science! This year's conference motto, "Citizen Science for Planetary Health" reflects the ...
Map Types for Citizen Science Apps
In Citizen Science Apps, the map often plays a central role. On SPOTTERON, different map types stand ready for every participant to use as a personal choice and for supporting correct locations when submitting data in the App. We are always at some place - and the map in a Citizen Science App reflects this connection. In Citizen Science,...
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