As the 2025 calendar year soon closes, we want to take a moment and express our gratitude for all the projects and events we have been part of this year! |
A hand-crafted Holiday Card for you! |
As a tradition, to say a big "Thank you!" from the SPOTTERON team, we have designed a special hand-crafted Holiday Card for you just before the winter holidays. For this year's theme of our Holiday Card, we are diving into the microcosmos and reflecting on how atoms join together to create the molecules, from which we all are built. In the artwork, these connections resemble how projects of various topics & fields are connecting with each other on the platform and thereby co-create the SPOTTERON universe. |
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You can find the artwork in high-quality resolution right here: |
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So much Citizen Science & new Developments! |
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One of those major steps we would like to spotlight is the Co-Use Program of already six Apps running on the Platform which offers Citizen Science initiatives to become join and work together in a collaborative toolkit. This open approach to Citizen Science apps creates synergies and results in a higher impact potential for every partner involved. We look forward to the new sub-partnership to emerge in 2026!
In the EFFECTIVE and TRANSEATION projects, we have brought the collaborative marine Citizen Science COSEA App into the spotlight as part of the BlueMissionAA webinars, as well as joining the CS4Change webinar & panel discussion. We were also delighted to support the Art & Science project #FindWhereFound which is one of the first co-partnership initiatives running on the COSEA App in the SPOTTERON Co-Use Program.
As we are crossing the ten-year milestone of SPOTTERON, we are excited and empowered by ever growing development on the Platform thanks to the numerous collaborative projects taking place. |
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Designing, Publishing, and a new Handbook |
Across 2025 we were also involved in several publishing opportunities with our project partners, including creating a fully designed handbook for a Horizon project: the Vademecum for IPM-Popillia Horizon 2020 Project.
The regularly updated Papers & Publications page on our website offers a glimpse of the diversity of those studies. We are always fascinated to learn how Citizen Science contributes to supporting research and decision-making processes in such a variety of ways and in so many fields.
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Ethical AI for Citizen Science Apps |
Also in 2025, we rolled out the final version of the SPOTTERON Citizen Science AI, which is live in the co-use enabled IPM App for monitoring invasive species. The SPOTTERON AI is resulting from the IPM-Popillia project and in place to be a flexible tool for species identification via artificial intelligence, run ethically in Europe. A huge step forward!
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Our Team grows! |
Furthermore, we are happy for Ingrid joining the SPOTTERON Platform and supporting the App team in 2025, as well as increasing the capacity for the project management! Ingrid has quickly become a vital part of improving working together with the many partners and project teams on a day-by-day basis, and also for coordinating budgets for new Citizen Science projects and feature requests. Welcome to the team, and thank you for joining the crew!
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New Funding Opportunities & Conferences |
This year, we have also introduced a Funding & Conference page, where you can find the newest open funding calls and events in the Citizen Science field and beyond. Next year holds so many venues full of Citizen Science, and we look forward to seeing you there! We are also thrilled to see public engagement and Citizen Science as part of Horizon Europe 2026/2027 Programme! If you are building a consortium and searching for additional partners, please, let us know and let's schedule a call for next year! |
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Now off for the holidays! 🎄🥂 From December 22nd on, we are taking some holiday time to recharge for next year's adventures to come! Our entire team will be back in the office on the 12th of January, ready to tackle the New Year with renewed energy and enthusiasm! We look forward to all the Citizen Science of 2026, and we wish you all wonderful Holidays & Happy New Year!
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