OGC TC/PC Meeting
2019-09-09 - 2019-09-13 | Banff Centre, 107 Tunnel Mountain Dr, Banff, AB T1L 1H5, Canada

11th International Symposium on Digital Earth (ISDE 2019)
2019-09-24 09:30 - 2019-09-27 20:30 (Europe/Moscow) | Florence, Italy
The 11th International Symposium on Digital Earth is about to be realized between 2 and 27 of September, 2019. The online registration is open.

Register here in the 11th International Symposium on Digital Earth (ISDE 2019).

To complete the registration, follow the steps below:

You must create a registration profile by clicking on CREATE A NEW INDIVIDUAL USER
Once you have filled out all of the registration fields, please click on PROCEED TO CHECKOUT in order to complete the registration payment.
Once your profile is created, you will receive an email with your login details. After your registration is completed, in case you need to access the registration page again (e.g. to register for a social event, to book an optional tour, to register an accompanying person…) please enter your Username and Password in the INDIVIDUAL LOGIN section of the registration page.
Please note that in Italy you receive the invoice after the payment. Once the registration process has been completed, within a few days you will receive an invoice from the Organizing Secretariat confirming that payment has been received.

The ISDE11 Call for Abstracts is open and the deadline for submission is February 28th, 2019. Click here to submit an abstract.

Ground Truth 2.0 Week 2019
2019-09-30 09:00 - 2019-10-04 18:00 (Europe/Moscow) | IHE Delft Institute for Water Education, Westvest 7, 2611 AX
The Ground Truth 2.0 team invites you to participate in a week of dynamic and interactive events.
Join Ground Truth 2.0 in a (virtual) tour across two continents and six citizen observatories before settling for two days of workshops in Delft!

30 September – 2 October 2019
Local events by the six Ground Truth 2.0 citizen observatories
3 – 4 October 2019
Two days of workshops in Delft

What to expect
Find out what citizen observatories are, in what ways they differ from ‘normal Citizen Science’ and how they allow communities of citizens, scientists and policy makers to jointly monitor and manage their environment.
Ground Truth 2.0 has helped to set up on two continents: Meet Mee Mechelen in Belgium, Maasai Mara Citizen Observatory in Kenya, Grip op Water Altena in the Netherlands, RitmeNatura.cat in Spain, VattenFokus in Sweden and Niti Luli Sesheke & Mufulani in Zambia.
During the Ground Truth 2.0 week, you can learn about the thematic focus, purpose and achievements of each observatory. Find out about the Ground Truth 2.0 co-design methodology that was developed and applied to set up these observatories – and how it can be adapted to different geographical contexts, social settings and thematic issues. Discover what stakeholder engagement strategies have worked where and why. Hear impact stories from the Ground Truth 2.0 observatories and share your own experiences with community-based environmental monitoring. Try out the platforms, apps and data quality tools that are supporting these observatories. And engage in discussions with the Ground Truth 2.0 team and other enthusiasts about what can help the uptake of citizen observatories in other regions, settings and topics.

Find out more information as well as the general program here.

Observing the Environment: Challenges and Opportunities in Citizen Science
2019-10-09 09:00 - 18:00 (Europe/Moscow) | Brussels, EC office, Belgium
The WeObserve project hosted a special event, “Observing the Environment: Challenges and Opportunities in Citizen Science”,held on 9 Oct 2019 in Brussels in cooperation with the European Commission. It brought together four sister projects on Citizen Observatories (COs) for Environmental Monitoring, funded by H2020 and launched in 2016, and commission representatives working closely with citizen science initiatives.
The participating CO projects (LandSense, GROW Observatory, Scent, and Ground Truth 2.0), which have either concluded their activities or are in their final year, showcased their achievements and shared best practices. The focus of the event was an exploration of the challenges facing COs to generate forward-looking solutions and recommendations that can help improve sustainability and increase impact for ongoing and future COs.
The WeObserve project has identified three key challenges for mainstreaming COs that framed the event discussions:
1. AWARENESS – Improving awareness of COs and citizen science activities;
2. ACCEPTABILITY – Increasing quality and acceptability and showcasing the added value of COs;
3. SUSTAINABILITY – Creating longer-term systems and transition processes that can sustain and scale up CO activities.
Within the three key challenges, and based on their experiences in running COs, the attending project representatives presented obstacles facing COs. Following the presentations, in-depth discussion sessions further explored select obstacles and sought to formulate forward looking recommendations and solutions for the benefit of ongoing and future CO projects. A designated breakout group tackled each of the three challenges: Awareness, Acceptability, and Sustainability. Event participants were able to consecutively join two of the three topical discussion groups.
To find out more about the event, as well as the presentations and aavailable material, please visit here.

GEO Week 2019 Targeted event on Citizen Science
2019-11-04 09:00 - 10:00 (Europe/Moscow) | Canberra, Australia
Within the GEO Week and in particular on 4/11/2019 from 9:00-10:00, a side event will take place, dedicated to citizen science. The event aim to demonstrate the value of citizen science for GEO in tacking critical data gaps that impede progress on pressing global challenges. There will be an interactive session, demonstrations, panel discussion as well as showcases of the citizen science impact on policy and society.

Important note: Registration is mandatory in order to enter the building. To register click here.

9th European Conference on Sustainable Cities and Towns
2019-11-14 08:00 - 17:00 (Europe/Moscow) | Mannheim, Germany
The City of Mannheim, and ICLEI Europe are pleased to announce the 9th European Conference on Sustainable Cities and Towns. The conference will take place from 30 September – 2 October 2020 in Mannheim, Germany.
The conference will demonstrate the urgent need for local governments to assume responsibility for urban transformation and lead the way in guiding Europe towards a secure and sustainable future. The world is facing major environmental, economic and social challenges that require a substantial transformation in all aspects of society. Without this transformation, global and European self-set goals like the Paris Agreement, the Sustainable Development Goals and the Europe long term strategy on GHG emission reduction will remain unreachable.
The 9th European Conference on Sustainable Cities & Towns is your chance to become part of a transformational movement. Join over 800 participants from local and regional governments, European and international institutions, multilateral organisations, the research community, business and civil society.
Read more here.

G-STIC 2019
2019-11-20 08:00 - 2019-11-22 17:00 (Europe/Moscow) | Brussels, Brussels, Belgium
CONNECTING TECHNOLOGICAL INNOVATION TO DECISION MAKING FOR SUSTAINABILITY Integrated technological solutions that are good for the planet, for the people and for the economy G-STIC is a series of conferences that aim to accelerate the development, dissemination, and deployment of technological innovations that enable the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). G-STIC is focused on building knowledge bases and global expert networks to support the technological transitions that are needed for the implementation of the Paris Agreement and the 2030 Agenda for sustainable development. More than a conference series: G-STIC aims to contribute to a systemic change G-STIC is focused on building knowledge bases and global expert networks to support the technological transitions that are needed for the implementation of the Paris Agreement and the 2030 Agenda for sustainable development.G-STIC will draw upon the best available knowledge and real-life expertise to contribute a robust advisory system on integrated technological solutions to the United Nations and other international policy forums, as they relate to the SDGs, the climate goals and the Means of Implementation of binding multilateral environmental agreements. For more information, and to register for the event, please visit the event website.
To register, click here. To find out more, visit here.

Kampala Noses pilot launch
2020-02-12 09:30 - 16:00 (Europe/Moscow)
The Kampala NOSES Network for Odour Sensing Empowerment and Sustainability was launched in the context of the ‘Effective local action on Odour for Kampala’ Conference.
Kampala NOSES is a pilot project that seeks to introduce novel ways with which to monitor and record odour issues across Kampala, with a longer term vision of implementing new environmental reporting and governance mechanisms that are accessible to all.
The event took place at Namirembe Guest House on February 12 th 2020 9:30am to 4:00pm and is aimed at key stakeholders including:

policy makers
environmental authorities
public sector administrators
public health bodies
academics
NGOs and CSOs
industries

The pilot is being jointly run by Mapping for Change a Community Interest Company and D-NOSES partner based at University College London, together with Mapping for Communities – a Kampala based NGO – and Science for Change, a Spanish company, in cooperation with the EU H2020 D-NOSES project and the generous support from Àrea Metropolitana de Barcelona.
More details cna be found here.

WeObserve Roadshow event: Citizen Observatories for flood management
2020-03-10 09:00 - 13:00 (Europe/Moscow) | Cerje Peace Memorial, Miren, Slovenia, Slovenia
The Roadshow in Miren was canceled due to COVID pandemic.

This interactive event will showcase to emergency managers, local authorities and other policy/decision-makers what Citizen Observatories are and how they can effectively help in the management of flood risk, including in transboundary river basins.
Activities will include:

Practical demonstration of a citizen observatory for flood risk management;
Cost/benefit analysis of Citizen Observatories;
Exchange of experiences: how can a Citizen Observatory help you?
Expert panel on balancing the social dimensions and enabling technologies of Citizen Observatories

The event will take place on 11 March 2020, from 09:00 to 13:00, on Miren, Slovenia.
Hosted by the Interreg VISFRIM Project Consortium
Venue: Cerje Peace Memorial, Miren (Slovenia)
Find here the Save the Date announcement.

WeObserve CO for EO Workshop
2020-03-17 16:30 - 18:30 (Europe/Moscow) | Paphos, Cyprus
The second WeObserve CO for EO Workshop was canceled due to COVID pandemic.

The second WeObserve CO for EO Workshop will take place on Tuesday, 17 March 2020, during the RSCy2020 ‘8th International Conference on Remote Sensing and Geoinformation of Environment’ in Paphos, Cyprus.

This special session/workshop organized by the H2020 WeObserve project, is aiming to explore success stories where citizen science data are combined with conventional sources of Earth Observation data. Focus will be given to showcase best practices arising from the activities of H2020 Citizen Observatories and from other projects as well, while illustrating how the integration of Earth Observation and citizen science can improve environmental monitoring. In particular, the following topics will be addressed during this two-hours workshop:

Connecting citizens with earth observation data to promote environmental monitoring;
Innovative citizen science tools for collecting in situ land cover and land use data;
Improved land cover mapping through the use of machine learning and citizen science data;
Validation of remotely sensed soil moisture using crowdsourced measurements;
Remote sensing as a driving tool for citizen science-based phenology monitoring;
Assess citizen science based land cover maps with remote sensing products.

For more information on the conference, please visit here. Stay tuned with WeObserve in Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and YouTube so as not to miss anything!

ClairCity Final Event
2020-03-19 09:30 - 16:30 (Europe/Moscow) | Atelier29, Rue Jacques de Lalaing 29, 1000 Brussels
The ClairCity project- Citizen Led Air pollution Reduction in Cities is an innovative project engaging thousands of people across Europe more systematically and actively in carbon footprint and air pollution reduction. The project has 16 partner organizations involved in the project, including 6 cities, each of which faces different issues and causes of air pollution: Amsterdam (The Netherland), Bristol (UK), Aveiro (Portugal), Liguria (Italy), Ljubljana (Slovenia) and Sosnowiec (Poland). All of the partner cities are working to improve their air quality.
As ClairCity is coming to an end, organizes its final event on 19 March in Brussels to showcase its results and outcomes.
Please find here the draft programme. For more information visit the project’s website here.

INSPIRE Hackathon
2020-03-30 - 2020-06-11
Depsite the COVID-19 pandemic and after approximately 2 months since its initation, the Dubrovnik INSPIRE Hackathon 2020 ”Leveraging interoperable frameworks, artificial intelligence and citizen science for Sustainable Development Goals was successfully concluded, consisting of 12 individual challenges.
One of the key objectives of the hackathon was to promote collaboration and sharing of experience in the domain of spatial data/services and citizen-science while showcasing their utilisation and uptake to different application domains and themes. This includes also supporting the Sustainable Development Goals. WeObserve introduced and facilitated the organisation of three citizen-science challenges that attracted 35 participants coming from different fields of expertise and from 22 different countries all over the world.
On Thursday 11th June, the results from the hackathon challenges were presented during the INSPIRE 2020 Online Conference, showing what the teams have achieved in the weeks of virtual collaboration. This workshop concluded with an announcement of the top three teams in an awards ceremony. One of the citizen-science challenges entitled as “Establish the connection of Citizen Observatories resources with central catalogue” was the winner of the second place!
To find out more about the citizen-science challenges, please visit here.

CODATA Essay competition: Open Data Challenges to Address Glibal and Societal Issues
2020-04-01 - 2020-06-30
AN INVITATION TO TAKE PART IN THE CODATA CONNECT – DATA SCIENCE JOURNAL EARLY CAREER ESSAY COMPETITION

The first of its kind, CODATA Connect Early Career and Alumni Network in collaboration with the CODATA Data Science Journal (DSJ) is organizing an Essay Competition for Early Career Researchers (ECR), defined as university undergraduate, graduate, post-graduate students or early career researchers within five years of completing their highest qualification. CODATA Connect exists to ensure a structural and sustained collaboration and support for the activities of the alumni of CODATA-RDA Summer Schools, of the CODATA China and Trieste Training Workshops and other early career researchers and data professionals involved in the CODATA community and those of partner organisations.
Topic for the Essay: “Open Data Challenges to Address Global and Societal Issues”

Participants interested in disseminating information on research data in the sciences, humanities and the arts using essays as the medium are welcome to apply.
Topics might include but not limited to human health, climate change, resilience, etc.
Essays which discuss the necessary limits in openness are also in scope and are welcome (e.g. personal health information, indigenous sovereignty etc.)
Essays that discuss the challenges in making data as open as possible and how such data can be used to address global and societal issues (Crime, Disease, Governance, etc.)
Essays might discuss challenges at any point in the data lifecycle and in relation to any of a number of global and societal challenges.
We discourage essays that simply present well known and generic arguments in favour of open data.
Essays are encouraged to use local or specific examples for the benefits of open data and to discuss how challenges can be overcome in both specific circumstances and more globally.

To find out more on the criteria, as well as the process to be followed, visit the official website here.

Want to Join the Fight Against COVID-19? Help Scientists With Their Coronavirus Research From Your Home
2020-04-15 15:00 - 17:00 (Europe/Moscow)
Discover and SciStarter are hosting a live, online Citizen Science Month event looking at three COVID-19 research projects that need your help.

On Wednesday, April 15, at 3 p.m. EDT, Discover and SciStarter will host a live-streamed event on Zoom and Facebook to introduce you to three scientists leading COVID-19 citizen science projects that need your help. The event is part of Citizen Science Month.
In the discussion, you’ll learn how to identify behaviors that influence risk; crowdsource the COVID-19 pandemic in real-time; play an online game to fold and design proteins for scientific research.
Anna Funk, associate editor of Discover magazine, will moderate the discussion. We’ll provide step-by-step guides so we can get involved in real-time, online, together. You can create your SciStarter account (free) and get familiar with the three COVID-19 projects before the event by visiting SciStarter.org/COVID-19. You’ll also find the event live at Discover’s Facebook page, facebook.com/DiscoverMag.
Here are the projects that scientists will discuss:
COVID-19 Citizen Science – Take part
Scientists at the University of California, San Francisco, hope to enroll 1 million people in “real-time epidemiology” research. This program, called COVID-19 Citizen Science (CCS), starts with an initial 15-minute survey about a volunteer’s health and daily habits. The program will follow up with subsequent questions throughout the study, which will be sent via an app or text message.
Volunteers can even offer up their GPS location and, eventually, highly detailed information like blood pressure, weight, blood oxygen levels, body temperature, exercise and sleep. That information would come through wearable devices like Fitbits.
By tracking a huge number of people over time, the researchers hope to identify factors that change the risk of infection and what happens afterward. The more people get involved, the more statistically significant the results will be.
COVID Near You – Take part
Health officials can’t fight the coronavirus pandemic without knowing where infections are.
Now, researchers have created a way to track people with COVID-19 symptoms, even if they still can’t easily test and diagnose who actually has the disease.
The effort is called COVID Near You. Anyone in the U.S. can use the initiative’s website to self-report their location and how they’re feeling. The researchers work with national and local officials to monitor potential hot spots.
Fight COVID-19 with FoldIt – Take part
You wash your hands thoroughly and stifle your natural hugging urge, but what else can you do to battle COVID-19? Join the FoldIt project!
There, you will play a free online game in which the goal is to design an antiviral protein that targets the dangerous virus.

For more information, visit here.
Find more than 100 online events taking place this month at CitizenScienceMonth.org .

Pan-European Hackathon to develop innovative solutions to overcome societal challenges related to coronavirus
2020-04-24 - 2020-04-26 | Directorate-General for Research and Innovation, European Commission, Brussels, 1049, Belgium
The European Commission and EU member states have today launched a call for participation in a pan-European Hackathon to connect innovators, partners and buyers across Europe to develop innovative solutions to coronavirus-related challenges.
The Hackathon, which will take place on 24, 25 and 26 April, is structured around categories of problems that need short-term solutions in relation to coronavirus health and life, business continuity, remote working and education, social & political cohesion, digital finance and an open category for other challenges. Feel empowered to get creative!
European Commissioner for Innovation, Research, Culture, Education and Youth, Mariya Gabriel said:
This pan-European hackathon is an example of how Europe can come together in times of crisis. It’s inspiring to witness this show of solidarity by our community of innovators. Our most talented minds will do their best to find solutions to coronavirus and support our citizens. This is European innovation in action.
All 27 EU Member States are taking part as well as Norway, Israel, Switzerland, Turkey, Ukraine and the United Kingdom. The winning solutions will be invited to join a European Innovation Council Platform that will facilitate connections with end users (e.g. hospitals) and provide access to investors, foundations and other funding opportunities from across the European Commission.
Can you hack it? Register now on the EUvsVirus Hackathon website to be part of the solution!
More information are available here.

COVID Webinar #2: All Hands on Deck! Citizen Science and Serious Games Tackle Covid-19
2020-04-24 08:00 - 17:00 (Europe/Moscow)
The Citizen Science Association Law and Policy Working Group invite you to take part to ‘COVID Webinar #2: All Hands on Deck! Citizen Science and Serious Games Tackle Covid-19’

FRIDAY, APRIL 24, 2020
TIME: 8-9:15 AM PT / 11 AM – 12:15 PM ET / 4-5:15 PM CET
REGISTER HERE: https://bit.ly/CSAcovidGames
Speakers:

EteRNA

Rhiju Das, Associate Professor, Stanford University

Protein-folding citizen scientists tackle Covid-19 with Foldit

Firas Khatib, Assistant Professor at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth

Covid Near You

Kara Seawalk, Boston Children’s Hospital and Covid Near You

COVID.SI: Citizen science project to fight against NCOV-SARS-2 by distributed computing

Črtomir Podlipnik

Safecast and Responding to Covid-19 through crowdsourced data

Angela Eaton, Safecast Americas Director

Follow the conversation on Twitter: @CitSciAssoc and using hashtags #CitSciPolicy and #CitSci

Find below the Presenters’ Bios:
Rhiju Das, Ph.D., is a computational biochemist at Stanford University School of Medicine. His lab seeks a predictive understanding of how RNA molecules code for complex biological machines. The lab’s computer algorithms have consistently achieved leading predictions in world-wide structure prediction trials. Complementary to these computer methods, Dr. Das is developing high-throughput ‘multidimensional chemical mapping’ experiments to uncover three-dimensional structures and conformational changes of non-coding RNAs in their biological milieu, leading to discoveries relevant to human development, neurological disorders, and viral infection. Towards novel molecules of biomedical interest, Dr. Das leads the Eterna massive open laboratory. Eterna couples a 250,000-player videogame to the lab’s massively parallel experimental tools and deep learning, the first such platform in citizen science. Dr. Das’s research has been recognized with the Burroughs-Wellcome Career Award at the Interface of Science, a W.M. Keck Medical Research Program award, the OpenEye/American Chemical Society Outstanding Junior Faculty Award, and an endowed faculty award. Dr. Das mentors students from Stanford’s biochemistry, biophysics, biomedical informatics, chemistry, and learning sciences Ph.D. programs. EteRNA: https://eternagame.org/web/news/9804036/
Firas Khatib, Ph.D., is an Assistant Professor in the Computer and Information Science Department at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth. He received his bachelor’s degree in Applied Mathematics from UC Berkeley in 2001, and his Ph.D. in Bioinformatics from UC Santa Cruz in 2008. Prior to joining UMass Dartmouth, he was a Senior Fellow in the Molecular Engineering & Sciences Institute at the University of Washington. Firas has been the lead scientist of Foldit, a video game that has allowed hundreds of thousands of players to contribute to biochemical scientific research. The long-term goal of this project is to utilize the combined power of humans and computers in order to build accurate models of disease-related proteins.
Kara Seawalk is an epidemiologist for Health Map at Boston Children’s Hospital. https://hms.harvard.edu/news/crowdsourcing-covid-19
Dr Črtomir Podlipnik is an assistant professor at the Faculty of Chemistry and Chemical Technology, University of Ljubljana, Slovenia. He has a great scientific interest in the research of relevant biomolecular systems, and with his valuable, comprehensive knowledge in this field, he actively participates in many projects, including researches of Ebola and COVID-19. Together with colleagues and with support of Central Technical Library at the University of Ljubljana he organized Citizen science project – COVID.SI.
Angela Eaton leads Safecast’s air quality and radiation monitoring efforts and supports participatory environmental monitoring throughout the Americas. Currently, she’s working on COVID-19 response through the creation of a crowdsourced testing map and a virus progression diary. Angela also works with CSA member, Vivienne Byrd, at LAPL to add to its efforts in building citizen science communities at branches. She served as a Civil Society Working Group reviewer during the UN Habitat III process, in which the current sustainable development goals were established, and has consulted in sustainable systems design in urban water infrastructure, conservation and greenhouse gas reductions for non-profits, utilities, and cities. Despite Shelter in Place, Angela seeks new ways to encourage environmental monitoring as a means to satisfy the curious and empower communities.
Lea Shanley, Ph.D., is a Senior Fellow in the Nelson Institute at the University of Wisconsin Madison and Advisor to SciStarter. Her research interests focus on the intersection of open science, technology, policy and law. Previously, Lea served as a White House Presidential Innovation Fellow at NASA, co-founder of the Federal Citizen Science community of practice and citizenscinece.gov, and founding director of the Commons Lab at the Wilson Center in Washington, DC. She was a CSA Board Member, and now serves on the CSA Law and Policy Working Group Steering Committee. T: @Lea_Shanley
Reanna Putnam is the Community Engagement Specialist for the Citizen Science Association. She coordinates CSA’s communications to enhance member engagement, supports Working Groups, and facilitates CSA’s ongoing webinar series. Reanna has a masters in Sociology from Colorado State University and over five years of experience working for non-profits.

COs4Cloud Webinar: Let's talk about Citizen Observatories
2020-04-28 15:00 - 16:00 (Europe/Rome)
Cos4Cloud (Co-designing Citizen Observatories Services for the European Open Science Cloud), a European project on technological innovation in citizen science, organizes a webinar to discuss the concept of citizen observatory as well as present opportunities and challenges of citizen observatories in the age of global change and crisis such as COVID-19.
Learn more and register here!

EGU General Assembly 2020
2020-05-04 08:00 - 2020-05-08 17:00 (Europe/Moscow)
EGU2020: Sharing Geoscience Online (#shareEGU20) brings part of the activities of the EGU General Assembly 2020 online. From 4 to 8 May 2020 (CEST) everyone can join EGU for their favourite sessions.
In the context of this online event, a dedicated session is taking place being entitled ‘Bridging between scientific disciplines: Participatory Citizen Science and Open Science as a way to go’.
In this session the following topics will be discussed:

Which approaches can be used in Earth, Planetary and Space Sciences?
What are the biggest challenges in bridging between scientific disciplines and how to overcome them?
What kind of participatory citizen scientist involvement and open science strategies exist?
How to ensure transparency in project results and analyses?
What kind of critical perspectives on the limitations, challenges, and ethical considerations exist?

The discussion will take place on Monday, 4 May 2020, 08:30–10:15 and 10:45–12:30.
Find out more information and check all the relevant displays here.

WeObserve webinar “Citizen Science in a remote sensing context: From examples to best practices”
2020-05-06 11:00 - 13:00 (Europe/Helsinki) | Online
A CO4EO webinar, entitled as ‘Citizen Science in a remote sensing context: From examples to best practices‘, was organized by the H2020 WeObserve project, aiming to present success stories where citizen science data are combined with conventional sources of Earth Observation data. The webinar was held on Wednesday, May 6th at 11:00 a.m. CEST. Focus was given to showcase best practices arising from the activities of H2020 Citizen Observatories (LandSense, GROW, GroundTruth 2.0, SCENT) and from other projects as well, while illustrating how the integration of Earth Observation and citizen science can improve environmental monitoring. Moreover, a discussion with the responsible of the Copernicus in-situ component took place towards the selection of a pilot to illustrate the potential of citizen-science as a contributor to Copernicus.
Download below all presentations:

FotoQuest Go: A Citizen Science App for Collecting In Situ Land Cover and Land Use Data;
Harnessing Citizen Science and Remote Sensing for Improved environmental monitoring;
Remote Sensing as a Driving Tool for Citizen Science Phenology Monitoring Campaigns;
Validation of remotely sensed soil moisture using crowdsourced measurements

Or listen the recording here.

Join the Open Data Challenge
2020-05-15 - 2020-07-31
With the acceleration of climate change, addressing environmental challenges has never been more urgent. More people now than ever before have direct experience of the increased pressure on our planet. They are calling for better protection for local issues that have an impact in their lives, from extreme events such as flooding and wild-fires to pollution. At the same time, people have to global concerns related to the wise use and regeneration of natural assets, biodiversity loss and risks such as food security.

Environmental data can help to address these issues. As a result of citizens coming together with scientists and other stakeholders there is a growing amount of high-quality and open data to apply to these challenges. There are opportunities to merge open datasets from local governments and data from these Citizen Science projects to produce new and exciting data products.
We see innovation potential in developing technologies, services and models e.g. in land management, biodiversity trackers, pollution monitoring, agriculture and disaster response. There are also opportunities to support people’s values by removing barriers, such as conflicting attitudes and responsibilities, lack of time, trust or space, or providing training and incentives to solve local issues through pro environmental action. It is clear that we all have a role to play and there is a great deal that needs to be done.

WeObserve is opening data from four Citizen Observatories (GROW, GroundTruth 2.0, LandSense, SCENT) to create new digital transformation opportunities by using open data for products, services that can be implemented for wider social good. There are a few key events that make up our Open Data Challenge: Team registration, Consent for access to online datasets, Challenge themes and opportunities, Guidance from a mentor, submission and demonstration at a final event. Each of these events are free and open to all.

To register or find out more about the Open Data Challenge, please visit here.

WEBINAR: Characteristics of citizen science
2020-05-27 13:00 - 14:00 (Europe/Rome)
ECSA and EU-Citizen.Science are co-hosting a webinar about the recently published ‘Characteristics of citizen science’. This document is the output of a community-based effort to outline what can be characterized as citizen science.
Led by members of the working group that wrote this document, the webinar will be an opportunity to learn more about its content, why defining characteristics of citizen science was necessary, and how it will benefit the field. Join us to find out more about this new resource and to ask the authors about it.
The event is free to attend and once you register you will get the link to the seminar room which will be held on Zoom. Registration will close 5 minutes after the start of the webinar and will be closed for access 10 minutes after the start.
Learn more and register here!

WEBINAR: Create your own air quality sensor!
2020-05-28 17:00 - 18:00 (Europe/Moscow)
Interesting webinar is organised by COs4CLOUD project, CanAirIO, SciStarter & Clean Air Carolina, aiming to showcase how to contribute to air quality monitoring through citizen science and how to make your own air quality sensor!
Learn more and register here!

WEBINAR: Citizen Science and SDGs
2020-05-28 17:00 - 18:00 (Europe/Moscow)
Traditional data sources are not sufficient for measuring the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. New and non-traditional sources of data are required. Citizen science is an emerging example of a non-traditional data source that is already making a contribution. Speakers will discuss how citizen science can be integrated into the formal United Nations (UN) Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) reporting mechanisms, providing the results of a systematic review of the SDG indicators and citizen science initiatives that may address them. Successful use of citizen science data by National Statistics Offices (NSOs) and United Nations agencies will be highlighted. Success will require leadership from the United Nations, innovation from National Statistical Offices, and focus from the citizen science community to address the indicators for which citizen science can have a real impact.
Learn more and register here!

Bridging the gap between Science and Society through Citizen Science
2020-06-01 11:00 - 12:00 (Europe/Moscow)
Description and Scope
Citizen science interventions are becoming more and more relevant across all scientific disciplines and the humanities and it can potentially bring a wide variety of benefits to researchers, citizens, policy makers and society across the research and innovation cycle. Nevertheless, there are difficulties setting up citizen science initiatives, for example in terms of choosing the optimum methodologies and ensuring balanced participation of citizens.
The Webinar aims at introducing the REINFORCE project to the European Research community and to the broad public of potential citizen scientists, focusing mostly on the four Citizen Science Demonstrators that will be developed within the project. REINFORCE will create a series of cutting-edge citizen science projects on frontier Physics research, with citizen scientists making a genuine and valued contribution to managing the data avalanche, with the aim of reaching the following impacts:

Generating a change in awareness and understanding of basic research and its impact on society;
Developing new knowledge and innovations by citizens;
Offering availability of evaluation data concerning the societal, democratic and economic costs and benefits of citizen science; and
Making available indicators to measure the impact of citizen science activities.

Main Takeaways:

Understanding what is the potential of citizen science for society
Discovering the benefits of integrating citizens input in frontier Physics research
Keeping abreast with the research work carried out within Large Research Infrastructures

Who should attend:

EU Research community in Physics field
Potential citizen scientists
Gravitational Wave Astronomy researchers and academics
Neutrino Astronomy researchers and academics
High Energy and Cosmic Rays Physics experts
Marine life experts

To find out more information as well as the agenda please visit here.

Webinar: How to improve cloud services for marine data
2020-06-04 11:00 - 12:00 (Europe/Moscow)
The project PHIDIAS – Prototype of HPC/Data Infrastructure for On-demand Services, organises a webinar titled “Boosting the use of cloud services for marine data management, services and processing” on the 4th of June at 11AM CEST.
The webinar boasts the collaboration with Blue-Cloud project, and it will be focused on the Ocean data test case, which aims to improve the use of

Cloud services for marine data management,
Data services to the user in a FAIR perspective, and
Data processing on demand.

Please find any additional information, such as the agenda, the speakers’ list and the main takeaways on this dedicated page.

2020 Ecsite Conference
2020-06-11 08:00 - 2020-06-13 17:00 (Europe/Moscow) | Lubljana, Slovenia, Slovenia
The 2020 Ecsite Conference will be taking place in Ljubljana, Slovenia, on 11-13 June 2020 and will be hosted by the Kersnikova Institute. The call for session proposals will be open up to 17 of October 2019.
The European science engagement conference addresses all professionals who engage audiences with science and technology. It offers an intense mix of intellectual stimulation, purposeful and creative sessions and inspiring human encounters. An annual professional development opportunity to sharpen your critical mind, recharge your batteries, harvest contacts and tools, make business and let off steam on the dance floor. More information about the conference are available here.

GEO Virtual Symposium 2020
2020-06-15 - 2020-06-19
In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Group on Earth Observations has announced the format of the GEO Symposium 2020 to be held remotely from 15-19 June 2020. The global GEO community will benefit from a series of interactive webinars over the course of one week that will provide in-depth discussions from experts on a range of relevant issues to the GEO Work Programme Flagships, Initiatives and Activities.
At this first year of the 2020-2022 GEO Work Programme, the Symposium will focus on strengthening the capability of GEO Work Programme activities to implement their plans effectively. It will cover topics such as:

Water and Coastal Observations
Monitoring Essential Variables
Focusing on Impact: Regional GEOs
Co-designing Capacity Development
Resource Mobilization and Sustainable Funding
Contributing to Reproducible Knowledge
Engaging UN Agencies and Intergovernmental Organizations
Leveraging Advanced Technologies

Learn more about the foresseen sessions and register here!

Open Data Challenge Webinar
2020-06-16 15:00 (Europe/Helsinki)
The WeObserve team has launched an Open Data Challenge (ODC) and this webinar was an opportunity for you to discover the story of EU’s richest citizen-generated environmental datasets, spanning four Citizens’ Observatory projects: LandSense, GROW, GroundTruth 2.0 and SCENT, and ask any questions to the expert mentors who will be supporting participants throughout the ODC process. The ODC is a competitive online event and tender for participating individuals/teams to innovate using open environmental data from Citizen Observatories. Get a head start on winning one of the two €5,000 tender awards that will go to selected entries!
Download the webinar’s presentations or listen to the recording here.

9th Living Knowledge Webinar
2020-06-26 14:00 - 2020-06-28 17:00 (Europe/Moscow)
The 9th Living Knowledge Conference in Groningen is postponed to 2021, due to COVID-19. Instead of it, a webinar will take place on Friday June 26th from 14:00 to 17:00 CEST. The webinar will be hosted through Blackboard Collaborate Ultra. No download of software is required; all participants will receive a link to login. In the plenary a chat function will allow questions and discussion, while in the sub groups, microphone and video may be used as well.

PLENARY:
14.00 Introduction on Science Shops Groningen and the Living Knowledge Network (Henk Mulder)
14.20 Theme: Community-based Research and (post) Corona
15.00 Break
15.15 Parallel discussion tables
16.10 Break
16.25 Back to plenary session
Information on the speakers can be found here.
To find out more information on the event, please visit the official website here.

LandSense Innovation Challenge
2020-07-09 - 2020-09-11
The Challenge targets individuals, web-entrepreneurs, start-ups and SMEs coming from all participating Horizon 2020 countries, to present innovative IT solutions addressing one of the three LandSense domains:
1. Urban Landscape Dynamics;
2. Agricultural Land Use;
3. Forest and Habitat Monitoring;
The challenge focuses on using data streams coming from the LandSense Citizen Observatory, the Sentinel Hub Service or other relevant EO data sources to design novel LULC solutions for a range of applications within the selected domains.
Selected LandSense Challenge finalists will have the opportunity to pitch their ideas at the Third International ECSA Conference 2020 in Trieste, Italy. Please note that registration for the ECSA Conference is not required for participation in this public challenge. However, all finalists are encouraged to attend the conference and share with this growing community of citizen science practitioners.
Take part and win!
The teams with the best pitches will receive:
1st prize

A grand prize of 2,000 EUR
A 1-year subscription to Sentinel Hub Enterprise, worth 5,000 EUR, provided by SINERGISE
Online business coaching and mentorship services provided by the LandSense team

2nd prize

A grand prize of 1,000 EUR
Online business coaching and mentorship services provided by the LandSense team

3rd prize

A grand prize of 500 EUR
Online business coaching and mentorship services provided by the LandSense team

To apply or to find more details about the call, please visit here.
