Launch of the WeObserve Communities of Practice

Are you already involved in citizen science and citizen observatory initiatives or CS working groups? Are you keen to exchange experiences with like-minded CS enthusiasts? Then WeObserve would like you to participate in the CoP whose topic you are an expert in!

The first three CoPs have the following topics:

• Co-creating citizen observatories and engaging citizens – addressing incentives and barriers for participation, engagement strategies and citizen-science ethics (led by IHE Delft),
• Impact and value of citizen observatories for governance – defining socio-economic and environmental impacts of community-based environmental monitoring for public authorities and decision makers including risk evaluation (led by IHE Delft), and
• Interoperability and standards for citizen observatories – adopting data quality, curation and preservation of citizen-science data, and addressing privacy and licensing for CO sustainability (led by CREAF).

The CoPs are intended as a key mechanism to consolidate knowledge on COs inside as well as beyond the WeObserve consortium. As such, a wide range of stakeholders is invited to take part in the CoPs, such as public authorities (local, regional, national, EU), civil society organisations, research and academia, citizens and citizen science working groups. Activities that the CoPs will undertake include thematic knowledge co-creation, generating new solutions or agreeing on how to use existing ones, and knowledge sharing activities (meetings, events, conferences).

Not yet convinced that the CoPs are interesting enough to join?

Consider the following opportunities that participation in the CoPs brings you:

• Sharing ideas, knowledge or experiences and work with others (networking)
• Leveraging ideas or knowledge
• Working towards concrete solutions in citizen science and optimise relevant resources
• Helping to broaden your own and your organisation’s knowledge and horizons (capacity development)
• Linking up with relevant initiatives at a global, national, regional or local level

Don’t miss this opportunity to consolidate knowledge in the field of citizen science and COs with a diverse set of stakeholders!

You can register for the launch workshop of the CoPs here.

Background

WeObserve is an EU-funded H2020 Coordination and Support Action which tackles three key challenges that Citizen Observatories (COs) face: awareness, acceptability and sustainability. The project aims to improve the coordination between existing COs and related regional, European and international activities. To consolidate ongoing citizen science efforts, the WeObserve project aims to bring together the current set of European H2020 COs (among which Ground Truth 2.0), enabling improved coordination between them and promoting their related activities at regional, European, and international levels.

The WeObserve mission is to create a sustainable ecosystem of COs that can systematically address these identified challenges and help to move citizen science into the mainstream. In order to consolidate practice-based knowledge on COs that is dispersed among various stakeholders, WeObserve is launching and coordinating dedicated Communities of Practice (CoPs) as a key mechanism for consolidating the knowledge inside as well as beyond the WeObserve consortium.

The WeObserve CoPs will serve as the vehicle for sharing information and knowledge on selected key thematic topics related to Citizen Observatories (COs), strengthening the knowledge base about COs in order to move citizen science into the mainstream of environmental management and decision making. Don’t miss out on this exciting opportunity to engage with a wide range of stakeholders on the consolidation of knowledge in the field of citizen science and COs!

In total, WeObserve will develop five CoPs over the course of the project. Each CoP will receive support and tools for managing the CoP activities (online and F2F) and undertaking dissemination and outreach. The CoPs will exist for as long as they provide value to their members, with WeObserve support to draw on for the coming 2 1⁄2 years. Detailed Terms of Reference for the WeObserve CoPs are available here.