Curious about Citizen Science and how could this approach be effectively supported by your organisation? Recently, Citizen Science raised a lot of interest and equally, a lot of questions. Where could it be applied? Is it worth it? What skills and resources are needed? Is my institution doing Citizen Science already?
In 2016, LERU recommended universities establish a single point of contact for citizen science. We took that recommendation and turned it into a prototype which was published in 2020. It is called BESPOC (Broad Engagement in Science, Point of Contact) Since then, we developed the prototype into a model which offers a solution for central support services for citizen science.
You are invited to find out the experience of five Baltic universities that are implementing the BESPOC model.
The LibOCS Project involves 5 universities (Tartu University (project leader), University of Latvia, Vytautas Magnus University, Kaunas University of Technology, and TalTech Tallinn) and looks at how to increase their citizen science activities. Central to this, is the implementation of the BESPOC prototype as a model for central services for citizen science activities.
You are invited to register (free) to any of the following workshops.
April 11th (Thursday) at 14:30 CET (13:30 UK, 15:30 EET). The registration link is here. Please save the date in your calendar.
April 17th (Wednesday) at 14:00 CET (13:00 UK, 15:00 EET). Duration: 90 minutes. The registration link is here. Please save the date in your calendar.
We will give generous time for questions, answers and dialogue to which you are warmly invited to partake.
More information:
Expect to hear from a mix of research-intensive and technical universities about what their researchers think about a central service for citizen science. What such a service can achieve in the short term and what is for the medium and long term? What could help you kick-start such services? What skills are needed? What infrastructure is needed? How to form meaningful partnerships? How exchanging project templates could help your researchers and many more.
Insights from over 25 implementation workshops at these universities will be shared, emphasizing practical strategies, encountered challenges, and the creative solutions developed in response.
This presentation aims to provide valuable learnings for other institutions considering similar Citizen Science initiatives, illustrating the transformative impact of BESPOC in fostering broad-based scientific engagement at the university level.
