Members of the public quite often voluntarily engage in the observation of various natural, social, and other phenomena, carry out data collection campaigns, and fill in formalized questionnaires prepared by scientists, who can carry out research and develop scientific discourse more effectively thanks to the help of the latter. Still the phenomenon of a citizen science as a close cooperation between citizens and professional scientists is only in its infancy in Lithuania.
Vytautas Magnus University Library continues its series of interviews with researchers working in the field of citizen science as part of the Erasmus+ project “University libraries strengthening the academia-society connection through citizen science in the Baltics (LibOCS)”, and today we interview Associate Professor Tomas Berkmanas from the Department of Public Law at the Vytautas Magnus University (VMU) Faculty of Law.
He specializes in the philosophy of law, political philosophy, constitutional law and legal interpretation, and the methodology of legal education. T. Berkmanas is a member of the VMU research cluster “Research on the Impact of Globalisation on Law”, an expert of the Lithuanian Research Council, and a member of the Judicial Candidates’ Examination Committee. He is also actively involved in other activities. He is the chairman of the editorial board of the journal “Baltic Journal of Law and Politics” and the member of the editorial board of the journals “Teisės apžvalga (Law Review)” and “Eastern European Journal of Transnational Relations”. He is the author of more than 40 national and international scientific publications, writes on the topics of legal education and ethics, philosophy of law and other topics, and is an invited participant of national and international conferences. In 2009-2012, he was Lithuania’s representative in the EU (Erasmus-LLP) funded project “Menu for Justice: Towards a European Curriculum Studiorum on Judicial Studies” (JUSTMEN) coordinated by the University of Bologna. Prepared a feasibility study for a joint study between Vytautas Magnus University and Texas Tech University (2011-2012). Also worked on the concept of regulation of ethics and improvement of ethical education of lawyers (2012-2014). Currently, T. Berkman is a researcher in the European Commission-approved European University Alliance project “Transform 4 European Research and Innovation” (T4ERI).
Tomas Berkmanas thinks that the participation of the citizens in the scientific activities has many advantages. He identifies as a priority those researches that focus on the identification and more effective realisation of societal/community interests, that needs for large-scale data collection, and contributes to the development of the general scientific potential and scientific awareness of society. It should also encourage the penetration of citizen science into areas that are less touched by it, but where its benefits are clear. Examples include research related to smart cities and their communities, much of the social sciences and/or humanities research, etc.
Read the full interview with Tomas Berkmanas (In Lithuanian) here.
