Demonstrating the potential of citizen science for monitoring the SDGs at the Crowd4SDG Final Conference
The culmination of three years of Crowd4SDG was showcased during the Final Conference on 17 March, which delivered the results of Crowd4SDG and demonstrated the potential of citizen science for monitoring the SDGs.
The event was attended by over 100 people in the morning, followed by 60 participants in the three hackathons in the afternoon.
Composed of a series of short presentations, panel discussions and hackathons, the day was brimming with content and activities relevant to all, with input throughout from all Crowd4SDG partners. Crowd4SDG finalists from across all three GEAR Cycles travelled from around the world and had the opportunity to pitch their projects during the day and speak to policy makers and stakeholders during the Geneva Trialogue about how their projects can continue to develop beyond the end of Crowd4SDG.
The morning centered around two sessions of presentations and panel discussions. Session one explored a range of topics: citizen science for monitoring the SDGs, including presentations on the National Statistical Offices and citizen science data for national sustainable development priorities, enhancing citizen science tools with AI to improve data quality and leverage social media, and exploring the democratic and economic risks and opportunities for innovations generated by citizen scientists for the SDGs.
Session two centered around mobilising youth for citizen science and climate action, outlining discussions around the following topics: how an open source tool kit can make digital citizen science accessible for everyone, how social media can be used to mobilise youth for the SGDs, using Goodwall as an example, and how challenge-based youth projects can produce impactful outputs for the SDGs.
Several speakers were members of the Yoma consortium, including both keynotes speakers – Camila Haux (R-Labs) and Dilek Fraisl (IIASA) – highlighting how the results of Crowd4SDG can continue beyond the project’s end. One of the potential impacts of this contributed to better integration of Crowd4SDG outcomes in the Yoma project. The Final Conference also included messages from the European Commission, Katharina Buse from the European Research Executive Agency, and Gabriella Leo, Citizen Science Policy Officer.
During the afternoon of the Final Conference, three hackathons, organised by members of the Crowd4SDG consortium, were held at CERN IdeaSquare, and centered around the theme of using citizen science tools, and how to expand upon ideas surrounding citizen science and crowdsourced data collection with the SDGs.
One hackathon focused around Future Citizen Debates: Envisioning, designing and creating open deliberation processes, led by Crowd4SDG partner, IIIA-CSIC.
The second hackathon, led by Crowd4SDG UNITAR, investigated leveraging citizen science for data-driven policies on sustainable development.
The third hackathon which ran in parallel investigated using crowdsourcing tools and digital currencies to transform public participation in climate resilience and research, and was led by PoliMi and ETH/UZH.
Find more information about the event here.
Find the full gallery of images here and watch the full recording of the event here.