Dear All,

we are happy to annouce that the first COST ENERGIC training school "VGI and Citizen Science: engaging, creating and understanding" will take place from 7-11 July 2014 in Fattoria di Maiano, Fiesole (Firenze).

The training school is part of COST ENERGIC Activities for year 2 and it will be co-financed by EU JRC and organised in collaboration with the Vespucci Initiative.



Topic :"VGI and Citizen Science: engaging, creating and understanding"

The Summer Institute is devoted to the commonality and differences between Citizen Science and Volunteered Geographic Information (VGI). 

Many Citizen Science activities are geographical (e.g. ecological observations at a specific location) while many VGI activities focus on collecting facts, identifying patterns or asking questions about a locale and therefore have similarities with science activities. 

Therefore issues of participation and public engagement, data quality, data integration and the analysis of information that emerge from these activities have a lot in common. The week activities will be articulated in practical scientific activities where participants will actively contribute with their knowledge, intellectual effort or with their tools and resources. Topics will cover collective intelligence, quality assurance, methodologies for data analysis, interoperability with official data sources, sustainability, governance, funding, and evaluation and impact measurements. Facilitators will provide experimental data and facilities for researchers, raise new questions and co-create a new scientific culture. Under the support of the facilitators, participants will be encouraged to explore new directions in their research, test methods from other disciplines, and experience data collection activities themselves. The summer school is open to a wide range of citizen science and VGI activities including biodiversity/conservation observations and recording; volunteer computing that involves geographic information; volunteer thinking where the tasks are geographicallocation-specific; Do It Yourself (DIY) science; and community/civic science.



Participation grants:

25 grants of 800 euro (for travel and hotel accommodation expenses 

only) which will be awarded to selected participants from the following 

EU countries (AT,BE, BG, CH, CY, CZ, DE, DK, EE, EL, ES, FI, FR, HR, HU, 

IE, IL, IT, LT, LU, MK, MT, NL, NO, PL, PT, RO, SK, SE, TR, UK) which 

are members of COST ENERGIC action

For reimbursement of travel and hotel expenses COST rules and 

University of Siena will be applied, check the "how to" document on 

basecamp



Please send an appropriate application if you wish to be considered for 

the grants on the Vespucci Initiative web site (www. vespucci.org). You 

can use the comments section of the application form to do so.



     Apply with the following documents:

         Motivation and position letter (up to 2 pages)

         Curriculum vitae (1-page) with photo



DEADLINE for application 11 April 2014 (selction results by 30th April)



Looking forward to seeing you in Fiesole!



Best

Cristina Capineri 



-- 

DISPOC, Università di Siena

Via Mattioli 10

Siena 53100

Tel +390577235435

Fax +390577234739

email [log in to unmask]



www.dispoc.unisi.it

www.vespucci.org

www.societastudigeografici.it