Call for Participation in Vespucci Training School on Digital Transformations in Citizen Science and Social Innovation – January 2019

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Apply until 31 October at https://www.cs-eu.net/events/internal/vespucci-training-school-digital-transformations-citizen-science-and-social 

The Role of Digital Technologies in Engaging Citizens (not only Citizen Scientists) in Social Innovation

With the widespread availability of cheap, ubiquitous and powerful tools like the internet, the world-wide-web, social media and smartphone apps, new ways of carrying out both citizen science and social innovation have become possible. Often this means that barriers for citizens to engage in both science and social innovation have been lowered in terms of communication, outreach and scaling and thresholds for participation have also been lowered. There is an enormous potential for these technologies to strengthen the role of intermediary civil organizations and communities, and thereby to re-balance the playing field in favour of a broader range of actors – even those who do not use Information and Communication Technologies (ICT). ICTs can also help citizen engagement in policy framing by facilitating their involvement throughout the policy cycle, from agenda setting to service design and provision up to policy impact evaluation, creating new roles for stakeholders and enabling new power relations. However, digital technology should also be put in context, as it is often not leading edge but existing off-the-shelf technologies that are used in social innovation. Thus, technology must always be seen in its close intertwinement with the actual world of people, places, and digital skills people may or may not have.

Aim and Goals of the Training School

This training school is a five-day event for doctoral students, researchers, policymakers, civic entrepreneurs, designers, and civil servants who are interested in exploring and learning about:

1. how citizen science can be understood and/or used as a strategic or intentional approach to social innovation;
2. the intertwining of social innovation with socio-technical developments, including the impacts of digital transformation;
3. the relationship between policy framing, participatory research, and social innovation.

All that, with the principles of the Vespucci Initiative – slow learning, long discussion, and collaborative learning where everyone is respected and expected to contribute and learn.

expected outcome(s) of the Training School:

Participants will learn about new forms of collaborative socio-technical development for social innovation, analyze case studies, and apply what they have learned by building a real collaborative socio-technical development for involving citizens and other stakeholders. As a result, participants will learn new skills and, more importantly, they will know new people, peers to collaborate with and/or other professionals who can help their projects.
The program is built upon three main tracks. The first three days will be devoted to introducing participants to these tracks (one track per day). The last two days will be devoted to group work.

1. Overview of citizen science in research and innovation.
2. Citizen science, social innovation, and policy-framing.
3. Digital technologies in citizen science and social innovation: opportunities and risks.

Organization Committee:
Sven Schade, European Commission DG Joint Research Centre (JRC), Ispra, Italy
Marisa Ponti, European Commission DG Joint Research Centre (JRC), Ispra, Italy
Cristina Capineri, University of Siena, Italy (local organiser)

Lecturers/Facilitators:

• Muki Haklay, University College London, UK
• Mara Balestrini, CEO Ideas For Change, Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain
• Stefan Daume, Founder and Chief Data Wrangler at the Scitingly Project, Stockholm Sweden
• Sven Schade, JRC
• Cristina Capineri, University of Siena, Italy
• Marisa Ponti, JRC

A training school co-funded by JRC (www.vespucci.org) and COST Action 15212 Citizen Science to promote creativity, scientific literacy, and innovation throughout Europe

Date: January 21-15, 2019
Venue: Fattoria di Maiano, Via Benedetto da Maiano, 11, 50014 Fiesole FI, Italy
Nearest airports: Florence and Pisa; Nearest railway station: Florence.
Language of the training school: English
Maximum Number of Participants: 20

Apply until 31 October at https://www.cs-eu.net/events/internal/vespucci-training-school-digital-transformations-citizen-science-and-social – You don’t need to be part of the Cost Action on citizen science to apply! 

More information is available here.