Published February 4, 2022 | Version v1
Report Open

Knowledge for Change: A Decade of Citizen Science (2020–2030) in Support of the SDGs

Creators

  • 1. Museum für Naturkunde Berlin, Germany
  • 2. Barcelona Institute for Global Health, ISGlobal
  • 3. Helmholtz-Centre for Environmental Research – UFZ/German Centre for integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv) Halle-Jena-Leipzig
  • 4. French Museum of Natural History, France
  • 5. International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA), Research Scholar at the Center for Earth Observation & Citizen Science, Austria
  • 6. Institute of Higher Education Research at the University of Halle-Wittenberg, Germany
  • 7. Novel Data Ecosystems for Sustainability Group (NODES), Advancing Systems Analysis Program (ASA), International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis
  • 8. Centre for Social Innovation, Austria
  • 9. Centre for Science Studies and ScienceAtHome, Aarhus University, Denmark
  • 10. Thünen Institute of Biodiversity, Braunschweig, Germany
  • 11. Ideas for Change, Spain
  • 12. University of Applied Sciences Potsdam, Germany
  • 13. Director and Founder of ScienceAtHome, Aarhus University, Denmark
  • 14. European Commission
  • 15. IHE Delft Institute for Water Education

Description

In October 2020, the Museum für Naturkunde Berlin (MfN) with many partners, supported by the European Commission and the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF), held an international, hybrid conference in order to showcase, evaluate, and discuss the contribution of citizen science to frame and achieve the SDGs. The conference Knowledge for Change: A Decade of Citizen Science (2020-2030) in Support of the SDGs took place as an official event of Germany’s 2020 EU Council presidency.

The SDGs are a scientifically based framework for the whole world to address hunger and malnutrition, health, environment as well as culture and justice, decided by the UN. Citizen Science, the contribution of lay people to scientific activities, may support the achievement of the SDGs – by providing data and insights, but also by adapting and prioritising research questions.

Aim

The conference presented, evaluated and discussed the exciting contributions that Citizen Science makes in framing and achieving sustainable development, specifically the UN SDGs. The conference brought together expertise from policy makers, institutional and citizen scientists, economists, NGOs and civil society to implement mechanisms and processes for the transition towards a more sustainable future.

The Declaration

A Declaration including policy recommendations resulted from the conference: "Our world – our goals: citizen science for the Sustainable Development Goals". The Declaration acts as a voluntary commitment by all partners to define the roles, competences and concrete potentials of Citizen Science to advance the SDGs. It was formulated in an open and participatory process.

The Declaration groups the various important contributions of citizen science to the SDGs in three central recommendations:

1) Harness the benefits of citizen science for the SDGs,

2) strengthen citizen science and its connections with other communities, and

3) strengthen future citizen science systems.

 

The conference took place as part of the CS-SDG project, which has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No. 101000014.

Files

Knowledge for Change- A Decade of Citizen Science (2020–2030) in Support of the SDGs.pdf

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Additional details

Funding

CS-SDG – A citizen science decade (2020-2030) in support to the Sustainable Development Goals 101000014
European Commission