Connect. Collaborate. Create.

Bridging communities to:

foster ethical participatory approaches to research funding

activate participatory research and citizen science involving the social sciences and humanities

The conference brought together the diverse European communities that create and support participatory research (funding) and citizen science. Jointly organised by the European projects COESO and PRO-Ethics , it focused on the social sciences and humanities as well as on integrating participatory approaches at the research funding stage.

On October 19-21, 2023 in Paris, at Aubervilliers, Campus Condorcet , we welcomed researchers, citizen science practitioners, and supporters from all backgrounds, research funding organisations, ethics and integrity experts, as well as policy makers, to open up a space for networking and mutually exploring citizen science/participatory research initiatives and services.

The conversations we wanted to stimulate were clustered into six core areas:

• Participatory research, citizen science, and open science networks and infrastructures
• Support services for participatory research and citizen science
• Methodologies for doing and teaching citizen science and ethical participatory approaches to research, including in funding agencies
• Data workflows and communication formats
• Drivers and barriers for implementing, supporting, and funding citizen science, as well as participation in the processes of funding agencies
• Assessing and evaluating participatory processes

The “Connect. Collaborate. Create” conference opened up these discussions to all attendees and welcomed the lively intermingling of different experiences and perspectives from all following stakeholder groups:

1. Research Funding Organisations (RFOs)
2. Citizen Science practitioners and supporters, including:
• (SSH) Academic and professional researchers
• Civil society professionals and organisations (e.g. journalists, artists, social services practitioners, NGOs dedicated to societal issues, social enterprises) Engaged community members, citizen scientists and scholars
• Open research infrastructure representatives
• Librarians
• Country-based and European citizen science platform and network coordinators
• Science shops coordinators and staff members
3. Policy makers
4. Research managers
5. Research ethics committee members
6. Research integrity body members
7. Researchers from academia and the private sector

Creating a Conference by and for its Attendees

In response to these aims, we aimed to apply a format that promotes the collaborative spirit of participatory research and citizen science, and showcase what is being done in these domains by engaging attendees to become more than audience members to the conference. Inspired by the ‘un-conference’ approach, that lets participants be actively engaged in shaping up the programme and content of the conference together with the organisers, the conference sought to bring together all targeted types of stakeholders to ‘Connect. Collaborate. Create.’ pathways to shape the future of participatory research and citizen science.
The inspiration for this approach was drown from the THATCamp (The Humanities and Technology Camp) model, which aims to encourage collaboration and concrete work with informal, on-the-spot planning, without lengthy proposals and a singular voice. Similar to the practices of participatory research practices and citizen science, this approach aims to decentre the voice and open it up to the attendees to voice their needs and best practices.