Proceedings Citizen and Participatory Science Geneva Forum 2024

This presentation will highlight the key role of our team in supporting and training local teams to design, implement, and coordinate participatory research projects tailored to local needs and contexts. These initiatives aim to engage communities around concrete scientific issues and strengthen their autonomy.

Francine Kamanda will then present a concrete case study of the annual science club EAU KONGO, developed with this support. Co-organized in partnership with the NGO Kongo River, this program targets young people aged 10 to 17 in Kinshasa and spans four days. Its objective is to analyze the water of the Congo River and propose sustainable conservation solutions. This exemplary project illustrates how methodological support can lead to the financial and functional autonomy of a local team while addressing critical environmental challenges.

Summary to come

This presentation provides a quick overview of AL LARK’s main objectives (raising awareness about the marine environment and conducting research on marine species) and explains how we bridge the gap between these two domains through citizen science initiatives.

Many studies use optical satellite remote sensing to assess lake water quality on a regional or global scale. Due to the large-scale coverage of these data, citizen science is a popular means of validating them. To achieve this, we use easily measurable parameters such as water transparency and color, measured since the 19th century and now understood in terms of aquatic optics.

The Lémanscope project aims to continue these efforts by involving citizens in monitoring the water quality of Lake Geneva, complementing the unique optical measurements acquired on the LéXPLORE platform with an unmatched number of transparency and color measurements across the entire lake. The combination of large-scale transparency measurements and sophisticated optical measurements from LéXPLORE can then be used to improve hydrodynamic lake models (www.alplakes.eawag.ch) and primary production simulations.

The main objective of this citizen science project is to raise public awareness of Lake Geneva’s ecological status. Participants learn to take their own measurements of lake water transparency and color using necessary tools: the EyeOnWater smartphone app and a 3D-printed Secchi disk.

Through workshops, online discussions, presentations, round tables, and exhibitions, the project fosters dialogue between scientists and the public, encouraging citizen engagement in environmental monitoring and governance. Over 20 months, citizen-collected data will provide a unique resource for studying temporal and spatial variations of certain parameters in Lake Geneva and validating satellite remote sensing products.

A project launch event was successfully organized on April 30, 2024, at EPFL, attended by 130 participants. This event was followed by targeted press releases and articles in selected newspapers, including 24heures and Le Temps, as well as coverage by Swiss Television (RTS) and local channels.

More than 600 people with access to a boat, kayak, paddle, or other craft on Lake Geneva have registered for our project, of which 250 received a Secchi disk. These citizens have conducted over 2,000 measurements since April 2024, with no signs of fatigue. Preliminary comparisons with remote sensing products are similar to previous comparisons with official monitoring measurements, indicating that citizen-collected data quality is sufficient for further analysis.

Summary to come

The "Drone Citizen Connection for Climate" project aims to mobilize and engage citizens in glacier data collection using drones. Its primary objective is to create precise 3D models of these glaciers, enabling their evolution to be tracked over time.

Since 2022, a pilot project has been underway on the Moiry Glacier in the Val d’Anniviers. This program aims to develop a reliable and reproducible protocol so that this method can be deployed on other glaciers worldwide. By providing accurate data on the dimensions of studied glaciers, this project plays a key role in understanding climate change impacts and raising public awareness of this issue.

Summary to come

OSI-Panthera is a participatory research project addressing concrete needs in understanding snow leopards to improve their conservation. The program contributes to research with reports and scientific publications, as well as the development of open-access technical tools. We also share knowledge through the creation of educational materials. Citizens are key players in the project, which strengthens its impact on conservation efforts.

Iligan City is located in the southern part of the Philippines. It has fourteen major industries and eleven higher education institutions, with the Mindanao State University-Iligan Institute of Technology (MSU-IIT) as its only public university. Its total population is almost 400,000. In 2022, it recorded 3,361 Micro, Small, Medium, and Social Enterprises (MSMEs) registered with the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI).

To maximize these resources and generate a more significant positive impact on the community, pathways must be established for MSMEs startups, students, and indigenous communities to enhance their entrepreneurial skills and knowledge of innovation in this digital age.

Through continuous collaboration among community stakeholders, they can actively participate in socio-economic activities in the region. The ILIGANiCE program is based on two main components: Education and Innovation, and Entrepreneurship and Innovation. Each component includes various activities designed to achieve the aforementioned objectives.

The program’s activities were implemented in collaboration with various sectors and agencies in Iligan City. The ILIGANiCE program is funded by the Department of Science and Technology of Region X.

As part of the United Nations Ocean Conference to be held in Nice in June 2025, the NGO Objectif Sciences International has submitted a global commitment entitled "Global Citizen Alliance for Ocean," aiming to mobilize citizens around ocean protection.

For several years, the Geneva Forum has highlighted the role of video game networks in citizen science. This context has fostered a convergence between two complementary approaches: video games as an engaging and educational tool and participatory science as a lever for citizen involvement in scientific research.

This synergy has led to the creation of an International Alliance for Citizen Science, involving a diverse array of stakeholders, such as research centers, major international organizations, NGOs, the video game industry, and community education actors.

This integrated and innovative project offers a new dimension to citizen science by creating synergies between disciplines and enabling strong citizen engagement. It represents an ambitious collaborative model designed to inspire and mobilize individuals and institutions alike, fostering co-creation in the service of ocean conservation and addressing the planet’s broader challenges.

Mycobosci — or mycelium materials — are a rising class of materials that find usefulness across several domains of application, such as compostable coffins, packaging or ear plugs. Advertised as sustainable solutions, they nonetheless show a potentially significant climate impact during their production and end of life. Interestingly, when produced in local and opportunistic ways, they actually can be absolutely sustainable! This represents a unique opportunity to invent new ecologies of practices that valorise local production capacities while offering an enticing new aesthetic project. In light of the youth of the craft of mycoboscus, we organize a citizen science project on the Chorogram platform to share material recipes and collaborate in generating new knowledge, aiming at supporting this horizon of eco-social sustainability.