Citizen and Participatory Science – Participatory Research – Crowd-Innovation – Fab Labs for Peace and Development
On Wednesday afternoon, 10 December 2025, the Geneva Forum was held at the Théâtre du Centre l’Espérance for its 6th Annual International Conference on citizen science, participatory research, crowd-innovation, and Fab Labs for peace and development. This edition, entitled “Large-Scale Alliances of Citizen Science to Overcome the Silos of International Geneva and the UN System in a Lasting Way, and Open New Sources of Impact Finance”, combined pitches and an interactive round table to explore the power of citizen alliances in building sustainable bridges and catalyzing cross-sector cooperation.
This session also had an operational logic: to begin refining impact projects currently being structured, by integrating what citizen science and Fab Labs bring in terms of methods, mobilizable audiences, and achievable results, in preparation for presentations scheduled at the UN on Friday.
The afternoon was chaired by Thomas EGLI, CEO of the Geneva Forum, and co-hosted on the citizen science side by Chloé LAROSE (Geneva Forum team), and on the Fab Labs side by Olivia KOTSIFA (co-chair of the Fab Lab session), with simultaneous French/English translation provided by the interpreting team mobilized for the entire week.
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Transformative Power of Participatory Research and Citizen Alliances
The first part of the afternoon highlighted how locally grounded, globally connected alliances enable the generation of robust data, the building of trust, and the linking of biodiversity, governance, education, and inclusive partnerships.
Citizen Science – K2W Glideways Program (Australia): Restoring Habitat Connectivity
Mary Bell introduced, with Gigi Bonnet (student in Geneva, originally from Australia), the K2W Glideways program, a citizen alliance aiming to restore habitat connectivity along a reference corridor (Kanangra-Boyd to Wyangala) in southeastern Australia, with the Greater Glider (a large gliding marsupial) as the umbrella species.
- The species is highly dependent on old-growth forests (tree hollows, food resources), and its future has severely declined after the 2019 fires, with population drops of up to 80% in some areas.
- Identified threats include: ongoing habi
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