Citizens Create Knowledge

(GEWISS)Capacity-building program and online platform

for citizen science in Germany

Citizen science includes all the activities by citizens that actively contribute to scientific knowledge. The “Citizens Create Knowledge (GEWISS)” capacity-build-ing program is a joint project created by a consortium of scientific institutions and partners in order to sup-port and develop citizen science in Germany (2014-2016). We invite researchers from all fields, citizens, civil society organizations, and scientific institutions to contribute their ideas and experiences to the en-hancement of citizen science.

Our Building Blocks for Citizen Science• Networking and exchange for those engaged or

interested in citizen science through our online platform and events.

• Analysis of current citizen science activities as well as of needs of citizens and researchers through dialogue workshops

• Participatory creation of a toolkit for practitioners to realize citizen science projects

• Development of a Citizen Science Strategy 2020 for Germany through a moderated consultation process

• Production of technical and organizational resour-ces, such as training workshops and a short film

www.buergerschaffenwissen.de/en 

The Capacity-Building Program

Project leadsAletta Bonn (iDiv/UFZ) & Katrin Vohland (MfN)

Coordination: Capacity-Building ProgramLisa Pettibone (MfN) & Anett Richter (iDiv/UFZ)gewiss@buergerschaffenwissen.de

Coordination: Online PlatformWiebke Rettberg (WiD) & David Ziegler (MfN)info@buergerschaffenwissen.de

Coordinating Institutions• German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Re-

search (iDiv) Halle-Jena-Leipzig | Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research (UFZ) Deutscher Platz 5e, 04103 Leipzig

• Museum für Naturkunde Berlin, Leibniz Institute for Evolutionary and Biodiversity Research (MfN)Invalidenstr. 43, 10115 Berlin

• Wissenschaft im Dialog (Science in Dialogue, WiD)Charlottenstrasse 80, 10117 Berlin

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Consortium:

Funding: The online platform receives additional funding from:

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Citizen Science

The online platform www.buergerschaffenwissen.de includes information about citizen science and allows citizen science projects to present their projects and encourage interested citizens to participate. Project goals and research questions are included on the site, as well as concrete opportunities to join in. In ad-dition, the platform serves as a resource to promote networking and exchange for those engaged in citizen science.

Following the think tank event and kick-off conference held in 2014, GEWISS is developing six dialogue work-shops to address current questions on key aspects of citizen science. GEWISS is hosting these workshops together with partner institutions on the following topics:

• Funding structures for citizen science in Germany• Citizen science and civil society• Citizen science outside the natural sciences• Citizen science and participation• Data quality and data management• Citizen science in protected areas

Results from the dialogue workshops will contribute to the toolkit and strategy documents to be present-ed at a launch event in spring 2016 in Berlin. For more information, please consult our website for dates and documentation of the events.

Citizen Science Dialogue Workshops

Networking and Exchange through Our Online Platform

How can those active in citizen science projects work together and communicate? What research questions are particularly well suited to be addressed by citizen science? How can we ensure high data quality and secure important resources? A toolkit will serve as a practical guide and will be developed based on results from GEWISS events and analysis of successful citizen science projects in Germany.

In addition, we are developing further resources, such as a video clip and training workshops, to aid concep-tion and realization of citizen science projects. These should support (potential) project initiators in orga-nizing citizen science activities.

Toolkit and Resources

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For additional information and to sign up for our newsletter (in German), please go to:

www.buergerschaffenwissen.de/en

© Sergey Mukhametov 2014 © Florian Pappert 2014

A page from the online platform.