Welcome to the Newsletter that Matters!

Here you can keep up to date with everything that's happening at SFC and stay current with what's new in the citizen science sector.

The time for change is here!

What's been going on

Navigating urgent societal challenges: the role of science communication

SFC has attended the EuroScience Open Forum 2024 (ESOF) that was held in Poland between June 12 and 15. During the conference, the policy brief prepared by the COALESCE consortium was presented, which includes recommendations on how science communication can more effectively address urgent societal challenges.

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Science For Change strengthens its commitment towards sustainability in Barcelona

SFC decided to become part of the Consell Ciutadà per la Sostenibilitat, a consultative and sectoral participation body of the city, which after a year of consensual and collaborative work, has approved the “Compromís Ciutadà per una Barcelona + Sostenible 2024-2034”.

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Citizen science for change

At the beginning of April, SFC participated in the major European event on citizen science: the ECSA Conference 2024, which took place in Vienna. For 3 days, the conference brought together experts to talk about the potential of citizen science and collaborative research as agents of positive and transformative change for all areas of society.

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The transition to urban circular bioeconomy through citizen science

SFC has been to the programme ”Ciència amb tu” from l’Hospitalet TV to talk about the HOOP project, a project coordinated by SFC that aims to promote the valorization of bio-based products, made from biowaste. HOOP accompanies 8 European cities and regions in the development of urban circular bioeconomy initiatives focused on the manufacture of these products.

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OdourCollect is loaded with news

In this new edition of our newsletter, we leave you with all the news of OdourCollect, the citizen science project to make collaborative odour maps.

This year OdourCollect has developed a project in collaboration with the Fundación Espa?ola para la Ciencia y la Tecnología (FECYT) called "OdourCollect and elderly people: digitizing and co-creating our olfactory memory", and these are some of the results we want to share.

• The guide of recommendations for the inclusion of older people in citizen science projects. The objective of this guide is to offer recommendations and strategies to overcome the barriers to inclusion of the group of older people and promote their active participation in citizen science projects and scientific dissemination activities. The guide is only available in Spanish.

• The virtual exhibition "Digitizing olfactory memories". The exhibition includes the collaborative work of all the people who participated in the project. The participants co-designed an artistic exhibition on olfactory memory, choosing the materials with which they were going to work, the memories, and the common thread of the exhibition.

• The video summarizing these three sessions, held in Barcelona, Vilanova i la Geltrú and Ataun, in the Basque Country, which have made it possible to create this collaborative exhibition.

The interview of the month

- What is your career path and how did you come to SFC?

I am a sociologist by training, but I also studied an agricultural training cycle because I was very interested in the connection between human behaviour, the environment and agriculture. You cannot approach the protection of the environment without taking into account the values and practices of the human beings who interact with it.

What motivated me the most at that time was composting as a way to manage organic waste in an ecological form, and also as an experiential educational tool to learn to participate in and value the cycles of nature. When I came to live in Barcelona I found a master's degree from the University of Barcelona that connected the human perspective with the environmental perspective and I was also lucky enough to do an internship in the Metropolitan Area of Barcelona, in the Programa de Fomento del Compostaje Doméstico.

Also at that time I received a research grant from the same institution thanks to which I was able to delve into what were the defining characteristics of the people who participated in the program, with the aim of finding the keys to popularize the practice of home composting.

At the end of this phase, I decided to broaden my perspective to be able to cover other topics related to waste prevention and management within the Circular Economy. This is how I started working at the Centro de Investigación en Economía y Desarrollo Agroalimentario, where I spent 3 years participating in European and national projects for quantification and collective search for solutions to food waste in different links of the chain, from the field to homes.

Then I started working as a Project Manager at Science For Change, 4 and a half years ago, where I am dedicated to finding solutions to environmental problems through methodologies of participation, co-design and citizen science. As I am always a restless person and in search of challenges, for 2 years I also collaborated with an environmental consultancy, carrying out sustainability audits in restaurant services.

- What motivated you to join SFC?

Science For Change fit perfectly with my professional profile and my outlook on life: involving citizens and other social actors in the search for solutions in a collaborative way was exactly what I was looking for. Within this, the perspective of citizen science, which supposes that non-professionals are directly involved in the performance of scientific tasks, with all that this implies in terms of scientific literacy and empowerment, so I got fascinated by citizen science and how powerful it can be; I have always believed that human beings learn to value things when we experience them first-hand, and I have also always believed in the need for all people to have the necessary knowledge to be critical with the information they receive.

At that time, Science For Change was just starting the European TRANSFORM project, which aimed to experiment with citizen science as a way to involve citizens in increasing the percentage of municipal waste separation, and I think it was a perfect match.

- What projects are you currently working on at SFC and what are their goals?

Currently, I co-lead the Accelerator of citizen science initiatives of the European project IMPETUS. In this Accelerator we provide 125 European citizen science projects with funding, training and mentoring so that they can achieve the greatest possible impact at a scientific, social and political level, aligning their activity with the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals.

On the other hand, I co-lead the co-design and citizen science activities of the European CERBERUS project, in which we will create an intelligent data platform for the early detection and sustainable management of agricultural pests in the Mediterranean.

In addition to these two major projects, I also manage projects on a local and regional scale on environmental and health issues.

- What important learnings have you gained while working on Science For Change?

To work collaboratively, to be very flexible and to be open to exploring new challenges and territories where I may not have previously felt so safe. At Science For Change we work with an interdisciplinary team, each one contributing their knowledge in very different fields, and, in all the projects in which we participate, we work with people from other countries, with different backgrounds and visions, and this is what enriches the collaborative work.

- Could you share one of your most significant projects at SFC and how it impacted the community or field of work?

A project that I am very proud of is TRANSFORM because it has had a lot of impact on public policies, which in the end is always our goal. In this case, we carried out a citizen science pilot in the area of health, specifically focused on endometriosis, and the first-person recommendations co-designed by the patients were integrated into the strategy of the Hospital Sant Pau to improve health care for this disease.

On the other hand, the pilot we carried out in the field of waste management, to improve recycling rates through the introduction of innovative selective collection systems, which proved to be very useful for the municipality of Mollet del Vallès to integrate a large part of the results and recommendations into its new waste management and street cleaning contract.

Finally, the project not only had an impact on local policies but also at the regional level, since thanks to the participation of the Generalitat de Catalunya in the project, citizen science is now included as one of the methodologies to be used in the new RIS3CAT, which implies unprecedented institutional support, which is already translating into financing for specific projects and initiatives, promoted by the regional government.

- Could you recommend any books, articles, or resources that have inspired your work?

It really inspires me, because I am passionate about the world of waste (its management, its prevention...), the collection of colloquiums pensamENTs, of the Fundació ENT. There is one session a month, and they are free and open to everyone. In addition, at the end of each colloquium there is a space for debate and thus share opinions and concerns.

- What do you like to do in your free time, or can you share some fun fact of yours or some hidden skill or hobby that we don't know, (and want to share)?

Well, it bothers me a lot to leave food on the plate so when I go to a restaurant with friends I often end up ordering a tupperware, and carrying it all night from bar to bar.

-Do you have a reference person, whom you admire, in the personal or professional sphere?

I could mention the name of many colleagues, but if I have to choose one, it would be Isabel Coderch, since she alone has built, with enthusiasm and a lot of professionalism, the environmental consultancy Te lo sirvo Verde, specialized in restaurant services.