ECHO
Engaging Citizens In Soil Science: The road to healthier soils
ABOUT THE PROJECT
ECHO’s ambition is to actively involve and engage citizens through empowerment, thereby promoting better soil management across the EU and fostering social change through trust and a better understanding of soil.
ECHO is a citizen science project focusing on European soil health.
This European project will develop citizen science initiatives for the monitoring and care of soil in all EU Member States, taking into account its different types, uses and associated biology.
ECHO will create ECHOREPO, a long-term, open-access, open-access data repository that will be fed by citizen-collected data, and which can be exploited not only by scientists, but also by the general public and interested communities, adding value to existing data and other relevant soil monitoring initiatives.
ECHO is a Research and Innovation Action co-funded by the European Union under the Horizon Europe programme. Under the coordination of the Free University of Bozen-Bolzano in Italy, 16 organisations from all over Europe, including the Ibercivis Foundation, manage and develop different parts of the project.
PROJECT CHARACTERISTICS
Project Type: European
Duration: 2023 – 2027
PROJECT OBJECTIVES
The main objective of this project is to involve citizens in the protection and restoration of soils, through their own knowledge and by enabling them to develop new skills for monitoring and care.
Under this paradigm are 3 specific objectives of ECHO:
1) To foster citizens’ interest in soil health issues, while raising awareness of the importance of soil care.
2) To empower citizens through their active contribution to the collection of data for the project, generating new information on the state of health of European soils.
3) Enable citizens to take an active role and participate directly in decision-making on soil issues, based on the knowledge gained. They will promote responsible soil use and encourage behavioural change across the European Union.
IBERCIVIS’ ROLE
The Ibercivis Foundation is involved throughout the project to ensure that the project has a high impact at the scientific and citizen level, carrying out citizen science activities, collaborating in the development of the corresponding digital technologies, or overseeing the scientific dissemination and communication associated with the project.
Among the main activities of the foundation in ECHO is the facilitation of citizen science strategies to have a major impact on the control and monitoring of soils. To this end, specific tools will be developed and their impact will be evaluated, paying special attention to the quality of the data provided by the participants.
OUR ACTIVITIES
Conduct an initial literature review of other previous projects and initiatives that are similar to ECHO, to see their characteristics, mistakes and the solutions they employed, in order to improve the project.
Establish an initial evaluation framework, which will be followed during the project and will ensure that when the project is completed, the objectives have been met.
Select the most appropriate citizen science methodologies in each case, given that each country in which they will be carried out is different and we must adapt to each context.
Develop and supervise the citizen science initiatives as such, the collection of data by the participants or the correct sending of the data to the scientific community, among others.
Identify the communities that will benefit most from the data generated by the project because, although it will be available to everyone, we must ensure that it reaches those who will make the best use of it.
Ensure that the data generated by the project are compatible with the existing databases that they will complement, and also contribute to the assessment of the quality of the data, so that they ultimately make a meaningful contribution to science.
Encourage their citizen science initiatives to be replicated internationally, so that they can continue to work towards this goal even after the project ends.
Reinforce all ethical aspects of the project to ensure integrity, transparency and respect for all participants.
