A year ago we announced Tech4CitSci, a COST Action proposal to strengthen the technological foundations of Citizen Science in Europe.
Thanks to the around 150 people who joined the network, the proposal was submitted to the 2025 Open Call and, although not selected, it scored 11 out of 13. We are now preparing an improved version for the 2026 Open Call, and we are opening the network of proposers once more.
What is Tech4CitSci?
Citizen Science in Europe is mature from a social and methodological point of view, but its technological foundations remain fragmented: isolated platforms, limited interoperability, tools that are built once and abandoned, and a growing dependency on infrastructures outside Europe. Tech4CitSci proposes the first pan-European network dedicated to the technological dimension of Citizen Science, working on:
- Human-centred and accessible participation tools, so that apps, sensors and interfaces work for everyone and not only for the people who built them.
- Federated, open-source infrastructures and shared core services, so that projects stop rebuilding the same components and start reusing them.
- FAIR, ethical and trustworthy data frameworks for citizen-generated data.
- The relationship between Artificial Intelligence and Citizen Science: how AI can support data analysis, validation and pattern recognition in participatory research, and how citizen-generated data and human judgement can in turn make AI more trustworthy.
- Training a new generation of “Citizen Science Technologists”: the developers, data stewards and makers who keep these projects alive.
- Long-term sustainability and policy uptake, so that good tools survive the end of the project that funded them.
COST has changed its eligibility rules for the 2026 call: at least 40% of the proposers must be Young Researchers and Innovators, meaning people under 40. In our 2025 network that figure was around 20%. The people building Citizen Science technology today are, to a large extent, PhD students, postdocs, junior developers, data scientists and makers at the start of their careers. They are the ones who will use, maintain and extend whatever this Action produces, and they should be shaping it from day one.
So if you are under 40 and you code, design, manage data, train models, build hardware or run platforms for participatory research, we would love to have you on board. And if you are not under 40, you’re also welcome, but please forward this to the people in your team and network who are. We also want to strengthen the presence of participants from COST Inclusiveness Target Countries, and of people from the open-source, industry and policy sectors.
What does joining involve?
Being a proposer means supporting the proposal and, if the Action is funded, being able to take part in its activities for four years: Working Groups, Training Schools, Short-Term Scientific Missions (research stays of a few weeks at another institution in the network), workshops and conferences across Europe. COST covers the networking costs, so participants’ travel and accommodation to these activities are reimbursed.
Before the invitations are sent, we will circulate the draft proposal to everyone who has expressed interest, so you can read it, comment on it and decide whether you agree with the direction.
How to join
- Fill in a short expression-of-interest form (about 3 minutes) by September 30th, 2026:
- Create or update your profile on the official e-COST platform (https://e-services.cost.eu), with your user details and affiliation completed. The email in your profile must be exactly the same as the one you give in the form.
- Accept the invitation we will send you through e-COST. It arrives as an automatic email from COST with a link. Invitations must be accepted by October 20th, 2026.
The proposal will be submitted before the Open Call closes on October 28th, 2026.
If the Action is approved, a formal management structure will be established and participation will be open to a wider group of experts, including those not listed in the original proposal.
For any inquiries, please contact the proposal coordinators:
Francisco Sanz: frasanz[at]ibercivis.es
Fermín Serrano: fermin[at]ibercivis.es