At this meeting, the 16 partner organisations will review the progress of the 28 ongoing citizen science initiatives and plan the work for the project’s final year.

Over the three days of the meeting in Zaragoza, the consortium partners will share updates on the status of the 28 national initiatives and review the progress of the three technological tools developed by the project: the mobile app that guides sample collection, the educational platform aimed at participating citizens and, notably, ECHOREPO.

ECHOREPO is the open access repository where the data generated by the project is stored, with more than 8,000 soil samples collected so far by volunteers across Europe. The repository is connected to the European Soil Observatory (EUSO) and makes the data collected available for use by the scientific community as well as by public administrations, landowners and anyone interested in consulting the data.

Finally, the meeting will also include a session dedicated to assessing the project’s impact, with a view to planning the actions for its final year before it closes in May 2027.

What ECHO is and what its objectives are

ECHO Soil (Engaging Citizens in soil science: the road to Healthier sOils) is a research and innovation project that uses citizen science to generate knowledge about the health of European soils. Its approach rests on three principles: motivating citizens to protect and restore soils, providing them with the tools and knowledge to take an active role in data collection, and enabling channels so that this participation also feeds into decision-making on soil-related issues.

The consortium is made up of 16 organisations from different European countries, including universities, research centres, small and medium-sized enterprises and foundations, coordinated by the Libera Università di Bolzano. Each one leads a citizen science initiative in its own territory: 28 in total, one for each European Union country plus Scotland, tailored to the different soil types, land uses and biogeographical regions of each area.

La entrada Ibercivis hosts the annual meeting of ECHO, the European citizen science project for soil health, in Zaragoza se publicó primero en Fundación Ibercivis.

At this landmark gathering, Fermín Serrano will take part as a speaker in the session on strategic partnerships with ERICs and ESFRIs, presenting the progress of the European project RIECS-Concept.

The EOSC Symposium is Europe’s leading annual meeting point for digital research infrastructure. Organised by the EOSC Association with the support of the EOSC Gravity project, the forum will bring together around 500 participants in Florence to network, exchange ideas and mark the latest progress on the EOSC and the EOSC Federation.

The EOSC (European Open Science Cloud) is the European initiative driving a federated ecosystem of infrastructures, data and services so that research produced in Europe is open, accessible and reusable in line with FAIR principles. The EOSC Federation is the mechanism through which institutions and infrastructures across Europe connect their resources within this shared ecosystem.

The official programme of the EOSC Symposium 2026 is organised around three main thematic tracks: strategic collaboration and future opportunities, best practices and user experience, and the operationalisation of the EOSC Federation itself. Key programme content includes the automation of data “FAIRification” processes, capacity building on the use of AI tools for data science, data sovereignty and governance in sectoral data spaces, and the design of sustainable business models for the long-term operation of the network’s nodes.

Ibercivis’s participation: citizen science in the official programme

Citizen and participatory science will hold a prominent place in the conference programme. Representing Fundación Ibercivis and the RIECS-Concept project, Fermín Serrano will speak in the session “EOSC and ERICs/ESFRIs” (Track 1: EOSC collaborations and future opportunities), chaired by Antje Keppler (EOSC Association / Euro-BioImaging ERIC) and Jan Hrušák (EOSC Steering Board).

• Date and time: Thursday 15 October, from 14:35, within the “Flash inputs from 1st wave Nodes, RIs and emerging communities” block.
• Title of the talk: “Citizen science as an emerging RI community: participatory governance and EOSC as a long-term institutional anchor.”

The session brings together ERICs, ESFRIs, thematic EOSC Nodes and emerging research communities to show how they can contribute interoperable, trusted services and cross-disciplinary collaboration to the EOSC Federation, and to identify shared opportunities and challenges around governance, access and data integration.

Building a European infrastructure for participatory science

Through the RIECS-Concept project, coordinated by Fundación Ibercivis together with the European Citizen Science Association (ECSA) under the Horizon Europe programme, work is underway on the conceptual design of the first pan-European research infrastructure for citizen science. The 36-month project brings together a consortium of 13 partners from 8 countries around three objectives: assessing the technical and scientific feasibility of this future infrastructure, developing a strategic roadmap for its implementation, and fostering an open and participatory governance model.

Connecting these participatory methodologies with the EOSC makes it possible to consolidate high-value scientific data in the three areas that RIECS-Concept takes as its field of work: environmental observation, health and climate change.

Information and registration

Registration and the detailed session programme are already available on the official symposium website.

La entrada EOSC Symposium brings together Europe’s scientific community to shape the future of shared knowledge se publicó primero en Fundación Ibercivis.

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La entrada SLDAR: The Future of Augmented Reality with a European Stamp and Citizen Participation se publicó primero en Fundación Ibercivis.

Fundación Ibercivis will act as the expert partner in social sciences and humanities and the implementation of citizen science methodologies. Its main role is to ensure that the project’s technological advances are inclusive, ethical and socially accepted, using citizen science methodologies to do so.

Running for 42 months (from July 2026 to December 2029), this consortium, led by University College Cork (Ireland), brings together seven leading partners to overcome the current barriers facing Augmented Reality (AR) glasses.

An ambitious research framework and a substantial budget

Framed within the Horizon Europe programme (call HORIZON-CL4-2025-03-HUMAN-14), the project has a total budget of €5,996,482.50, fully funded by the European Union. This investment is significant, given that the AR market in Europe is expected to exceed €20 billion over the next decade.

The technical goal is groundbreaking: to develop light engines for AR glasses that are compact (under 1 cm³), high-resolution, and consume six times less power than current models, making all-day use possible.

Ibercivis: guaranteeing social adoption and ethics

Within this technologically high-profile consortium, our foundation will play a critical role as the expert partner in implementing citizen science methodologies, social sciences and the humanities. Our mission is to ensure that the technology is not only advanced, but also inclusive, ethical and socially accepted.

Responsibilities and key tasks

Ibercivis is actively contributing to the project’s work package on user validation and social adoption of the prototypes developed by the project, working closely with the industrial giant ZEISS. Its main tasks include:

• Recruitment strategy: Ibercivis will design the protocols for attracting a diverse group of participants (taking into account age, gender, socioeconomic status and visual conditions).
• Social adoption studies: During the project’s third year, it will coordinate studies with three citizen groups (experienced users, non-users, and people trying out commercial glasses) to identify what motivates or discourages them from using this technology.
• Data-collection tools: It will create structured online diaries, semi-structured interview guides and recruitment materials co-created with the other partners.
• Data and server management: The foundation provides the server infrastructure needed to store and manage citizens’ data securely, in strict compliance with the GDPR and research ethics standards.

Milestones and expected outcomes

Ibercivis’s contributions will result in public deliverables that are essential to the project’s commercial success:

1. A report on the social adoption study.
2. A roadmap for the responsible adoption of AR glasses, which will guide industry in crossing the “valley of death” between the lab and the market.

Challenges and connection with the consortium

The biggest challenge for Ibercivis is ensuring the representativeness of the citizen sample and the quality of the data collected. To mitigate these risks, the foundation will make available to the project its database of more than 80,000 citizens who have taken part in previous citizen science initiatives.

Ibercivis acts as the link between technical development and human needs. Its findings will feed directly into the work of industrial partners such as CREAL and ZEISS, helping them adjust the design of the prototypes based on end users’ perceptions of comfort, usability and privacy.

The importance of securing European funding

For Ibercivis, taking part in SLDAR reinforces its track record of success in securing competitive funding, adding to other Horizon Europe projects such as ECS, PLAN-B and ATRIUM.

This ability to attract European funding allows the foundation to sustain a team of senior and early-career researchers, maintain and improve its own technological infrastructure (ICT servers and the environmental monitoring app Geonity) in the service of open science, and further establish citizen science as a valid and necessary methodology for responsible industrial development in Europe.

In short, SLDAR is not just a step forward in photonics; it is an example of how European research brings in the voice of its citizens from the earliest stages, to build a more human and sustainable digital future.

La entrada SLDAR: The Future of Augmented Reality with a European Stamp and Citizen Participation se publicó primero en Fundación Ibercivis.

Introduction. In 1879, the Cantabrian naturalist Marcelino Sanz de Sautuola, together with his daughter María, identified the polychrome bison and deer on the ceiling of the Altamira cave. A year later he published his hypothesis: that these paintings were the work of Palaeolithic humans. Far from being celebrated, his claim ran into scepticism, dismissal and accusations of fraud from the scientific establishment of the time. Sautuola’s story is one of rigorous research born of personal interest and direct observation of his local surroundings, which went on to transform world prehistory after decades of institutional resistance.

Rigour and curiosity outside the academy. Sautuola was not a professional archaeologist or a university professor, but a scholar and naturalist driven by a methodical interest in the heritage of his local area. After encountering the scientific developments of the time at the 1878 Paris World’s Fair, he began systematically exploring the Altamira cave. His work combined careful surveying of the ground, the collection of bone and stone remains, and the writing of his Breves apuntes (Brief Notes, 1880).

The weight of dogma and the bias of authority. The scientific community of the late 19th century, led by leading figures in French and Spanish prehistory, flatly rejected the authenticity of the Altamira paintings. Several factors fed into this rejection: the prevailing theoretical conviction that Palaeolithic humans lacked the intellectual and aesthetic capacity to create such complex art, experts’ fear of falling victim to fraud, and a bias against contributions from anyone outside the major academic institutions. Sautuola died in 1888 without ever seeing his work recognized.

Why is Sautuola’s case a landmark in citizen science?

• Generating knowledge outside institutions. The ability to observe, formulate valid hypotheses and document significant findings is not the sole preserve of academic institutions, nor does it require an official qualification.
• Observation free of preconceptions. A gaze unburdened by established theoretical frameworks — symbolized by the child’s attentiveness — can perceive evidence that entrenched frameworks tend to overlook or dismiss.
• A warning against scientific elitism. The case is a reminder of the risks of institutional authority bias: the validity of a finding depends on its empirical evidence, not on the status of the person presenting it.
• The value of rigour and correction. The scientific community’s later retraction underscores that knowledge truly advances when institutions are able to revisit their assumptions and acknowledge contributions from outside their ranks.

Did you know…? The renowned French prehistorian Emile Cartailhac — one of Sautuola’s harshest critics — published an article titled “Les cavernes ornées de dessins, La grotte d’Altamira (Espagne). Mea culpa d’un sceptique.” In it, he publicly apologized for having doubted the authenticity of Altamira and acknowledged the Cantabrian naturalist’s honesty and rigour. This happened in 1902, fourteen years after Sautuola’s death and twenty-two years after the discovery was first published.

REFERENCE

Sanz de Sautuola, M. (2004). Breves apuntes sobre algunos objetos prehistóricos de la provincia de Santander (J. A. Lasheras and C. de las Heras, Eds.; E. Botín, Foreword). Fundación Botín; Museo Nacional y Centro de Investigación de Altamira. https://www.cultura.gob.es/mnaltamira/dam/jcr:838c6f98-14e1-4a62-bd30-2e7c1f5b081b/altamira-fac-espanol.pdf (Original work published in 1880)

La entrada Marcelino Sanz de Sautuola and the art of Altamira (1879–1880): defending Palaeolithic art from outside academia se publicó primero en Fundación Ibercivis.

The recommendations are based on evidence generated by more than 140 schools across 15 autonomous communities and on the evaluation questionnaires completed by participating teachers.

The document sets out five public policy briefs:

• Expand the coverage of the air quality monitoring network by integrating citizen science data, particularly in rural and peri-urban areas with a limited presence of fixed monitoring stations.
• Establish atmospheric protection zones around schools, with perimeters restricting access to motor vehicles during school hours and active mobility infrastructure.
• Integrate citizen science on air quality into the school curriculum, with the activity recognized within STEM and environmental education competencies.
• Create a mechanism for feeding results from citizen science projects back to participating communities, with defined deliverables set as an evaluable criterion in funding calls.
• Protect and expand urban green cover as a strategy for mitigating air pollution, incorporating this obligation into municipal urban planning schemes.

Each brief sets out the context of the problem, the evidence generated by AmIAire, and a concrete recommendation aimed at the bodies with competence in each area, including environment, education and urban planning departments, municipal governments and science funding agencies.

About AmIAire

AmIAire is a citizen science project focused on air quality, in which primary and secondary school students build their own sensors out of cardstock and petroleum jelly to capture suspended particulate matter (PM10, PM2.5, PM1). The samples are analysed using a digital image-processing platform developed specifically for the project. It is led by the Universidad de Deusto, together with Fundación Ibercivis and Scicling, with the collaboration of the Spanish Foundation for Science and Technology – Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities.

La entrada AmIAire, a project on air quality measurement, publishes its policy brief with recommendations based on the results of its first edition se publicó primero en Fundación Ibercivis.

The broadcast covers the region’s role as the starting point for initiatives that today connect research, institutions and citizens across the whole country. You can listen to it at Aragón, catalizador de la ciencia ciudadana.

The programme marks the 10th anniversary of the Citizen Science Observatory in Spain (2016–2026) and presents its new web portal, open, collaborative and designed to connect the scientific community with citizens across the country.

The conversation also looks back over the history of Ibercivis, a pioneering organization in the launch and consolidation of citizen science in Spain and Europe over its 20-year history. CSIC Aragón also takes part in the discussion, detailing that, within the CSIC framework, more than 130 projects applying citizen science methodologies have been launched, with cumulative participation of over one million people.

The full podcast in spanish is available at Aragón, catalizador de la ciencia ciudadana. And the Citizen Science Observatory in Spain portal is open for anyone to explore the country’s active projects and the organizations that run them.

La entrada Ibercivis reviews two decades of citizen science in a special Ágora programme on Aragón Radio se publicó primero en Fundación Ibercivis.

The event also served to present the new features of its online platform, a hub that brings together technology and society at the service of citizens and the research community.

Today, 15 July, we celebrated, in the Paraninfo’s Aula Magna at the Universidad de Zaragoza, ten years of the observatory managed by Ibercivis, which has served to weave a national network of initiatives, projects, resources, researchers, institutions and participants in citizen science projects. The event was chaired by our president and rector of the Universidad de Zaragoza, Rosa Bolea, and was also attended by María Jesús Lázaro, institutional delegate of CSIC Aragón. In her opening remarks, the rector highlighted the importance of citizen science within the university’s strategic plan and the milestone represented by the adoption of the online platform developed by Ibercivis by various European institutions, such as the European, Italian and Dutch citizen science associations and UNESCO, underscoring Ibercivis’s capacity for technological development.

New features to keep weaving networks and initiatives

Our director Francisco Sanz described the new features of the Observatory’s online platform, which turns it into a virtual hub for finding initiatives, resources, institutions and projects that use citizen science methodologies. Users have full control over the information shown about their project, along with a wide range of reports, statistics and metrics that allow for better management of their initiative. The platform pays particular attention to data ownership and the ethical use of the data it hosts, enabling comprehensive management of citizen science projects’ presence on the network, improving their visibility, and enabling collaboration between the research community and the public.

Success stories and a look to the future

This celebration event also featured Enrique Torres and Guillermo Orduña, who shared their experience within the SERVET Project — Enrique as part of the organizing committee, and Guillermo representing the participating community. We also enjoyed a dialogue on the future of citizen science between Fermín Serrano and Manuel González Bedia, Vice-Rector for Innovation, Transfer and Lifelong Learning at the Universidad de Zaragoza.

Thank you to everyone who joined us on this day celebrating citizen science in Spain. The event recording is available on YouTube.

If you are interested in citizen science, manage an initiative, or belong to the research community, we encourage you to take part in the ciencia-ciudadana.es portal.

La entrada 10 years of the Citizen Science Observatory in Spain: a tool at the service of participatory research se publicó primero en Fundación Ibercivis.

The event, held at CSN headquarters on 9 July 2026, brought together institutional representatives, the research community, educational centres and technology networks to share the project’s main progress, its results and the lines of work developed over the past few months.

Driving forward the citizen network for measuring ambient gamma radioactivity

Openred arose from the initiative of Ibercivis and the Nuclear Safety Council, with a dual objective: to promote a citizen network for measuring ambient gamma radioactivity and to foster a better-informed social culture around radiological protection. To this end, the project combines citizen participation, technological innovation, training and the generation of open data, making it easier to understand how ambient radiation is measured and what the values obtained actually mean.

The event was opened by CSN commissioner Francisco Castejón, accompanied by Javier Rodríguez Torres, director general of Educational Planning and Management at the Ministry of Education, Vocational Training and Sport. Francisco Sanz, director of Fundación Ibercivis, presented the overall design of the project and its main results, highlighting the value of involving citizens in scientific processes that have traditionally felt distant from everyday life. Openred thus helps bring the scientific fundamentals of gamma radiation detection and measurement closer to the public, while opening new avenues of collaboration between citizens, scientific institutions and regulatory bodies.

The expert group’s work as a catalyst for the project

The event also served to showcase the work carried out by the project team and the collaboration provided by its expert group through the contributions of the universities and research centres involved: among them the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya, represented by Arturo Vargas; the Universidad de Cantabria, represented by Luis Quindós; the Centre for Energy, Environmental and Technological Research (CIEMAT), represented by Roser Sala Escarrabill; and the Universidad de Zaragoza, contributing on collective intelligence. Their contributions have addressed important aspects such as the development and validation of sensors, metrology, and the social perception of risk. The Ibercivis team was represented by Nacho Saez, project coordinator, who discussed the measurement activities carried out across the country, and Olga Varela, who presented results related to the perceived social impact of participation in the project. The event also featured the experience of the collective intelligence experiment carried out within Openred and coordinated by Alfonso Tarancón of the Universidad de Zaragoza, and was closed by Antonio Ortiz Olmo, Chief of Staff of the Technical Directorate for Radiological Protection at the Nuclear Safety Council (CSN) in Madrid.

Citizen science through measurement campaigns and hackathons

One of the most notable elements of the project has been the holding of hackathons and participatory campaigns, designed to involve citizens in improving tools, devices and measurement processes. These activities have made it possible to explore collaborative solutions for data collection, analysis and visualization, as well as to reinforce the project’s educational component through resources aimed at schools and the public at large.

In addition to its technological dimension, Openred incorporates a social perspective on citizen participation. The project analyses how the public perceives ambient radiation, how it interprets the data available, and what communication models can foster a clearer, more rigorous and more accessible understanding of radiological protection.

With the presentation of these results, Openred consolidates a line of work based on cooperation between public institutions, scientific entities and citizens. The collaboration between the CSN and Fundación Ibercivis demonstrates the potential of citizen science to generate open data, strengthen scientific culture, and develop new tools for monitoring the radiological environment.

Openred represents, in short, a commitment to a more open science, participatory and connected to society: a science capable of turning environmental measurement into an opportunity to learn, collaborate and build shared knowledge.

La entrada Openred presents its results and reinforces the role of citizen science in measuring environmental radiation se publicó primero en Fundación Ibercivis.

Over the course of this session we will go through, together with its protagonists, social organizations, neighborhood groups and universities, concrete experiences in which citizen science has been placed at the service of real problems. From the memory of environmental pollution in La Almozara (Zaragoza), to the neighborhood relationships and participatory processes developed in Las Fuentes (Zaragoza) and in San Matías (Tenerife). A journey that combines the conceptual framework developed in collaboration with Fundación Ibercivis and the Universidad de Zaragoza, with direct testimonies from those who have driven different processes from within the territory.

The aim is to share knowledge, learnings, methodologies and common challenges, understanding Citizen Science not only as a methodological tool, but, above all, as a way of weaving community and of putting knowledge at the service of those who inhabit the territories.

Registration: click here.

Citizen science with a community accent

Monday, 13 July 2026

5:30 pm to 8:00 pm (4:30 pm to 7:00 pm in the Canary Islands)

Program:

5:30 pm | 4:30 pm Presentation of the training

5:45 pm | 4:45 pm Inspiring framework and discussion

Citizen science with a community accent

Ms. Maite Pelacho López

Citizen Science Observatory in Spain

Fundación Ibercivis

6:25 pm | 5:25 pm Break I (5′)

6:30 pm | 5:30 pm Inspiring experience

Learning about the environmental pollution legacy of La Almozara (Zaragoza)

Mr. Óscar Pueyo Anchuela, resident of La Almozara, Beagle Research Group, Universidad de Zaragoza | Mr. Jorge Sánchez Aguilar, Ebro de La Almozara Neighborhood Association

6:50 pm | 5:50 pm Inspiring experience

ParticipaBarrio: Las Fuentes (Zaragoza)

Ms. Virginia Pellejero Lavega, Fundación El Tranvía | Mr. Chabier Gimeno Monterde, Universidad de Zaragoza

7:10 pm | 6:10 pm Inspiring experience

ParticipaBarrio: San Matías (Tenerife)

Ms. Concepción Casanova Gaspar and Ms. Gara Darias García, La Montaña de San Matías Neighborhood Association | Mr. Vicente Manuel Zapata Hernández, Universidad de La Laguna

7:30 pm | 6:30 pm Break II (5′)

7:35 pm | 6:35 pm Questions and dialogue among participants

7:50 pm | 6:50 pm Conclusions

This training has been organized by Vicente Manuel Zapata Hernández (Universidad de La Laguna) with the collaboration of Fundación Ibercivis through the Citizen Science Observatory in Spain.

La entrada Online Training with the Universidad de La Laguna and Ibercivis: Citizen Science with a Community Accent se publicó primero en Fundación Ibercivis.