About the project
The project uses the metaphor of a beehive to define the roles citizens play in each of its communities. Each hive will run citizen science campaigns to measure air quality, along with co-creation, data visualisation and dissemination activities to share the results and inform political decisions on the environment.
SOCIO-BEE is a European citizen science and technology project. It aims to help people across the continent monitor the air quality around them with low-cost devices. It also offers tools and support to build aware, active citizen communities that can influence local environmental and mobility policies, thanks to the measurements and data this technology provides.
The SOCIO-BEE consortium brings together around fifteen European institutions: universities, research institutes, technology developers, private companies and non-profit organisations. On the one hand, the consortium develops the technology to measure air quality in an easy and open way. On the other, it gives citizen communities the tools to come together, grow and establish themselves as independent groups that design, run and share the results of their own citizen science campaigns.
Three European cities test and pilot SOCIO-BEE’s developments: Zaragoza (Spain), where the focus is on children and teenagers; Marousi (Greece), where residents take air quality measurements as they travel around; and Ancona (Italy), where older people will come together to run the citizen science campaigns.
Project objectives
SOCIO-BEE aims to design, implement and validate fixed and wearable device technologies that citizens can use to make air quality observations. With the support of decision-makers and local action groups, it seeks to build a bridge between science, technology and society.
SOCIO-BEE will develop and implement a co-creation approach from a citizen science perspective. Citizens can get involved in choosing campaigns tailored to their context and needs. Each campaign will include tools for participation programmes and campaigns that can influence decisions to reduce pollution levels in cities and build trust between stakeholders.
SOCIO-BEE aims to run co-created experiments that are sustainable, accessible and replicable using citizen science. They will be tested at three pilot sites with different groups: children, young adults, older adults and elderly people.
The role of Ibercivis
Fundación Ibercivis is part of the SOCIO-BEE consortium. It plays an active role in co-designing the project’s narrative and the engagement strategies for the pilots in Spain (Zaragoza), Italy (Ancona) and Greece (Marousi).
Together with Zaragoza City Council and the Fundación Zaragoza Ciudad del Conocimiento, it will also run the pilot activities in Zaragoza, where the citizen science methodology for measuring air quality will be tested with the wearable devices designed by the project.
The Foundation will take part in communicating and disseminating the project’s results, and in graphic design, web hosting and web development.
Our activities
Citizen labs, co-creation sessions, workshops and educational activities to build the participating communities (the SOCIO-BEE hives).
Communication and engagement activities to promote the project and its activities.
Co-design of citizen science campaigns
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