part of Citizen Science
Thursday 22 May: The Royal College of Art (RCA), in collaboration with the Stockholm Environment Institute (SEI) at the University of York, and Wrexham University, has today announced the recipients of the second funding round in the Ecological Citizen(s) Network+ research project.
Ecological Citizens: Tools, Technologies and Means to Enable Sustainable Citizens brings together a multidisciplinary team of experts in design, arts, science and technology to tackle the ecological and climate crisis by using the digital economy to catalyse sustainable change beyond individual actions. Its mission is to foster and proactively encourage (through technologically appropriate interventions) Ecological Citizenship for positive climate action.
The project was awarded GBP 3.4 million in 2023 by UKRI’S Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) to establish the Ecological Citizen(s) Network+, over four years.
The grant awarded by EPSRC includes three rounds of funding which will support innovative research projects, initiatives and pilots devising new-found ways to encourage and explore Ecological Citizenship and its potential in moving us towards preferable futures. In this second round, under the theme The Natural World, a total of fifteen projects received funding. One of the selected projects will be based at the University of York:
How can the engineering of water monitoring devices support environmental justice for marginalized fishing communities? After the catastrophic die-back of crustaceans along the Yorkshire coast during 2021, it became clear that there was an absence of systematic water quality monitoring in this internationally important crab and lobster fishing ground. Our vision is for fishers’ knowledge and experience to be at the heart of a new environmental monitoring and decision-making framework for the Yorkshire coast, co-producing technology and data that embody fishers’ knowledge and experience and can be used by fishery and marine management authorities. This will demonstrate the efficacy of community-led design, monitoring and data processing to fishers and decision makers locally and nationally.
For the full list of successful recipients of the second funding round, visit the Ecological Citizen(s) Network+ website.
Project / The Ecological Citizen(s) project cultivates trans-disciplinary collaboration and research to enable a digital sustainable society for positive climate action.
Ecological Citizen(s) Network+ is a NetworkPlus project funded by EPSRC grant EP/W020610/1 that is focused on digital interventions that would create ‘the conditions to make change’ towards a sustainable post-industrial society.
Perspective / Volunteers and scientists are increasingly working together to monitor ecosystems and answer scientific questions.
Journal article / Using arts-based approaches, researchers worked with communities in Nairobi to empower people to take action on air pollution.
Journal article / This article advocated for greater understanding of barriers to participation in citizen science projects and suggested methods for improving impact.
