Last week, the 5th conference of the European Citizen Science Association (ECSA) took place in Vienna, including the closing event of the international Step Change project. Under the slogan »Taking Citizen Science in a New Direction, One Step at a Time,« partners presented the results of all working groups (Citizen Science Initiatives) and horizontal activities. Representatives of UP FAMNIT, the leading partner of the project, also attended the event.
As part of the conference, an associated event titled »Citizen Science Day« took place at the Natural History Museum in Vienna. Representatives from the molecular ecology group at UP FAMNIT presented various methods for monitoring wildlife in Slovenia (camera traps, the SRNA app, eDNA) and conducted a short memory game with children related to the SRNA app (for monitoring wildlife).
ECSA 2024 was held under the patronage of Dr. Alexander Van der Bellen, Federal President of the Republic of Austria.
About the Step Change Project
The international Step Change project is conducted under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme. It is led and coordinated by the Department of Biodiversity at UP FAMNIT with prof. Elena Bužan as the project leader. The project, worth over 2 million euros, launched in March 2021 and is based on the expertise of 11 partners from 7 European countries and Uganda.
STEP CHANGE builds on the assumption that citizen science can play an even broader societal and scientific role than is generally acknowledged. The overall objective of the project is to explore the potential of citizen science and to formulate recommendations and instruments for better cementing this approach within R&I institutions as well as changing researchers’ mindsets on its value.
In Slovenia, the initiative focuses on wildlife conservation in Slovenia, which will contribute to additional development of the Hunting Information System (HIS) and further the cooperation between leading researchers of game in Slovenia and the Hunting Association of Slovenia.
The project will officially conclude on April 30, 2024.
