Newsletter #4: COVID-19 Pandemic - Citizen science looking towards the future
Dear reader,
Since our last edition on inclusion in citizen science, our world has been affected by one of the most serious health crises of the 21st century. For the most of us, our daily life has been disrupted and is still far from what we used to call “normal”. First of all, we hope that you and all of your loved ones are healthy and in a safe place.
The COVID-19 pandemic has also challenged our field by pushing us to adapt quickly to this new situation and to develop and/or use new collaboration tools. For this summer edition, we could not elude this unprecedented experience, but we have decided to focus on the lessons we can learn from it and how can citizen science look towards the future.
We contacted Chris Lintott, co-founder of Zooniverse, and asked him how he has perceived the whole lockdown period on this platform. Then, Jessica Hafetz Mirman shared her experience of developing a citizen science project during the lockdown period.
Below the two interviews, you can read how European Citizen science projects have perceived and been impacted by the situation.
Chris Lintott
"Chris, could you tell us more about how the website Zooniverse was created?"
As an astronomer by training, I got introduced to citizen science for the first time in 2007, at the time of the creation of GalaxyZoo. The concept of this platform was to offer a depository for images of galaxies and to allow anyone, scientists but also non-scientists, to help classify them. Zooniverse was then created in 2009 as a catalogue of different citizen science projects.
"Has the global lockdown period (due to the COVID-19 pandemic) had an impact on your work or the way people used your platform? "
The past few months have been extremely busy for us: in terms of numbers, we had 3-4 times more involvement than usually at the same period.
"As a huge portion of the population was under restrictions,
people had more time to spend in front of their computer "
I have even taken part in bird-watching projects myself for the first time!
"Who initiated the CoronaReport project and how did the idea come about?"
The idea came about organically as an authentic response to the emerging COVID-19 crisis. Our team (composed of Ruth Jepson, Stephanie Adams and myself, Jessica Hafetz Mirman from the University of Edinburgh) had already been collaborating with Spotteron in the past, so we knew their capacity to rapidly develop citizen science mobile apps.
"We collectively recognized that there was a unique
opportunity to focus specifically on the social and
behavioural aspects of the crisis."
The project received seed funding from Rapid Response Impact Grant, College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Edinburgh.
"Can you tell us more about how this app works? What is the purpose? "
The app is designed to capture a ‘moment in time’. Participants can use it as a digital diary, by uploading a picture and describing their current mood. We want people to share how their lives has been impacted by COVID-19.
The other European citizen science projects had to adapt to the consequences of the lockdown period.
CoActFrenaLaCurva project
Two CoAct partners developed the CoActFrenaLaCurva project devoted to investigating the mental health informal support networks in times of Coronavirus.
Staying at home
What happens when staying at home is not pleasant, or even safe? D-NOSES wants to defend the direct environment in which we live and spend most of our time – our homes, neighbourhoods, and cities.
The importance of global research collaboration during health crisis
The COVID-19 pandemic has demonstrated the potential of cross-border scientific collaborations and the effective and timely response that global exchange of scientific information, samples and materials can provide, says REINFORCE.
Walking and cycling: the new normal for many people across Europe
Citizen science projects are helping to reveal changing travel habits in response to the virus outbreak. The most striking observations are the increase of bike traffic, even exceeding pre-corona levels on most days, shows WECOUNT.
Updates from EU-Citizen.Science
Since the launch of our platform...
Read the 'Behind the scenes' of the first few months.
This newsletter was edited by EU-Citizen.Science with contributions by ACTION,
CitieS-Health, CoAct, CS Track, D-NOSES, EnviroCitizen, MICS, REINFORCE and WeCount.
Newsletter coordination and distribution by Ecsite.
