The goal of the “European Union Prize for Citizen Science” is to strengthen the collaboration between science and the public and to put their results to the benefit of society. The prize will be awarded for the second time in 2024. The winning projects in the categories “Grand Prize,” “Diversity & Collaboration,” and “Digital Communities” were announced on June 12 in a joint event by the IMPETUS project and the European Research Executive Agency.
The Grand Prize, worth €60,000, goes to the project INCREASE, which uses citizen science to promote biodiversity in agriculture, particularly in the cultivation of legumes.
The Diversity & Collaboration Award goes to the Italian project SeaPaCS, which focuses on combating plastic pollution in the sea.The Catalonian project CoAct for Mental Health involves people with mental illnesses in research and receives the Digital Communities Award. Both awards are worth €20,000 each.
An additional 27 citizen science projects received special mentions from the jury. The awarded initiatives will be presented in September during the Ars Electronica Festival.
Further information can be found on the Ars Electronica website.