The OeAD Centre for Citizen Science organised two introductory workshops before the start of the co-research period (1 April to 31 July) to ensure that the Citizen Science Award projects attract school classes and youth groups who are enthusiastic about research: The PH teacher training programme (in cooperation with the PH Vienna) was aimed at teachers from all over Austria and from all school levels and types. A total of 30 teachers took part in this year's training course on 13 March. The introductory workshop in cooperation with the Institute for Leisure Education (wienXtra) was aimed at people involved in extracurricular youth work. Five youth group leaders took part in this workshop, which took place on 27 March.
The aim was to bring the researchers into contact with the teachers and youth group leaders and to familiarise them with the co-research activities so that school classes and youth groups can be successfully integrated into the research projects.
The ‘Citizen Science’ approach was first introduced and then the ‘Citizen Science Award’ research competition was presented in detail as a practical way of bringing Citizen Science into the classroom and into the youth group. The participants then had the opportunity to delve deeper into the individual projects in several breakout sessions and find out in detail about the project content and research questions, the tasks of the citizen scientists and the co-research activities.
Researchers who would like to take part in the Citizen Science Award 2026 with their citizen science projects can submit their projects from mid-September 2025. More information will soon be available HERE.
