Durante un período de 51 meses, InSPIRES ha tenido la oportunidad única de trabajar y desarrollar aún más el concepto del proceso de investigación participativa ascendente, impulsado por la demanda, tal y como se implementa a través de las estructuras y proyectos de las Science Shops. Hablando en nombre de nuestro consorcio, María Jesús Pinazo (ISGlobal, investigadora principal de InSPIRES) dijo «Hoy (…) puedo decir que participamos en algo. InSPIRES puede haber servido también para reforzar la red, para fortalecer la familia».

La Página de Legado del proyecto InSPIRES pretende ser una sección integral diseñada para el usuario final. En la página, cualquier profesional encontrará un acceso directo a nuestros principales resultados/productos, que incluyen una presentación de los 123 proyectos de Science Shop implementados; una presentación detallada de nuestro marco para el proceso de Science Shop; una descripción completa de la Plataforma Abierta InSPIRES (Repositorio y herramienta de Evaluación de Impacto); una plataforma de e-learning y varios repositorios de material de formación; un resumen de acciones de las reflexiones del proyecto sobre Ética; información sobre los hubs y redes nacionales y regionales reforzadas por los miembros del consorcio; los resultados de la Convocatoria Abierta InSPIRES; y, finalmente, la lista completa de nuestras publicaciones en revistas internacionales revisadas por pares, así como nuestras publicaciones no indexadas.

InSPIRES has achieved one of its most ambitious goal: developing an online collaborative and crowdsourced database featuring Science Shops, Citizen Science and similar structures and their related projects, as well as offering an integrated impact evaluation tool capable of producing real-time project evaluation report.

The aims of the InSPIRES online database and impact evaluation, accessible here, are to:

• Identify and visualize the size of the Science Shops, and other similar structures, movement and similar structures worldwide.
• Register collaborative research and innovation projects, facilitated by these intermediation structures, to show their objectives, knowledge and geographical areas, as well as the main collaborators involved.
• Provide to the community an intuitive and customizable impact evaluation tool to capture process and results outcomes in a harmonized manner.

The Impact Evaluation tool provides an automated analysis of participatory processes and their outcomes. At the same time, it compares the performance of all the project registered on the platform. The platform collects indicators under five essential dimensions for Science Shops and other participatory projects: a) Knowledge Democracy, b) Citizen-led Research, c) Participatory Dynamics, d) Integrity, and e) Transformative Change.

For doing so, we have developed questionnaires to be applied at four phases: beginning, mid-term, end, and six months after the end of the project. There are personalized questionnaires in each phase according to the actor profile: Civil Society Organizations, Students, Project manager/ Science Shop coordinator, and Scientists. The evaluation results can be accessed at three visualization levels: public, for project members and for project managers.

In the end, the InsPIRES community hopes that the platform will support the community (structure coordinators and project’s participants around the world) mutual learning by sharing Science Shops experiences and other participatory research and innovation projects good but also failed practices and methodologies.

The development of this Open Platform has been led by the ISGlobal team in deep collaboration with the Data Science and OpenSystems research groups at the Barcelona University. All InSPIRES consortium members have also played an important role in its inception and evolution.

InSPIRES wants to thank all the stakeholders involved in the 58 research projects that tested the Open Platform (see Deliverable 6.2, Presentation of the InSPIRES Open Platform, impact evaluation methodology and online tool).

At its “Learn” section, the OP introduces the InSPIRES e-learning platform, with learning modules introducing participatory Science Shop processes and other forms of collaboration between science and society.

At this same section, the OP also presents its SELF-REFLECTION QUESTIONNAIRES and the following guides:

• Guide 1: Overview of the InSPIRES Open Platform: Welcome to the InSPIRES Open Platform!
• Guide 2: How to subscribe to the InSPIRES Platform?
• Guide 3: How to create a structure?
• Guide 4: How to create a project?
• Guide 5: How to evaluate a project?
• Guide 6: Stages of the evaluation process

 

More information

 

InSPIRES Open Platform, accessible here

 

 

The Italian Network of Science Shops

InSPIRES partner, Universitá degli Studi di Firenze (UNIFI), has promoted the creation and consolidation of the Italian Network of Science Shops, including Italian members from our twin project, SciShops, and experienced members of Living Knowledge.

The network goals are to (1) disseminate the idea and initiatives of the network to Italian universities; (2) increase the visibility and knowledge of the science shop methodology towards interested stakeholders; and (3) search for funds on national and international calls.

In February 2020 a kick-off meeting was organised to present the network, and in December 2020 a webinar for universities was organised. The webinar was designed to offer universities the knowledge on the Science shop methodology, well known at European level but still little known in Italy. Two important Italian university networks gave their patronage: the university network for sustainability (RUS) and the network of universities for public engagement (APEnet). Moreover, a Final Event in Italian was organised in June 2021 by UNIFI together with the Italian Network of Science Shops to disseminate the achievements of the UNIFI Science Shop during the InSPIRES project, as well as to disseminate the possibilities offered by the Science Shop methodologies.

The Ibero American “Communities and Science” Network

Our Bolivian partner, CEADES, has co-hosted the creation of the “Communities and Science” Network with the participation of the Centro Latinoamericano de Aprendizaje y Servicio Solidario, CLAYSS (Argentina), the Oswaldo Cruz Foundation, FIOCRUZ (Brazil), Soluciones Integrales y Estrategias de Innovación en Salud, SIEDIES (Ecuador) and IrsiCaixa and ISGlobal (Spain).

According to its founding members, the Ibero-American Communities and Science Network has been created in August 2020 to: 1) Exchange research experiences with communities in the fields of health and environment that have as their main objective «a change in the quality of life of the people involved». 2) Analyse the different adaptations of the Science Shop model in the Latin American environment. 3) Generate joint work in formal and non-formal education spaces based on the concepts of open, innovative and responsible science, identifying the most pressing issues in Latin America. 4) Disseminate different research methodologies with community participation and their benefits in academic and non-academic environments, in order to reduce the existing gaps between the scientific world and civil society.

Complementing this set of objectives, another purpose is also made explicit among the co-builders of this network. As before mentioned in the case of the Italian Network of Science Shops, the network is also seen as an instance that can bring members closer to funding opportunities.

The InSPIRES Summer School, organized in Bolivia in April 2021, invited several stakeholders from the region and has served as the basis for the creation of this Network and for forging links with other regional networks and expanding the Science Shop approach beyond the traditional circuits.

The Francophone Science Shop network

InSPIRES has also organized several activities for the Francophone Science Shop network. The Institute Pasteur de Tunis established links with Science Shops operating in Bénin, Sénégal, Niger and Canada, specially thanks to Florence Piron from Canada, with whom IPT presented a panel session during the LK8 in Budapest in May 2018. After that, two meetings were organized in Montpellier (France) and Dakar (Sénégal) with the contribution of IPT in order to identify the key actors of this network.

In April 2019, IPT and UdL organized the InSPIRES Spring school with the involvement of the most important Science shops of French speaking countries. Many Science shop from this network submitted projects during the open call launched by InSPIRES in 2019. One of them was awarded and involves 10 French speaking science shop. The French speaking network is more and more active also thanks to the coordination done by Science Citoyenne, which created a website dedicated to the French speaking network. Finally, this network is alive and continue to develop common actions and some of them are leaded by IPT, like a cycle of webinars entitled “The Science Shops at the University”. These open webinars (online on the InSPIRES Youtube Channel) were quite successful (280 views for the first one, 144 for the second, 77 for the third). IPT also coordinated with Science Citoyenne a panel session dedicated to the French speaking network during the LK9 festival, and can be considered as one the main contributors to this network.

Complementary, UdL organized every month a cycle of seminars (online and onsite) for the research community. In addition, presentations and workshops were organized for CSOs to accompany them to apply to the Science Shop. The UdL also organised monthly meetings with and for the French-speaking network of Living Labs, in which it shared its experience on public engagement and the creation of multi-partner projects.

 

Agradecimientos: Con material extraído de la página web de la Red GUNI.

El Dr. Bud Hall inaugura la Escuela de Verano de InSPIRES, un evento esperado durante todo el año que transmitirá en directo y en español varias conferencias sobre Science Shops e Investigación Basada en la Comunidad, desde Cochabamba, Bolivia.

Junto con el Dr. Rajesh Tandon, como copresidentes de la Cátedra UNESCO de Investigación Basada en la Comunidad y Responsabilidad Social en la Educación Superior, el Dr. Hall ha publicado recientemente un Manifiesto, que aborda «(…) una serie de persistentes y complejas realidades comunes (enfrentadas en este) notable, contradictorio y problemático planeta en el que vivimos, trabajamos, amamos, luchamos, resistimos y sobrevivimos».

Como han señalado recientemente nuestros colegas de la Global University Network for Innovation (GUNI Network), el Manifiesto «esboza la finalidad del conocimiento y expone la idea de que ‘las nuevas formas de legitimación del conocimiento en apoyo del bien público’ requieren un apoyo renovado».

Con bases en la Universidad de Victoria (Canadá) y en la Sociedad para la Investigación Participativa en Asia (India), la Cátedra UNESCO de Investigación Basada en la Comunidad y Responsabilidad Social en la Educación Superior “apoya las asociaciones Norte-Sur-Sur y Sur-Sur que aprovechan y mejoran el consenso emergente en la democracia del conocimiento».

El Manifiesto «Conocimiento, Acción y Esperanza» puede leerse aquí en español e inglés.

 

La Fundación CEADES (Cochabamba, Bolivia), miembro de consorcio InSPIRES, invita a la comunidad universitaria e investigadores interesados a participar de la Jornada Internacional de Investigación con Participación Comunitaria, a realizarse en Cochabamba, Bolivia, del 08 al 10 de abril 2021.

El objetivo principal es difundir los conceptos y metodología de la Investigación con Participación Comunitaria bajo el modelo de “Science Shop” (que puede traducirse en español como “Encuentro entre Ciencia y Sociedad”) en el ámbito latinoamericano. También se pretende consolidar una red de investigadores y estudiantes comprometidos y capaces de dar respuestas a demandas emanadas de la sociedad civil organizada, en particular de los grupos más vulnerables, respecto a temas relacionados con la salud y medio ambiente.

Este evento de tipo semi-presencial permitirá reunir investigadores y estudiantes para debatir sobre diferentes formas innovadoras de investigación participativa, adaptadas a los problemas más apremiantes de nuestras sociedades.

El componente virtual de la escuela de verano ofrece varias conferencias en las que se expondrán los conceptos teóricos y experiencias de investigación con participación comunitaria realizadas en Bolivia y otros países del continente americano, así como en España (15 expositores en siete países). Las conferencias se emitirán los días jueves 8 y viernes 9 de abril por tarde (de Hrs 18 a 20, hora boliviana) y el sábado 10 de abril por la mañana (hora boliviana).

El componente presencial de la escuela de verano (con plazas limitadas debido a la pandemia de COVID 19) reúne a tres grupos de siete investigadores y estudiantes de la Universidad Mayor de San Simón (Cochabamba) con el objetivo de estudiar el modelo “Science Shop” y su aplicación en el contexto boliviano. Este encuentro tendrá lugar los días jueves 8 y viernes 9 de abril.

Participa de la reunión

URL de la reunión: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/89390853165#success
ID de reunión: 893 9085 3165
Código de acceso: 986187

Más información

https://www.ceadesbolivia.org/

Coming from the Living Knowledge community as well as from InSPIRES partners experience, the serial offers motivational insights of good practices in participatory research projects.

As consortium partner of InSPIRES, the Boutiques des Sciences (Science Shop) of the University of Lyon (UDL) has produced the videos to promote Science Shop structures as a possibility for diverse countries. The videos have been developed with the idea to motivate experience-sharing from Science Shops practitioners or similar structures. They also highlight the complexity in involving all stakeholders in the process as well as the strengths of Science Shops as a link between science and society.

Through these videos, we hope to contribute in exchanging knowledge within community partners, policy makers as well as business and social entrepreneurs while fostering the development of a “global civil society”.

The short-capsuled videos are entitled: «Science Shop: Inspiration from experienced practitioners», «Social demand and prioritisation based on the Science Shop model», «Reliable links with civil society», «Involving all stakeholders», «Methodology for sustainable partnerships with stakeholders» and «Strengths of a Science Shop».

They are structured around insights from Living Knowledge community members Gerard Straver, Florence Piron, Emma Mckenna, Henk Mulder, Andrea Vargiu, and Norbert Steinhaus; and also bring motivational comments from InSPIRES partners working in Europe, Tunisia and Bolivia.

To view the videos, please visit:

Video 0. Science Shop: Inspiration from experienced practitioners. If you have the passion, try it:  Brings an inspiring message to participatory research stakeholders. It also values the contribution of various Science Shop interviewees from around the world who contributed in the realisation of these instructional videos.

Video 1. Science Shop: Inspiration from experienced practitioners. Social demand and prioritisation: Promotes the different functional models of Science Shops. It highlights the priority fields that allow targeting research questions emanating from civil society.

Video 2. Science Shop: Inspiration from experienced practitioners. Reliable links with civil society: Provides key insights on good practices in building bridges between research and civil society.

Video 3. Science Shop: Inspiration from experienced practitioners. Involving all stakeholders: Emphasises the complexity in working and involving several stakeholders in a Science Shop project.

Video 4. Science Shop: Inspiration from experienced practitioners. Sustainable partnerships: Highlights various approaches in the harmonious maintenance of strong and long-term relationships with several stakeholders in a participatory research project.

Video 5. Science Shop: Inspiration from experienced practitioners: building better societies: Offers a concluding note by underlining the ‘win-win’ situation as well as the added values of Science Shops as mediators between civil society and research for a co-construction of better societies.

Date: 15 January

Hour: 3.30 pm (CET time)

Speaker: Eduardo Urias, Assistant Professor at the Athena Institute (VU University Amsterdam). 

 

The InSPIRES EU project is delighted to welcome you to join the webinar named ‘A Framework for Science Shop processes: Results of a modified Delphi study’ that will take place the 15th January at 3.30 pm (CET time). The invited speaker is Eduardo Urias, Assistant Professor at the Athena Institute (VU University Amsterdam), who focuses his research on public engagement approaches to research and education such as Community Service Learning (CSL) and Science Shops, especially on the associated organisational aspects required to institutionalise them. 

Science Shops are structures that facilitate science-society collaborations by providing independent, participatory research support in response to concerns experienced by civil society. The current Research and Innovation (R&I) system is under increasing pressure to become more inclusive and responsive to current and future societal challenges. Responsible Research and Innovation (RRI) and Open Science are policy imperatives to come to conceptual and practical ways to transform the R&I system in this direction. However, the widespread implementation of RRI approaches is not yet straightforward.  

In this webinar, Eduardo Urias will present a framework for Science Shop processes developed within the InSPIRES project on how Science Shops can serve as models to translate RRI, participatory research and Open Science policies into practice. The framework is based on an article co-authored by E. Urias, F. Vogels, S. Yalcin, R. Malagrida, N. Steinhaus, and M. Zweekhorst, on behalf of the InSPIRES project.

Urias will present the framework key elements, its evolution from the initial approach (from a pure university-based model to a process-based framework of Science Shops work), and how it can serve as an inspiration to transform current Science Shops into platforms for piloting and diffusing best practices in RRI and Open Science. Through bridging different scientific and social knowledge, Science Shops can improve the effectiveness, quality, acceptance, impact and sustainability of solutions for complex societal problems and become RRI best-practices for approaches of co-creation, anticipation, reflection and deliberation in science with and for society. 

REGISTRATION: If you are interested to participate in this webinar, please register through this form to get access to the online platform, where it will take place.     

We encourage you to forward this invitation to your Science Shop Network (students, CSOs, researchers, etc.) and to any other community where you may think it can be of interest.   

Spread the word!  

Un estudio solicitado por la Fundación CiclóPolis, CER Promotora de Movilidad Activa y la Unión de Ciclistas BiciUnión (Ecuador) a ISGlobal-Proyecto InSPIRES estima que, en 15 ciudades latinoamericanas, las llamadas ciclovías recreativas (calles que uno o más días a la semana se cierran temporalmente para el acceso vehicular) podrían prevenir anualmente 1.101 muertes prematuras gracias al incremento de la actividad física.

Mediante una evaluación de impactos en salud, se cuantificaron los beneficios de la actividad física que promueven las ciclovías en América Latina. Se calculó la incidencia de enfermedades, como cardiopatía isquémica, accidente cerebrovascular isquémico, diabetes tipo 2, cáncer de colon, cáncer de mama y demencia. Se estimó también la pérdida de años de vida con discapacidad, muerte prematura y su impacto económico. La mayoría de los beneficios fueron encontrados entre las personas ciclistas y peatones, siguiendo ese orden.

La Red de Ciclovías Recreativas de las Américas apoyó la investigación ofreciendo los datos en coordinación con las autoridades de cada ciudad. Las urbes incluidas en el estudio fueron: Rosario (Argentina); El Alto (Bolivia); Sao Paulo (Brasil); Santiago de Chile (Chile); Bogotá, Cali y Medellín (Colombia); Cuenca y Quito (Ecuador); Ciudad de Guatemala (Guatemala); Guadalajara, Ciudad de México y Puebla (México); Ciudad de Panamá (Panamá); y Lima (Perú).

El estudio también estimó lo que sucedería si en las 15 ciudades se alcanzara los máximos niveles de participación ya registrados en un caso, en el que el 13% de la población usa regularmente las ciclovías. En ese escenario, los beneficios anuales estimados podrían llegar a 8.416 muertes prematuras prevenidas, y a un impacto económico de 12.986 millones de dólares.

Se reconocieron limitaciones en la cantidad y calidad de los datos y se aplicaron factores de reducción sobre las principales estimaciones en función a diversos criterios de sensibilidad. Aun así, se determinó que las Ciclovías Recreativas en América Latina pueden proporcionar importantes beneficios de salud gracias a la actividad física. Las recomendaciones del estudio señalan la manera en la que las personas usuarias, responsables de política pública e intervenciones urbanas y personal investigador pueden trabajar para profundizar estos beneficios y su estudio.

Investigación solicitada por una organización de la sociedad civil

El equipo de ISGlobal pudo responder a la demanda que dio inicio a esta investigación por su experiencia en la evaluación de impactos en la salud y por formar parte del proyecto InSPIRES. El proyecto fomenta la metodología Science Shop, según la cual una pregunta de la sociedad civil es trasladada a investigadores y investigadoras que quieran comprometerse en la búsqueda de una respuesta. La evaluación con la sociedad civil, con investigadores, estudiantes y otros actores implicados es otra decisión fundamental del proceso.

En esta ocasión, la devolución de resultados hacia CiclóPolis (Ecuador), la Red de Ciclovías Recreativas de las Américas y cualquier colectivo o actor interesado se realizará a través del webinar “Ciclovías Recreativas y sus beneficios para la salud en Latinoamérica” el próximo miércoles 25 de noviembre de 2020 (Ciudad de México: 10h /Quito- Bogotá: 11 h / Barcelona: 17 h).

El webinar contará con presentaciones del autor del estudio (Daniel Velázquez Cortés, MD, MSc Global Health, Instituto Nacional de Salud Pública, México) y su asesor (David Rojas-Rueda MD, MPH, PhD, Colorado State University e ISGlobal), quien aportará perspectiva desde la noción del urbanismo táctico en tiempos de la COVID-19. Por su parte, Anne-Sophie Gresle (InSPIRES Senior Project Manager) nos acercará a la metodología Science Shop y a la evaluación de su impacto.

————

Webinar: Ciclovías Recreativas y sus beneficios para la salud en Latinoamérica

Miércoles 25 de noviembre de 2020 (Ciudad de México: 10 h /Quito- Bogotá: 11 h / Barcelona: 17 h)

Con:

• Daniel Velázquez Cortés, MD, MSc Global Health, Instituto Nacional de Salud Pública, México
• David Rojas-Rueda, MD, MPH, PhD, Colorado State University e ISGlobal)
• Anne-Sophie Gresle (InSPIRES Senior Project Manager)

Abierto a todo el público: https://zoom.us/j/96521728912

The InSPIRES EU project is delighted to welcome you to join a new webinar on “The many practices of citizen science – Citizen science, citizen social science, and extreme citizen science in public health”. The invited speaker is Dr Alexandra Albert,  a social researcher based in the Extreme Citizen Science (ExCiteS) research group in the Geography Department at University College London (UCL). 

This webinar will explore the differences and similarities in the approaches of citizen science, citizen social science, and extreme citizen science, and will ask what the benefits are of distinguishing between them. It will firstly look at the ways in which these different approaches to doing participatory research have been theorised, and then will draw on practical examples of how they have played out in practice, with a particular focus on the context of public health. Lastly the webinar will seek to discuss how these approaches respond to civil society organisations and other stakeholders.   

Dr Alexandra Albert is a social researcher based in the Extreme Citizen Science (ExCiteS) research group in the Geography Department at University College London (UCL). She is currently a post doctoral researcher on the Medical Research Council-funded ActEarly UK Preventative Research Partnership, examining citizen science and coproduction in health, comparing approaches in Tower Hamlets and Bradford. Prior to ActEarly, she worked on the EU H2020 funded Coordination and Support Action: Doing It Together Science (DITOS), helping to organise and deliver citizen science activities across Europe. She completed her PhD in citizen social science in 2019, taking a critical investigatory approach to the practices and processes of citizen social science – namely how people can be mobilised to engage in conducting social research, and the challenges and opportunities of using the data generated to tackle social issues. Her research interests include citizen science, participatory inventive methods, public sociology, and inclusive development.

If you are interested to participate in this webinar, please register through this form to get access to the online platform, where it will take place.     

We encourage you to share this invitation to your Science Shop Network (students, CSOs, researchers, etc.) and to any other community where you may think it can be of interest.   

 

With the firm belief that public engagement needs no borders, our Science Shop project proudly address its community to introduce the Citizen Science project REINFORCE. After a glance at the project’s intense scientific and communication activity during its first months of work, it is possible to declare, as we have done in the past, that public engagement is a flexible root that bridges different communities of practice of the Science with and for Society (SwafS) knowledge base below separation lines.

Research Infrastructures FOR Citizens in Europe (REINFORCE) aims to engage and support citizens to cooperate with researchers and actively contribute in the development of new knowledge for the needs of science and society. The project is inviting citizens to contribute to online frontier science by using real and simulated data for analysis, taking advantage of simple affordable detectors and instrumentation to measure properties of objects such as cosmic rays.

REINFORCE has decided to use Zooniverse, described as the world’s largest platform for online citizen science, to build its infrastructure and engage with community. Zooniverse was created following the paradigm of Galaxy Zoo, a project that asked citizens to participate in data analysis by classifying galaxies’ images (+460.000.000 classifications so far by +1.900.000 registered volunteers).

Sharing another principle that InSPIRES subscribes to, REINFORCE wants to work with underrepresented groups, such as elder people and people with visual impairments, by providing them with tools (sonification of data for visually impaired people, virtual training workshops for people of rural areas, specialized ICT training workshops for senior citizens) and training to overcome specific barriers. The project also committees to the gender dimension of science by equally recognizing the impact of male and female role models in the development of frontier science.

Please connect to www.reinforceeu.eu in order to know more about the research domains in which the project will foster citizens engagement: Gravitational Wave Astronomy, Neutrino Astronomy, High Energy Physics, and Cosmic Ray Physics. 

REINFORCE Partners

EGO (FR/IT/NL), the coordinator of the project, is engaged in the Gravity Spy citizen Science Project through the VIRGO collaboration. The project capitalizes from the experience in frontier citizen science of the University of Oxford (UK) and the Open University (UK), from the contribution in the introduction of RRI in frontier science by EA (GR) and ZSI (AT), from participatory design for online frontier science education developed by IASA (GR) and EA (GR), from the solid tradition in the experimental physics of University of Pisa (IT), from the research activities in the fields of nuclear physics, particle and astroparticle physics carried by CNRS (FR) and the efforts made by CONICET (ARG) to achieve better and multisensorial access to the astronomical data. The partners Lisbon Council (BE) and TRUST-IT Services (ITA) are responsible for the Awareness-Raising and Communication tasks to maximize visibility of project’s objectives, achievements and results.

REINFORCE first webinar

Here you can obtain complete information about this webinar that aims at introducing REINFORCE project to the European Research community and to the broad public of potential citizen scientists. As main takeaway messages, the webinar offers:

a) Understanding what is the potential of citizen science for society

b) Discovering the benefits of integrating citizens input in frontier Physics research

c) Keeping abreast with the research work carried out within Large Research Infrastructure