Integrating citizen science for a comprehensive understanding and coordinated response to climate change

TYPE OF PROJECT/PROGRAMME: Citizen science

PROJECT CODE: J5-50168

PROJECT MANAGER: doc. dr. Maša Kovič Dine

KEY INFORMATION ABOUT FINANCING:

Price category of research hours: B

Number of research hours: 532

Financers:

The project, linked to the fundamental project "(Re)Conceptualization of the legal paradigm on climate change: developing a new legal normality to achieve sustainable practices," incorporates citizen science into research work in such a way that citizen researchers will contribute an empirical share of research activities, through training and practical fieldwork, contribute to raising awareness and understanding of the need to promote open science and scientific evidence and to apply scientific findings in democratic processes, particularly in involving communities and the general public in the design, the adoption and implementation of national regulations and sectoral policies governing the functioning of state bodies, local government bodies, and organizations with public powers, and the integration of citizen science in increasing resilience to climate change, developing a sustainable safety culture, and achieving sustainable practices. From the perspective of the fundamental project, this is one of the strategic factors for comprehensive, coordinated, evidence-based social development and for sustainable transformation into a new (legal) normality. In this dynamic process of circular exchange of basic knowledge and citizen research practices, citizen researchers will contribute their experience and empirical work on this project to provide the inevitably necessary insights into the social context, to which the canonical rule of open science applies, with circular exchange between basic science and its natural context—social reality and people's everyday lives. The project will thus also contribute to increasing confidence in knowledge, scientific research, and innovation activities, taking into account the environmental, social, and economic foundations of sustainable development, the dynamics of climate change and its consequences, and the associated need to achieve sustainable practices for the survival of humanity and the entire ecosystem of planet Earth. With this comprehensive and coordinated approach, which reflects contemporary scientific findings with the ecological paradigm of the new normal and the society of the future, this project will also contribute to the democratization of science, applied research ethics, and the professionalization of politics, institutions, and the democratic public for a comprehensive understanding and coordinated response to climate change and the achievement of sustainable practices. The project objectives will be achieved under the leadership of the researchers of the basic project with the involvement of the Institute for the Development of an Inclusive Society (IRVD), which, as a non-profit and voluntary non-governmental organization, is one of the first partners of the Citizen Science Network in Slovenia (network partners: IRVD). Competent community representatives who have already expressed their intention to participate in the implementation of project activities are invited to each planned field task, ensuring the involvement of broader community representatives in advance, in addition to citizen researchers.