ECSA 2026: cooler, bigger, and diverse
The European Citizen Science Association 2026 conference is the sixth conference. The first conference was in 2016 in Berlin (see posts here), continued in 2018 in Geneva (see posts here), was supposed to be in Trieste for 2020, but then ended up pivoting online due to Covid-19, the 2022 edition was in Berlin again, with 2024 in Vienna (see posts here). I rejoined ECSA board in 2024, and when the conference was set to take place in Oulu, in the Arctic, in March, the thought by the organiser and the ECSA team was “let’s be realistic, and plan for 300-350 people”. Considering that about 400 came to Vienna, that sounded right.
I’m so glad that we were wrong by 100%, but I can imagine the stress and effort that the conference organisers, Roger Norum and Thora Herrmann and their team experienced as they had to replan and organise everything. The end result was magnificent.
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This was a week-long conference, with pre- and post- conference activities that provided experiences of the arctic, from tasting the food, encountering reindeer, to doing yoga in the snow. And a lot of art – films, poetry, performance sound and poetry and more…
There are already several reflections and summaries that you can find. Here are some from Martin Brockelhurst, Gaston Remmers, Frederike Schmitz , Lucrina Stefanescu, and Thomas Kaarstad. Here are mine.
The willingness of 650 researchers and practitioners to brave the journey to the Arctic and attend the conference shows the strength of the citizen science community in Europe. I had very intensive and engaging five days of citizen science (participatory research, community science – call it what you want!). The Oulu team have created a wonderful programme which attracted all the people to engage with each other. In my opening section of the conference, I’ve asked those who have been around for a long time (and participated in the first conference ten years ago) to stand up, and then the people who are joining ECSA for the first time to stand up – and for the two groups to start talking. Citizen science people are open and happy to engage with each other across languages, disciplines, and career stages. Throughout the conference, I’ve seen these conversations and meetings happening. I think that I met at least ten people that I haven’t met and engaged with before. I’ve also engaged with people who met me online.
_We’re physical and social creatures – and for human connection and breaching awkward moments, we need to share spaces and be open to new engagements._
With all the regular online meetings that we got used to since Covid-19, there is something valuable in having a conference that is mostly face-to-face with only last resort online communication. This was valuable. As always, valuable discussions took place during lunch, coffee breaks, and in the corridors.
The conference started with an **event for Early Career Researchers** , which was organised and run by Early Career Researchers. It was fantastic to see 35-40 people coming together and finding other people who are sharing their practices. The result is a shared document that calls for better support for this group, but you could see a network forming – I hope that it will continue and grow.
It was also wonderful to see a group of undergraduate students from Konstanz presenting their project in sessions and in a poster. There was also a group of children from Nottingham that carried out research about engagement in the midst of the conference. It is good to **see citizen science integrated into all stages of education** and to have examples of it in the conference.
We do have some issues of growth and the need to figure out how to keep on maximum engagement and participation. With over 110 posters and in some cases 11 parallel sessions, it feels like the conference is getting hard to grasp. I feel part of the problem. I have been involved in a poster, two sessions with Susanne Hecker, ECSA’s chair, and a session about the European Citizen Science Academy. In addition (and as part of the sponsorship of the AGU), I’ve coordinated the “meet the editors” session and run rapid review sessions. I was acutely aware at the conference about my own position in ECSA and in the field, and I wish I could have longer conversations and time to attend sessions. As the conference grows,**I think that we need to limit participation** , no matter who you are. We need to open up the space for Early Career Researchers and to those that we don’t hear from.
Another noteworthy development of this conference is the presence of people from national research funders, senior staff from universities and research organisations, and project officers from the European Commission’s Research Executive Agency. I**t is fantastic to have champions of citizen science in these important positions** , and for them to value the conference and the information that is shared within it so they take the time to join it. It really part of the maturity of citizen science and its mainstreaming. It feels very different from the marginal position only 15 years ago.
It is also impressive to learn about national networks in the area of participatory research and citizen science that are evolving around Europe, w**ith many countries establishing their own associations and organisations.** Some of them are very well established (such as the Austrian) but the new Italian network has shown presence, and the Portuguese network celebrated the hosting of the next conference.
In addition, it is starting to look like **the calendar is filling up with citizen science activities** – and that it will be a good idea to start setting out the range of things that people can join at European and national levels. After all, the Special Eurobarometer surveys show us that the interest in joining a research project is bigger than the current number that participate.
The presence of health citizen science is growing, and it was good to see how different institutions are addressing it. Sanni Helander description of the panel at the University of Turku was an example of setting up the infrastructure that will enable researchers to carry out more participatory research better. In the vision 2036 we had another example for health based engagement. With the growth of the citizen science in health conference, this is another area that is growing in citizen science.
**The perennial question of “where are the citizen scientists?”** was not answered, as with all previous conferences. It is interesting for me to notice that the question comes up. It doesn’t come up in Geography conferences (though special guests are invited in participatory sessions). Also not in Science Communication conferences. ECSA conference always has a public event to engage locally. Standing around in a shopping centre in Oulu and talking about citizen science was supposed to be the answer. You could see in the conference, citizen scientists who cross the threshold and are organising projects and therefore want to get the latest knowledge. I don’t think that it’s a great idea to have participants on display, and I don’t know how to address this question. I’ve been involved in, maybe, 10 or more citizen science conferences, and haven’t seen a satisfying asnwer.
There are also the topics that are appearing more and more (Artificial Intelligence, for example), but also aspects that used to be there, but have disappeared. For example, the whole low-cost sensors (apart from Air Quality) don’t feel prominent the way it used to be, and DIY biology is not to be seen, which is a shame.
The ECSA conference was a corner of the world where people are trying to make things better, just a little. The environment of the snow and ice reminded us about our fragility and need to work together. It was a moment of engagement, reconnecting with all connections and starting new ones. Learning about a different place, and engaging in new ways. I hope that ECSA can continue and grow the impact of its conferences in Lisbon in 2028!
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