For the first time families can also take part in research and win prizes!

Taking part in research for the Citizen Science Award 2023 is possible between 1 April and 31 July 2023

Up to now the OeAD's Young Science offerings on behalf of the Federal Ministry of Education, Science and Research (BMBWF) primarily addressed schools by bringing them into intensive dialogue with research institutions. This year the OeAD’s managing director Jakob Calice wants to go one step further with the Citizen Science Award and involve families in research processes for the first time because "Children who are enthusiastic about and fascinated by science at school also carry this into their families. This potential is now to be used to enable even more age and population groups access to science and innovation. "This year parents with their children, grandparents with their grandchildren and aunts/uncles with their nephews and nieces can take part in five different projects across generations and support research by e.g. documenting plastic pollution on agricultural land and on high mountains, researching and improving (small) urban areas or transcribing dialect words. "Joint activities on weekends, on school-free days in May and June or in the first few weeks of the summer holidays in July are ideal for participating in the projects as a family," emphasises Calice.
Within the framework of the Citizen Science Award the OeAD invites pupils and this year also interested adults to take part in a total of eight current research projects in natural sciences, humanities and social sciences for the eighth time. The research period is 1 April to 31 July 2023.
By means of digital and analogue participation options citizen scientists can e.g. measure particulate matter pollution on their way to school, critically analyse social media profiles of health influencers, research and evaluate science communication for pupils or create an online memorial book. The most dedicated citizen scientists will be awarded cash and non-cash prizes.
From 2015 to 2022 more than 19,000 pupils as well as individuals from all over Austria took part. Since 2015 they have supported research with so far more than 150,000 contributions. Detailed information about the participating projects and the possibilities for taking part in research is available at https://youngscience.at/citizen-science-award.
Strengthening trust in science with citizen science
The experience during the corona pandemic and the results of several surveys have shown that trust in science and democratic processes must be strengthened in Austria. The minister for education, science and research Martin Polaschek has therefore made strengthening trust in science and democracy a key focus of the ministry department and initiated the "TruSD: 10-point programme" as a framework for this. Under the motto "Trust in Science and Democracy" (TruSD) the BMBWF has therefore bundled numerous measures that bring citizens of all age groups closer to science and research and thus make scientific processes more understandable and transparent to them. The federal minister Martin Polaschek emphasises that "our goal is to re-establish a common consensus on how knowledge is created and which sources we can trust."
The OeAD supports the BMBWF's TruSD focus by promoting the continuous expansion of well-founded science communication with many of our programmes and initiatives – especially at schools but also for adults. Citizen science projects are an ideal way to get to know scientific processes: Citizens of all ages and population strata who actively participate in research projects not only provide valuable research contributions but also gain extensive insights into the world of science through direct contact with the researchers and a deeper understanding of how research processes work and how knowledge is gained.
OeAD Young Science Congress on 19 October 2023
The award ceremony for all prizes – for schools as well as for individuals and families – will take place within the framework of the 2nd OeAD Young Science Congress, which will be organised in cooperation with the Institute of Science and Technology Austria (ISTA) in Klosterneuburg (Lower Austria). The day will be dedicated to the dialogue between citizen scientists and researchers: Workshops and presentations in the morning will allow the participants to immerse themselves in the Citizen Science Award projects once more and discuss the results with the researchers. At the same time experimental and hands-on stations as well as a science parcours on other research topics will be available. Workshops on the topic of "science communication at schools" will also be available for teachers.
All information will be published in due time on the OeAD’s Young Science website www.youngscience.at.