Trust in Science and Democracy: up to 425,000 euros each for Sparkling Science 2.0 projects

Austria strengthens trust in science with the research funding programme "Sparkling Science 2.0", a programme that is unique in Europe. The Federal Ministry of Education, Science and Research (BMBWF) therefore funds the Sparkling Science 2.0 projects with up to 425,000 euros each within the framework of the Federal Minister Martin Polaschek’s departmental focus. The Minister of Education, Science and Research Polaschek says: "The flagship programme Sparkling Science makes science understandable to the young and the old. A low-threshold approach to science is essential to sustainably strengthen trust in science and thus also in our democracy. The projects address relevant research questions, establish new methods, show how scientific processes work and what active contributions committed citizens can make to achieving these research goals." Another goal of "Sparkling Science 2.0" is to intensify cooperation between schools, research institutions and society. Pupils and other citizen scientists conduct research on socially relevant and future-oriented topics side by side with scientists. After the successful restart of the programme there is now a second call for proposals. The digital submission platform will open on 1 June at 12:00 noon. It can be accessed directly via the OeAD website www.sparklingscience.at. Research projects can be submitted online from 1 June to 25 September 2023. The OeAD, Austria's national education agency, implements the research funding programme on behalf of the BMBWF.

The next call for proposals starts on 1 June 2023

There are calls for proposals for the programme every two years. The start of the funded research projects is therefore possible again at the beginning of the school year 2024/25. In this call for proposals the focus will be on the topics of the EU missions, i.e. topics such as tackling climate change or "Healthy soils for healthy lives". "The EU missions of the EU's research programme Horizon Europe address some of the biggest challenges of our time and help to restore trust in science across Europe through their approaches to solutions. The aim of these research projects is a resilient Europe that becomes a global pioneer in climate protection through new technologies, can cure diseases through state-of-the-art treatment methods and advances digital transformation in all areas of life," says the Federal Minister Martin Polaschek.

The OeAD’s Managing Director Jakob Calice on the call for proposals: "Sparkling Science is like a window to the world of science. Pupils as well as their parents cannot only watch but they also get the possibility to experiment, be creative and help shape a research process. At the same time they contribute to the achievement of the project goals through their commitment to science."

122 schools, 57 cooperation partners from science and 41 cooperation partners from industry and society take part in the 34 ongoing projects in the first call for proposals. The projects are managed by 18 scientific institutions, all of which must be located in Austria. The successful research funding programme is thus expected to reach almost 43,000 pupils and around 31,000 other citizen scientists. 11.5 million euros were made available for the selected 34 citizen science projects. An OeAD brochure, which will be published at the start of the second call for proposals, presents some examples of best practice (oead.at/sparklingscience2.0).

About Sparkling Science

The Austrian research funding programme "Sparkling Science", which connects science and schools in terms of research and new scientific questions, was launched in 2007. "Sparkling Science" is a project that is unique in Europe: Austria not only plays a pioneering part in research when it comes to supporting young scientists but also regarding public science – the form of knowledge acquisition that focuses on participation and integration. Between 2007 and 2019 more than 107,000 people from 200 research institutions, 535 schools and 185 partners from industry and society took part in a total of 299 funded Sparkling Science projects. Numerous evaluations confirm the positive effects of the citizen science research approach in science and the education system and have thus made it possible to continue the research funding programme.

In September 2021 the research funding programme that is unique in Europe was relaunched under the new name of "Sparkling Science 2.0". The topics of the 34 projects funded in the first call for proposals come from many disciplines: natural sciences (38%), social sciences (23%), teaching and learning research (9%), technology (9%), humanities (12%) and medicine (9%).

OeAD – Agency for Education and Internationalisation
Mag. Ursula Hilmar
+43 1 53408-270
presse@oead.at

Federal Ministry of Education, Science and Research
Andreas Jilly
Spokesperson of the Federal Minister
Minoritenplatz 5, 1010 Wien
Tel.: +43 1 53120 – 5025
andreas.jilly@bmbwf.gv.at