The 2025 Citizen Science Initiatives, CSIs

Osijek-Baranja Citizen Science Hub
Kickstarter Grant
Topic: Resource Management
Mentor: Sasha Woods
The Osijek-Baranja Citizen Science Hub empowers local communities to monitor biodiversity, water, and soil quality through participatory science. By engaging schools, families, and underrepresented groups, the Hub fosters environmental awareness and co-creates solutions for regional sustainability, with a special focus on the unique ecosystem of Kopački Rit.

PermaCommunity Futures
Kickstarter Grant
Topic: Disaster Resilience
Mentor: Claire Narraway
PermaFuturos applies the holistic permaculture framework for community-driven research and system design - seeking to cultivate climate resilience from within affected communities. In two rural living labs, we unpack local challenges through the intersectional lenses permaculture offers and develop systemic resilience roadmaps rooted in local realities, traditions, capacities, and ambitions.

Citizen Science to understand food waste
Kickstarter Grant
Topic: Resource Management
Mentor: Patricia Barciela
FOODWISE is a citizen science initiative empowering underprivileged communities in Thessaloniki to reduce food waste and promote sustainable, healthy eating. By engaging 80 citizen scientists from vulnerable groups, it combines participatory research with behavioural change, generating practical guidelines for NGOs and policy recommendations for inclusive urban food strategies.

Soil Sentinel
Kickstarter Grant
Topic: Resource Management
Mentor: Claire Narraway
Soil Sentinel empowers farmers to become citizen scientists by monitoring soil health and assessing safe use of sewage sludge in agriculture. Through training, sampling, and collaboration, the project promotes sustainable farming, protects the environment, and supports circular economy practices across Serbia. Clean soil, smart reuse, stronger communities.

Intergenerational Circularity
Kickstarter Grant
Topic: Resource management
Mentor: Stefanie Schuerz
This project revives repair culture by mapping elders’ circular skills, like mending and upcycling, and co-designing ways to transfer them to youth. Through citizen science, workshops, and surveys, we foster intergenerational learning, reduce resource consumption, and empower older adults as sustainability changemakers in the transition toward a circular future.

Da WeZard
Kickstarter Grant
Topic: Resource Management
Mentor: Rachel Pateman
The Da WeZard project aims to collect and monitor hazardous household waste (HHW) through Citizen Science (Scouts), thereby promoting proper waste management and preventing pollution. The project encourages citizen participation in waste management planning, promoting active participation in waste prevention and recycling, ultimately benefiting the community.

Heat Watchers in Action
Sustaining Grant
Topic: Disaster Resilience
Mentor: Karen Soacha
This project uses citizen science to understand and disseminate the urban impacts of climate change, particularly regarding indoor heat, and to foster inclusive resilience by engaging and empowering children and teenagers from heat vulnerable areas.

Observatory of Climate Narratives of Spain
Kickstarter Grant
Topic: Resource Management
Mentor: Paolo Giardullo
The Observatory of Climate Narratives is a citizen science project that maps perceptions and stories about climate change across Spain. Using narrative analysis, social segmentation, and public participation, it helps align climate policies with citizens’ emotional, cultural, and territorial realities—making climate voices visible and actionable.

ASFOs from the ground
Kickstarter Grant
Topic: Resource Management
Mentor: Sasha Woods
AsFo from the ground combats land abandonment in Italy’s rural areas by fostering citizen-led land partnerships with the municipality and landowners. Through collecting data on soil and biodiversity and details on ownership and regulations, we will map together plots of uncultivated land for agroecology planning, engaging young landless farmers and other vulnerable groups. Our model aims to revive soils, strengthen communities, and provide scalable solutions for rural regeneration.

Oeiras Experimenta: climate-smart crops for sustainable food production
Sustaining Grant
Topic: Resource Management
Mentor: Yaela Golumbic
Oeiras Experimenta is a citizen science project in Oeiras, Portugal, promoting climate-resilient crops like grass pea, sorghum, and dryland rice while restoring the historic Quinta de Cima farm. Led by the ITQB NOVA and Oeiras Municipality Consortium, it will engage citizen scientists in co-creating educational resources, training programs, and awareness initiatives to foster sustainability, climate resilience, and informed decision-making for a more equitable and resilient food system.

Persina4Danube
Kickstarter Grant
Topic: Resource Management
Mentor: Ilidio Andre
Persina4Danube empowers local communities and children in Bulgaria’s Persina Nature Park through citizen science. With support from IMPETUS, the project promotes biodiversity and water monitoring, environmental education, and hands-on conservation activities to protect Danube wetlands and inspire future guardians of nature.

Green Kypseli Community Garden
Sustaining Grant
Topic: Resource management
Mentor: Ines Navalhas
Green Kypseli Community Garden focuses on the co-creation of a multicultural community garden on a derelict site in the densely populated neighbourhood of Kypseli, Athens. This initiative fosters urban greening, social integration and empowerment, and citizen science engagement through sustainable gardening and educational activities.

Climate Action for Heritage: A Citizen Science Journey
Kickstarter Grant
Topic: Resource Management
Mentor: Jacqueline Goldin
The project "Climate Action for Heritage: A Citizen Science Journey" engages local communities in Messini, Greece, in mapping cultural heritage sites, practices, and climate-impacting activities. Through citizen science, residents, students, and institutions collaboratively create an Atlas of Memory and Atmosphere, protecting local identity and shaping collective solutions for sustainable cultural and climate resilience.

Waste-free Wantage
Kickstarter Grant
Topic: Resource Management
Mentor: Rachel Pateman
The project Waste-free Wantage is a collaboration between the University of Nottingham and Sustainable Wantage which aims to engage citizen scientists to provide actionable evidence about how to increase the accessibility of community circular economy initiatives including a repair café, library of things, and community fridge.

From Waste to Wealth: How Compost Shapes Soil and Health
Kickstarter Grant
Topic: Resource Management
Mentor: Ilidio Andre
In WasteToWealth project students will turn everyday food scraps into rich compost, use cool science tools to uncover the secrets of composting and soil health, and discover how composting and gardening can make both students and soil happier and healthier. Through hands-on activities, students will explore sustainability, soil health, and responsible waste management, while contributing to real scientific research.

Antiquake Risk Hunter Community: Citizen Science for Disaster Risk Reduction
Sustaining Grant
Topic: Disaster Resilience
Mentor: Stefanie Schuerz
Antiquake empowers Istanbul neighbourhoods through citizen science. Residents collect risk data via town-watching, create safety maps, and collaborate with institutions. The project fosters disaster resilience by making local knowledge visible and actionable.

HOPE HOME Fungi Lab
Kickstarter Grant
Topic: Resource Management
Mentor: Andrea Giraldo Sevilla
We want to contribute to the post-war reconstruction of Ukraine in a meaningful way by developing mycelium-based insulation bricks and teaching citizen scientists to grow them. We’ll also explore the possibility of incorporating war debris to address ecological challenges such as asbestos bioremediation to rebuild infrastructure with carbon-negative materials.

SOS Heater
Sustaining Grant
Topic: Infrastructure
Mentor: Kat Austen
SOS Heater is a social impact initiative based in Portugal, researching low-energy heating technology through Citizen Science to promote accessible and sustainable home heating. With a focus on collaboration and inclusivity, the project combines participatory technological research with impact-driven methodologies, involving students, makers, refugees, and local residents seeking to reduce energy costs.

Citizen Science for Disaster Risk Preparedness Policy Development
Kickstarter Grant
Topic: Disaster Resilience
Mentor: Alexandra Albert
This project aims to empower citizens, and particularly youth, rural residents, and underrepresented groups in Kakanj, Bosnia and Herzegovina, to map disaster risks using innovative geo-mapping tools. By connecting citizen scientists with experts, local authorities, and NGOs, the project generates data-driven insights and policy recommendations to enhance local disaster preparedness and resilience. All results—including risk maps, policy briefs, and scientific publications—will be openly available to support long-term community impact.

Soil Your Scarf
Kickstarter Grant
Topic: Resource Management
Mentor: Ilidio Andre
The Soil Your Scarf project highlights the benefits of bio-fibres with 100% Irish wool while educating about the precious nature of our degraded soils. Participants knit a tiny scarf, bury it in the topsoil, and later unearth it to count the soil mesofauna living within to better understand soil biodiversity, health, and stewardship.

enhancing RIVER PROactive conservation2
Sustaining Grant
Topic: Resource Management
Mentor: Jacqueline Goldin
River PRO2 enhances community-driven governance of the Simeto River in Sicily by leveraging Citizen Science and open data. Building on prior work, it empowers locals to monitor hydroelectric infrastructure, influence policy, and promote sustainable water management in the face of climate change and ecological challenges.

Inclusive Citizen Science for Plant Management in the High Atlas
Kickstarter Grant
Topic: Resource Management
Mentor: Rachel Pateman
The FloraAtlas project utilises an inclusive citizen science approach using Kapta, an innovative WhatsApp-based tool, to empower local communities in the High Atlas Mountains (Morocco) to contribute to a community-based flora management plan, organise conservation efforts, and make informed decisions.
Challenge #2: Citizen Science for a Fair and Just Society

Citizen Science for Local Democracy: The Citizen Academy İzmir
Kickstarter Grant
Topic: Public Trust, Education and Empowerment
Mentor: Gefion Thuermer
Citizen Academy İzmir empowers citizens, especially from underrepresented communities, to act as urban monitors and participatory auditors. The project integrates citizen science into local governance through training, data collection, and open-access tools, aiming to rebuild trust and accountability between local governments and communities in Türkiye.

Feeding Inclusion
Kickstarting Grant
Topic: Inclusion
Mentor: Louise Francis
Feeding Inclusion is a participatory action research project in collaboration with the University of Valencia that explores the barriers migrant communities face in accessing sustainable food. Through collaborative methods (including surveys, focus groups and mapping sessions), it aims to co-create pathways toward food sovereignty, fostering intercultural dialogue and community-driven solutions.

MƗẊɄFȦB
Kickstarter Grant
Topic: Public Trust, Education and Empowerment
Mentor: Louise Francis
Can migrant-led community-based enterprises foster the creation of mixed migrant-other local communities spaces and activate bottom-up political participation? This is what MƗẊɄFȦB wishes to investigate through the creation of an Urban Lab for citizen scientists to collaboratively analyse local socio-economic data, serving as an environment for participatory co-creation, multi-stakeholder dialogue and advocacy. Here migrants become knowledge producers, documenting how entrepreneurial activities reshape urban spaces and create economic and social value.

Regenerative Tides: Sailing for Solutions
Kickstarter Grant
Topic: Public Trust, Education and Empowerment
Mentor: Jane Prophet
ReTISS is a grassroots citizen science project engaging coastal communities in mapping abandoned fiberglass boats, testing environmental samples, and co-creating advocacy tools. Blending science, art, and storytelling, it empowers citizen action to expose marine pollution, strengthen environmental stewardship, and influence regenerative policies across Brittany and beyond.

Expeditie Voelspriet
Kickstarting Grant
Topic: Inclusion
Mentor: Jacqueline Goldin
Expeditie Voelspriet is a citizen science project that makes biodiversity monitoring accessible for people with visual impairments. Through workshops and co-explored tools using touch, sound, and scent, vision-impaired participants engage with nature and contribute valuable scientific observations, showing that biodiversity can be experienced in multiple ways.

Parents and Scientists Together for Identifying Nutritional Challenges in Autism
Kickstarter Grant
Topic: Public Trust, Education and Empowerment
Mentor: Jane Prophet
The PaSTINCA project brings together parents, scientists, and clinicians to spotlight the powerful connection between diet and brain health in children with autism. By raising awareness and informing future policies, PaSTINCA lays the foundation for lasting, evidence-based change in ASD nutrition and care.

Science For Inclusion Two
Sustaining Grant
Topic: Inclusion
Mentor: Claire Narraway
SCI-FI(T) is a citizen science project that empowers marginalized communities through sustainable agriculture, digital training, and creative environmental engagement. It combines hands-on data collection, inclusive education, and sensory experiences to promote climate resilience, social inclusion, and scientific literacy in rural areas.

Empowering older adults: A Citizen science exploration of vulnerability
Kickstarter Grant
Topic: Inclusion
Mentor: Paolo Giardullo
This project explores vulnerability in older adults’ everyday lives beyond healthcare, using citizen science to engage them as co-researchers. By centering their lived experiences, we examine how social interaction, community, and structural inequalities shape vulnerability, aiming to inform policies that promote equity, inclusion, and improved support systems.

Neuro(Minorities)Science
Kickstarter Grant
Topic: Inclusion
Mentor: Neal Reeves
Neurodivergent people actively contribute to online citizen science, but the process is not ways straightforward. Together, as an online group of neurodivergent citizen scientists led by Dr Alisa Apreleva from the University of Oxford, Zooniverse group, we will brainstorm, create and publish accessibility guidelines to empower people with all kinds of brains to participate more comfortably in citizen science online.

WILD-IN
Kickstarter Grant
Topic: Inclusion
Mentor: Karen Soacha
The project engages people with intellectual disabilities in science through biodiversity-focused Citizen Science. Using the rabbit paradox as a case of study, it designs and tests accessible tools and protocols. The aim is to improve inclusion in scientific environments and bring new perspectives to environmental conflict discussions.

Turning plastic awareness into climate action: Lessons for the planet
Kickstarter Grant
Topic: Public Trust, Education and Empowerment
Mentor: Ilidio Andre
Discovering how we can use the successful communication methods related to plastic pollution, to increase awareness of climate change and sustainable actions, by working with school children and their communities to develop learning materials that will engage them with the solutions.

Empowering Underserved Communities through Freshwater Citizen Science
Kickstarter Grant
Topic: Public Trust, Education and Empowerment
Mentor: Francesco di Grazia
This project empowers underrepresented communities in Coventry and Warwickshire to monitor freshwater quality in River Severn tributaries. Through citizen science, inclusive raining, and collaboration with academic partners, we aim to improve data access, support kills development, and co-create a scalable, community-led model for environmental monitoring and long-term river stewardship.

RE-TASTY
Sustaining Grant
Topic: Public Trust, Education and Empowerment
Mentor: Patricia Barciela
RE-TASTY involves secondary school students in investigating their own school food system holistically. Through this participatory process, they acquire scientific skills, learn about food and sustainability and propose changes in their school food system.

SHIFTING SANDS
Kickstarter Grant
Topic: Public Trust, Education and Empowerment
Mentor: Karen Soacha
Shifting Sands is a citizen science project in the Tiber river mouth in Fiumicino, investigating seabed changes and silting, linked to the big cruise port construction. Led by Rizomi.Lab representing the inclusive sailing community Mujeres in Mare, the activities engage approx. 150 locals to gather data, raise awareness, and advocate for environmentally responsible and democratic coastal planning.

NEYSA
Kickstarter Grant
Topic: Public Trust, Education and Empowerment
Mentor: Jacqueline Goldin
NEYSA is a student-led citizen science project mapping regional disparities in food security across Türkiye. By training 90 university students to track canteen prices and survey peers, the project empowers youth to co-produce data and shape policies around student well-being and equitable food access.

MENINA4Sustain
Sustaining Grant
Topic: Inclusion
Mentor: Chistiane Grill
MENINA4Sustain aims to evolve the results obtained during the first phase of the project by the development of the MENINALab; a participatory process for the co-creation of new solutions that improve mental health and wellbeing of women during pregnancy. MENINALab implement a design thinking approach where which healthcare professionals and citizens (pregnant women, new mothers and families) will act as citizen scientists.

Glacier Voices for CLIMate Action (GV-CLIMA)
Kickstarter Grant
Topic: Public Trust, Education and Empowerment
Mentor: Jacqueline Goldin
Glacier Voices for Climate Action is a citizen science project that combines environmental monitoring and emotional storytelling. In the Aosta Valley, 80 citizens will track glacier meltwater quality and share personal reflections on climate change. The data and stories will culminate in a public event to inspire awareness and policy engagement.

UNIQUE. Universal Design Strategies for Equity in the Proximity City
Sustaining Grant
Topic: Public Trust, Education and Empowerment
Mentor: Cristina Luís
The universal design measures in the new city models, such as the proximity city or the 15-minute city, have failed to listen to people with disability. This project aims to engage them in co-designing an update for the Proximity Flower, a participatory tool for proximity city actions.

A collaborative journey from fiction to facts
Kickstarter Grant
Topic: Public Trust, Education and Empowerment
Mentor: Patricia Barciela
We will use intergenerational citizen science to critically examine culturally-rooted wisdoms related to health, food, and environment, fostering evidence-based reasoning to combat misinformation and improve science literacy.

Acting4DHH II: Citizen social science for the benefit of Deaf communities in Europe
Sustaining Grant
Topic: Inclusion
Mentor: Stefanie Schuerz
Acting4DHH II brings together 3 Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing (DHH) communities from Poland, Slovakia and Ukraine who will engage in a citizen social science (CSS) action that aims to enhance social wellbeing of DHH communities in Europe.

Nature in Our Hands
Kickstarter Grant
Topic: Public Trust, Education and Empowerment
Mentor: Jane Prophet
Nature in Our Hands empowers young people to co-design a community survey exploring how a local wetland site is used, valued, and imagined. Blending science, art, and democracy, the project aims to reconnect residents with nature and shape a shared vision for learning, wellbeing, and biodiversity—now and for the future.

Living soils lab
Sustaining Grant
Topic: Inclusion
Mentor: Claire Narraway
Empowers vulnerable urban communities to assess and remediate urban soils, fostering environmental stewardship, community health and resilience.

City Layers: A Collaborative Framework for Resilient City-Making
Sustaining Grant
Topic: Inclusion
Mentor: Patricia Tiago
City Layers is a transdisciplinary city-mapping framework which centers on citizen experience of urban space as an integrative way to increase livability in cities. Its purpose – to reveal, map and inform the citizens’ spatial needs, while also helping fulfill them

PAIR (PArkinson Intergenerational caRe)
Sustaining Grant
Topic: Inclusion
Mentor: Patricia Tiago
PAIR connects young students and people with Parkinson’s disease through a co-created intergenerational Service and Learning program. Participants engage in emotional support activities, gather data, and contribute to citizen science. The project fosters empathy, reduces loneliness, and aims to embed this innovative care model into education and health systems.

SCoolAir: Empowering schools for air quality action
Sustaining Grant
Topic: Public Trust, Education and Empowerment
Mentor: Ilidio Andre
SCoolAir empowers students to explore the invisible link between indoor and outdoor climates. Through hands-on science, they’ll track air quality, thermal comfort, and well-being while contributing to actual research. By building sensors and analysing data, schools become labs for climate awareness and spaces of expression for the many forms that environmental awareness can take.

Vyakulani Africa LL
Sustaining Grant
Topic: Inclusion
Mentor: Antonella Pasani
Sustaining African Diaspora Foodways through women led intergenerational and inter communal culinary knowledge transfer.
Accelerator Dashboard- 2024
Check out the breakdown of our 2024 IMPETUS Accelerator call for Citizen Science Projects.

