Why a Citizen Science Netwerk Vlaanderen (Citizen Science Network Flanders)?

We believe that citizen science is a powerful way to bring science, society and policy closer together. We also believe that societal knowledge becomes stronger when citizens, researchers, organisations and public authorities learn, investigate and act together. At present, these efforts are too often fragmented, temporary and dependent on individual initiatives. That is why we are building a strong citizen science ecosystem in which people, knowledge, experiences and resources are connected to create lasting societal impact.

The underlying principles of the Citizen Science Netwerk Vlaanderen (Citizen Science Network Flanders):

• We work collaboratively: we bring together relevant stakeholders around shared challenges.
• We work through shared ownership: we build together and ensure that different voices have an equal place in the process.
• We build on learning and sharing: we make knowledge accessible so that we can progress faster as a community.
• We focus on impact: we connect citizen science with societal change, policy, practice and systems innovation.
• We choose inclusion: we strive for broad and diverse participation in citizen science.
• We work in a light-touch and action-oriented way: we organise ourselves as simply as possible and focus on what we can achieve together.
   

Goals:

• We want to connect with and learn from one another around citizen science.
• We want to demonstrate the legitimacy and impact of citizen science.
• We want to build the conditions that enable citizen science to grow.

The role of Scivil

Scivil supported the establishment of the Citizen Science Netwerk Vlaanderen (Citizen Science Network Flanders) and remains involved as a partner and facilitator within the network.

For example, Scivil supports communication about the network, its working groups and activities. In addition, Scivil provides the infrastructure for knowledge sharing, mailing lists, a landing page for each working group and an annual network gathering. However, the network is a collective initiative of the wider citizen science community in Flanders and is driven by its participants.

The network members

Coming soon.