A Horizon Europe Project
Doing more4nature with citizen science
more4nature is a Horizon Europe project that started in January 2024, ending in December 2027, formed by a consortium of 21 partners and led by Uta Wehn from IHE Delft.
more4nature is structured into work packages that reflect the socio-technical approach of the project.
The main goal of more4nature is to trigger transformative change in conservation efforts regarding zero pollution, biodiversity protection and deforestation prevention by strengthening the role of citizens and communities in environmental compliance assurance. To achieve this, we have 5 key objectives:
- 01Improve the understanding of the dynamics in transformative changes, especially regarding the changing roles of citizens, communities and authorities in monitoring, protecting and improving the environment.
We are defining an overarching conceptual framework for collaborative environmental compliance assurance building on systemic behavioural models that detect obstacles and opportunities for involvement of civil society actors in compliance promotion, monitoring and enforcement. Action research in 40 cases will explore and test a set of behavioural best practices and technical tools and promote their adoption.
- 02Increase trust in citizen-generated data as complementary to official observations and enabling its validation, sharing, and reuse.
Thriving wildlife and resilient ecosystems sustain the diversity of life on our planet. In this theme, more4nature explores how citizen science can help promote and monitor compliance with policies that protect species and ecosystem diversity and monitoring policy effectiveness.
- 03Generate indicators to monitor policy implementation.
We will include citizen generated data in the methodologies for elaborating policy indicators to monitor environmental compliance assurance. There is a need to examine the indicators and compare them with legal thresholds while determining temporal tendencies and future projections in an integrated way for the benefit of local/regional/nations authorities.
- 04Empower citizens and communities by co-designing actions with local authorities to protect their environment in diverse LivingLabs via guidance, tools, and capacity building.
We will go beyond the collection of high-quality data, looking for ways to include citizen generated data in environmental compliance assurance. Recognizing that this could not be sufficient to achieve real impact, other actions will be co-designed between creative and imaginative communities (LivingLabs) and local authorities. This will configure citizen & community-led actions that can be reused by similar communities following the same guidance and tooling.
- 05Enable authorities and national agencies to combine authoritative data and citizen science data for monitoring of policy frameworks.
Citizen science is becoming accepted for biodiversity (e.g., species occurrence quantification and forest monitoring) and air quality (e.g., by the deployment of low-cost sensors) but a deeper transformation is needed in the way authorities collaborate with citizens to integrate citizen generated data in the monitoring frameworks for zero pollution, biodiversity protection, and deforestation prevention.
A socio-technical approach implemented via Dooble Loop Action Research.
Work Packages
- 01/04
Social dimensions: Empowering citizens in collaborative environmental compliance assurance.
- 02/04
Technical dimensions: Geospatial modelling with FAIR Citizen Generated Data.
- 03/04
Case studies on collaborative environmental compliance assurance for zero pollution, biodiversity protection and deforestation prevention.
- 04/04
Communication, Dissemination and Exploitation.
Partners
The multidisciplinary more4nature consortium brings together a unique combination of collaborations, with scientific experts from the social sciences, data science and technology, and natural sciences, most of whom also have substantial experience with hands-on Citizen Science. The consortium also consists of institutional actors, environmental NGOs practicing Citizen Science, as well as a network of Fab Labs and designers and the private sector. This enables the more4nature consortium to implement its ambitious and truly innovative approach.