Preliminary Programme

• Day 1 - Monday, 18 November

  Welcome and Introduction

  09:00 – 09:15 UTC-3 (Santiago, Chile Time) | 13:00 – 13:15 CET (Paris, Amsterdam, Brussels)

  Speaker(s): Javier Medina, ECLAC Deputy Executive Secretary; Valeria Torres, Officer in Charge, Public Management and Open Government Area, ECLAC-ILPES.

   

  Session 1: Overview of Citizen Science in Latin America | Introduction to Citizen Science

  09:15 – 10:45 UTC-3 (Santiago, Chile Time) | 13:15 – 14:45 CET (Paris, Amsterdam, Brussels)

  Organiser: ECLAC | Speaker(s): Guillermina D’Onofrio, Directora Nacional de Programas y Proyectos, Secretaría de Innovación, Ciencia y Tecnología, Argentina; Marcela Lozano Borda, Colciencias; Audrey Grez Villaroel, Researcher, Universidad de Chile.

  Language: Spanish

  The presentations in this session will highlight the benefits and impacts of Citizen Science on the Open Science ecosystem and on the various actors involved in research activities. Understanding the key discussions of Citizen Science practices and policies can help professionals and decision-makers of Latin America and the Caribbean navigate the richness of that diversity, thereby supporting a research model based on the open participation of social agents and the scientific community. The session will explore how public engagement and Citizen Science can contribute to democracy and to solutions to global challenges. Additionally, it aims to provide an overview of the fundamentals of Citizen Science, including basic concepts, as well as to emphasize the importance, benefits, and impact of Citizen Science in society.

  • Panorama of Citizen Science in Latin America. (Guillermina D’Onofrio)
  • Estrategia Nacional de Apropiación Social de la Ciencia de Colombia (Marcela Lozano Borda)
  • Citizen Science: Fundamentals of Citizen Science, basic concepts, importance, benefits and impact. ‘Chinita Arlequín’ Project. (Audrey Grez)

   

  Break

  10:45 – 11:00 (Santiago, Chile Time) | 14:45 – 15:00 (Paris, Amsterdam, Brussels)

   

  Session 2: Citizen Science: Strategy, Policy, and How to Get Started!

  11:00 – 12:30 UTC-3 (Santiago, Chile Time) | 15:00 – 16:30 CET (Paris, Amsterdam, Brussels)

  Organiser: LIBER | Speaker(s): Tiberius Ignat, Director of Scientific Knowledge Services; Dr. Paul Ayris, Pro-Vice-Provost, University College London, Library Services and Thomas Kaarsted, Deputy Library Director, the University of Southern Denmark
  Language: English

  This session explores key policy trends from Europe’s Horizon Europe programme and the BESPOC project (Broad Engagement in Science, Point of Contact), shares institutional strategies for fostering cultural change, and discusses how research libraries can support citizen-enhanced Open Science in practice. BESPOC is a model for developing support services for public engagement in science, including participatory science (https://insights.uksg.org/articles/10.1629/uksg.501). Currently, five Baltic universities have fully implemented the model during the LibOCS Project, while six other European-based universities have implemented it partially or a variation of it.

  • Strategy and practice: Citizen Science, policy and trends. Notes from the European Research Framework Programme (‘Horizon Europe’) and from the BESPOC implementation at 5 Baltic universities (LibOCS project). (Tiberius Ignat)
  • Institutional strategy: How to work with cultural change and aligning efforts at research institutions. Building on UCL Open Science the link to upper-level management (Paul Ayris).
  • Strategy, leadership and how to get started. How research libraries can support citizen-enhanced Open Science. Focusing on the European research library landscape, libraries are encouraged to bridge the gap, utilize skills and overcome barriers (Thomas Kaarsted).

   

  Closing Session – Day One

  12:30 – 13:00 UTC-3 (Santiago, Chile Time) | 16:30 – 17:00 CET (Paris, Amsterdam, Brussels)

  Organisers: LIBER/ECLAC Moderator: Wouter Schallier, Chief of the Hernán Santa Cruz Library, ECLAC; and Dr. Paul Ayris, Pro-Vice-Provost, University College London, Library Services.

  Language: English and Spanish

  The audience is invited to participate in this interactive session.

• Day 2 - Tuesday, 19 November

  Introduction

  09:10 – 09:15 UTC-3 (Santiago, Chile Time) | 13:00 – 13:15 CET (Paris, Amsterdam, Brussels)

  Speaker: Dr Raphaëlle Bats, Co-head, URFIRST, University of Bordeaux.

  Session 3: Good Practices in Citizen Science

  09:15 – 10:45 UTC-3 (Santiago, Chile Time) UTC-3 | 13:15 – 14:45 CET (Paris, Amsterdam, Brussels)

  Organiser: LIBER | Speaker(s): Dr Nel Coleman, Library Citizen Science Engagement Officer, University of Edinburgh; Dr Raphaëlle Bats, Co-head, URFIRST, University of Bordeaux; and

  Dóra Kalydy Gaálné, Deputy Director general of the Library and Information Centre of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences in Budapest.
  Language: English

  Citizen Science at research institutions is a complex endeavour involving many Partners, both inside and outside the University. In this series of presentations, participants will get insights from experienced colleagues that have implemented Good Practices.

  • Large and Complex Institution: The Fudgy Middle and Our Partners in Participation. A more detailed look at our model of partnership that has slowly evolved, and we hope will underpin all our work going forward. This reflects the fact that our institution has a pre-existing base in Citizen Science, along with the size and complexity of our organisation. This would be of value for other organisations working within a similar context. (Neil Coleman)
  • Research Libraries and Citizen Science: building, running and supporting projects. There are many ways in which research libraries can participate in the dynamics of Citizen Science. This presentation will outline a typology of actions and a panorama of illustrative examples. It will show how research libraries can get involved, but also measure their importance in implementing citizen science policies within their universities. (Raphaëlle Bats)
  • Bridging the gap. Association of Hungarian Librarians, roadshowing with Citizen Science and making partnerships with public libraries and academic libraries. (Dóra Kalydy Gaálné)

   

  Break

  10:45 – 11:00 UTC-3 (Santiago, Chile Time) | 14:45 – 15:00 CET (Paris, Amsterdam, Brussels)

   

  Session 4: Design, Management and Implementation of Citizen Science Projects

  11:00 – 12:30 UTC-3 (Santiago, Chile Time) | 15:00 – 16:30 CET (Paris, Amsterdam, Brussels)

  Organiser: ECLAC | Speaker(s): Joaquín Cochero, Researcher CONICET, Argentina; Soledad Ceccarelli, Researcher CONICET, Argentina.

  Language: Spanish

  This session provides participants with a practical understanding of how to formulate and implement effective Citizen Science (CS) projects, promoting greater public engagement in science and bridging the gaps between science and the community.

  • Learn how to design and manage Citizen Science projects: Understand the importance of collaboration and communication in these projects. Discover strategies for maintaining volunteer participation and engagement. (Joaquín Cochero)
  • GeoVin Proyect: How this project started and how it is managed. Data collection and data management (FAIR data). How participants were recruited and motivated. Infrastructure and financing of the project. (Soledad Ceccarelli)

   

  Closing Session – Day Two

  12:30 – 13:00 UTC-3 (Santiago, Chile Time) | 16:30 – 17:00 CET (Paris, Amsterdam, Brussels)

  Organisers: LIBER/ECLAC Moderators: Wouter Schallier, Chief of the Hernán Santa Cruz Library, ECLAC and Raphaëlle Bats, Co-head, URFIRST, University of Bordeaux.

  Language: English and Spanish

  The audience is invited to participate in this interactive session.

• Day 3 - Wednesday, 20 November

  Introduction

  09:10 – 9:15 UTC-3 (Santiago, Chile Time) | 13:10 – 13:15 CET (Paris, Amsterdam, Brussels)

  Speaker: Dr Nel Coleman, Library Citizen Science Engagement Officer, University of Edinburgh.

   

  Session 5: Practicing Citizen Science

  09:15 – 10:45 UTC-3 (Santiago, Chile Time) | 13:15 – 14:45 CET (Paris, Amsterdam, Brussels)

  Organiser: LIBER | Speaker(s): Dr Nel Coleman, Library Citizen Science Engagement Officer, University of Edinburgh; Stefan Wiederkehr, Head of Special Collections and Digitization, Zentralbibliothek Zürich; Sebastian Harnacker, Project Assistant for OPUSH (Open Urban Sustainability Hubs), TU Wien Library.

  Language: English

  The nuts and bolts of Citizen Science for libraries is contributing to, or facilitating the actual research. Based on three examples, the audience is invited into the engine room by three practioners – researchers themselves – who will showcase their work and how it pertains to research libraries.

  • Art, Heritage, and Archives: Facilitating Involvement Through Collections. A focus on our work using Heritage/Special Collections as part of Citizen Science projects. We have worked with areas outside the arts and humanities (the usual consumers of these materials) to support their participatory work. This approach may be of value for institutions with their own collections, that may wish to use them as part of their work in the area (Nel Coleman).
  • How to initiate Citizen Science projects in the Humanities? Experiences from the Zentralbibliothek Zürich (Stefan Wiederkehr).
  • Empowering the neighborhood: How can libraries support communities to participate in Citizen Science Projects? (Sebastian Harnacker)

   

  Break – 15 minutes

  10:45 – 11:00 UTC-3 (Santiago, Chile Time) | 14:45 – 15:00 CET (Paris, Amsterdam, Brussels)

   

  Session 6 – Citizen Science: Capacity Building

  11:00 – 12:30 UTC-3 (Santiago, Chile Time) | 15:00 -16:30 CET (Paris, Amsterdam, Brussels)

  Organiser: ECLAC | Speaker(s): Sarita Albagli – Cívis, Brasil; Lesandro Ponciano, researcher and professor at the Pontifical Catholic University of Minas Gerais.

  Language: Portuguese – Spanish

  This session provides participants with knowledge about the role of libraries, researchers, and research institutions as key actors in building citizens’ capacities for individual and/or collective participation in scientific projects with social impact. Introduce data literacy concepts. It provides learners with knowledge and skills to contribute and interpret data through community and citizen science projects.

  • Scientific Literacy for co-creation and Citizen Science education. What is participation? Learn about the different ways to participate in Citizen Science projects. Understand the role of researchers, librarians and citizens in data collection and analysis. Develop skills to create Citizen Science projects. Explain the impact of data quality on the credibility of scientific conclusions. (Sarita Albagli)
  • Clearly articulate the benefits of citizen science for both scientific research and society. Define data literacy and explain how it contributes to making more informed decisions. Distinguish between the types of data gathered and utilized by scientists and citizen science participants. Analyze and interpret graphs and charts containing complex data. Data management and data standards in Citizen Science projects. Digital platforms and tools. (Lesandro Ponciano)

   

  Closing Session – Day Three

  12:30 – 13:00 UTC-3 (Santiago, Chile Time) | 16:30 – 17:00 CET (Paris, Amsterdam, Brussels)

  Organiser: LIBER/CEPAL Moderators: Chief of the Hernán Santa Cruz Library, ECLAC and Nel Coleman, Library Citizen Science Engagement Officer, University of Edinburgh

  Language: English and Spanish

  The audience is invited to participate in this interactive session.

About the Speakers

• Audrey Grez Villarroel

  Biologist and Master of Science in Ecology. Since 2010 she has been a Full Professor at the Faculty of Veterinary and Animal Sciences, University of Chile, where she leads the Laboratory of Ecology of Fragmented Environments. In her research, she actively incorporates the participation of citizens, directing one of the pioneering initiatives of Citizen Science in Chile, “Chinita arlequín”. Founding member and Director of the Kauyeken Association, an entity dedicated to highlighting the relationship between nature and Chilean culture. Editor of the Chilean Journal of Natural History, and referee in more than 50 international journals. Author of 120 scientific publications, among which stands out the “Manual de Ciencia Ciudadana para la Biodiversidad de Magallanes” (2020), edited by Kauyeken.

• Dóra Gaálné Kalydy

  Dóra Gaálné Kalydy is the Deputy Director General of the Library and Information Centre of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences in Budapest. She is responsible for the Electronic Information Service National Programme (EISZ) that runs at the Library and Information Centre of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences managing the Hungarian national consortium for transformative OA agreements. She is also in charge of the daily works of the library, renewing the traditional library services and being involved in the international relations of the Library and Information Centre.

  She has been a LIBER Executive Board member since 2022 and LIBER Citizen Science Working Group member. She is also taking an active part in the work of the Association of Hungarian Librarians; she has been the vice-president of the Association since 2023 May and is head of the Academic and Special Libraries’ Section of the Association.

  Her present field is renewing the Hungarian research libraries’ landscape, the role of libraries in Citizen Science to preserve and disseminate cultural heritage.

• Lesandro Ponciano

  Lesandro Ponciano is a researcher and professor. He holds PhD. and MSc. degrees in Computer Science and a BSc. Degree in Information Systems. His works are mainly quantitative empirical research, including system characterisation, simulation, modelling and evaluation based on metrics and estimates associated with human factors, such as trust, privacy, and explainability. His scientific contributions are in parallel and distributed computing infrastructure for e-science, citizen science and participatory science. He has teaching and research experience in Human-Computer Interaction, Software Engineering, and Information Systems subjects. He has been a professor at the Pontifical Catholic University of Minas Gerais since 2016. He is a member of the Brazilian Society for the Progress of Science, the Brazilian Computer Society, and the Red Iberoamericana de Ciencia Participativa.

• Raphaëlle Bats

  Dr. Raphaëlle Bats is the co-head of the URFIST Bordeaux (Unité Régionale de Formation à l’Information Scientifique et Technique), University of Bordeaux, France. There, she organises training sessions and conferences about scholarly communication, data, open sciences, academic writing, open science, citizen science, etc. for PhD students, researchers and librarians.

  She defended her PhD Thesis in October 2019: “From Participation to Collective Mobilization: public libraries looking for their democratic vocation” (dir. Denis Merklen and Etienne Tassin). She runs different research projects about participation, information and climate change. Furthermore, she is a member of the research lab: Centre Gabriel Naudé (Enssib).

  Raphaëlle Bats has also been involved in the “International Advocacy Programme” of IFLA since 2016. She leads a French national group on the topic of Agenda 2030 and French Libraries. She is a member of the ELSIA Expert Group (European Libraries and Sustainability Implementation and Assessment) of EBLIDA.

  Before joining the Citizen Science Working Group in June 2021, Raphaëlle Bats was elected president of AIFBD (Association internationale francophone des bibliothèques et de la documentation) from 2017 to 2020. She launched and animated the webinar #BiblioCovid19 “Libraries in time of crisis: the case of covid 19” from March to December 2020. For this, she received the “Library of The Year 2020 Award” from the Livre Hebdo.

• Nel Coleman

  Dr. Nel Coleman is the Library Citizen Science Engagement Officer at the University of Edinburgh, UK. There, they are working with the Open Research team to develop new services to support and encourage researchers undertaking participatory research practices, and they are keen to explore how the Library facilities – including the vast and diverse collections – might facilitate this end.

  Nel joined the Open Research team in 2023, having completed a Master’s in Collections and Curating Practices, where their thesis explored the ways in which Citizen Science might be used as a tool for inclusion in museums. Prior to this, Nel was a researcher in the philosophy and history of science, specialising in inferential modelling, research methodologies, and the philosophy of cognitive science.

• Sebastian Harnacker

  Sebastian Harnacker (he/his), holds university degrees in Slavonic Studies and Comparative Literature (University of Vienna). Prior to his academic engagements, he worked as a mechanical engineer and land surveyor. At the University of Vienna, he worked as a tutor for Russian Language and Literary Research at the Department of Comparative Literature. He was a member of the Research Group Knowledge Engineering at the Faculty of Computer Science and a member of the Research Platform Urban Futures at the Department of Social Sciences.

  Since 2023 he has worked as a project assistant for OPUSH (Open Urban Sustainability Hubs) at the TU Wien library. The project is establishing ways to enhance the roles and capacities of research libraries as open hubs for sustainable urban transformation. The aim is the transformation towards being an inclusive space for interested actors of civil society, especially empowering marginalised groups to contribute to the sustainable development of urban areas.

• Sarita Albagli

  Sarita Albagli is a researcher at the Brazilian Institute of Information in Science and Technology (IBICT). Professor of the Postgraduate Program in Information Science – PPGCI / IBICT-UFRJ. Researcher 1B of CNPq. Scientist of Our State at Faperj (2015-2017; 2018-2020; 2021-2023).

  Graduated in Social Sciences (UFRJ), Master in Production Engineering / Policy and Management of Science and Technology (UFRJ) and PhD in Geography (UFRJ). Coordinator of the Laboratory and Research in Open Science and Citizen Innovation (CindaLab). Works in the area of ​​​​Information Science, with emphasis on the following themes: open science and citizen innovation; citizen science, cognitive justice and the goals of sustainable development; information, knowledge and local development.

• Paul Ayris

  Dr. Paul Ayris graduated from Selwyn College, Cambridge, in 1978 with a 1st class degree in Theology and Religious Studies, obtaining a Ph.D. in 1984. He worked in Cambridge University Library (1984-97), becoming Head of IT Services. In 1997 he moved to UCL (University College London), and is now Pro-Vice Provost (LCCOS), responsible for libraries, museums, galleries, theatres and Open Science.

  In 2015, Dr Ayris founded UCL Press, the UK’s first fully-OA University Press. He also established the UCL Office for Open Science, the UCL Research Institute for Collections, and UCL Press Play. He was President of LIBER (Association of European Research Libraries) (2010-2014); and Chair of the LERU INFO Group, League of European Research Universities (2011-21).

• Stefan Wiederkehr

  Stefan Wiederkehr has been the head of Special Collections and Digitization at Zentralbibliothek Zürich since 2020. He is responsible for establishing and implementing the Citizen Science strategy of the library. He completed the LIBER Emerging Leaders Programme in 2017/2018.

  He strongly advocates Open Science and says: “Trained as a historian I am eager to explore the potential of Citizen Science in the humanities. Libraries can provide infrastructure and support community building among citizens and scientists drawing on their core competences. Participating in the LIBER Citizen Science Working Group gives me the chance to share ideas with colleagues from many countries.”

• Soledad Ceccarelli

  Dr. Soledad Ceccarelli holds a PhD in Natural Sciences and is a graduate in Biology with a focus on zoology. CONICET researcher, Argentina.

  She works in Sociocultural Epidemiology and the area of Innovative technologies Implementation based on community participation for the develop of Integrated Situation Maps in communities affected by Chagas issue.

• Thomas Kaarsted

  Originally the Managing Director of a publishing house, Thomas Kaarsted joined the University Library of Southern Denmark in 2008 and was appointed Deputy Library Director in 2013. He is on the LIBER Executive Board, LIBER’s Conference Programme Committee and a member of the Citizen Science Working Group.

  Thomas has since worked on a number of strategic community-/society-based projects on a national and international level and — together with Anne Kathrine Overgaard, also a member of the Citizen Science Working Group — co-founded the Citizen Science Network at the university.

  The network advocates for Citizen Science, aims at building strong ties between the library and the Faculties while also adopting the role as project managers on a number of Citizen Science projects in close collaboration with researchers. He is also the manager of a national Danish project that investigates the possible roles of research libraries within the field.

• Tiberius Ignat

  Tiberius Ignat is the Director of Scientific Knowledge Services, a company which specialises in helping the European libraries to embrace new technologies and ways of working. In partnership with UCL Press and LIBER Europe, he runs a successful series of workshops – Focus On Open Science, which started in 2015.
  He is a LIBER Associate, member of the European Citizen Science Association and Citizen Science Association (US) and of the Scientific Committee for OAI series, the CERN – UNIGE Workshop on Innovations in Scholarly Communication.

  Tiberius Ignat has a personal interest in Open Science, particularly Citizen Science, Science Communication and the management of this cultural change.

  He has a Ph.D. in Library and Information Science from the University of Bucharest.

  He is also a chair of LIBER’s Citizen Science Working Group.

• Wouter Schallier

  Wouter Schallier is Chief of the Hernán Santa Cruz Library at the United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (UN ECLAC), in Santiago de Chile.

  He started his professional career at K.U.Leuven University, Belgium, as coordinator of several innovation projects and Director of the Medical Library. Between 2008 and 2012, Wouter Schallier was Executive Director of the Association of European Research Libraries (LIBER), in The Hague, The Netherlands. He secured funding for several pan-European projects in the areas of open access, digital preservation, and open data.

  As Chief of the Hernán Santa Cruz Library, he launched the Digital Repository providing access to all digital assets of the Regional Commission, from 1948 until now. He led the Latin American and Caribbean work packages of the LEARN project on Research Data Management and initiated a series of monthly webinars on Open Science, including Citizen Science. Wouter Schallier publishes and regularly presents talks on Open Access, Open Science and innovation in scholarly communication.

• Guillermina D’Onofrio

• Joaquín Cochero