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IMPETUS is a project funded by the European Commission to support and give recognition to citizen science in Europe.
IMPETUS’ goal is to
- enable more diverse citizen science initiatives to access funding;
- bring citizen science closer to society and policy makers;
- acknowledge the role of citizen science in tackling the greatest challenges of our times; and
- enable citizen science initiatives to contribute to Green Deal and UN Sustainable Development Goal commitments.
IMPETUS will do this by directly funding and supporting citizen science initiatives selected through open calls; awarding the European Union Prize for Citizen Science to outstanding projects; and developing resources that help citizen science initiatives become more impactful and sustainable.
IMPETUS supports Citizen Science Initiatives through:
- 3 Open Calls, selecting the initiatives based on expected impacts, volunteer engagement, EDI, openness and quality data. IMPETUS will offer 20k to kick-start 100 CSIs and 10k to sustain 25 CSIs addressing the pressing needs of European society
- Setting up an accelerator that will provide an integrated programme of support, training, mentoring, and resources. The accelerator will facilitate peer learning, enable CSIs to contribute to UN SDG and GD targets and forge connections with quadruple helix stakeholders.
- Launching the EU Prize for Citizen Science, awarded to CSIs for outstanding achievements, allowing them to continue and expand their work and showcase it to a broader audience. IMPETUS will award 3 prize categories for 3 years: outstanding achievements, diversity and innovative grassroots projects. Each time, IMPETUS will reach out to advisors to identify exceptional nominations and to the citizen panel to vote in the grassroots category.
- Convening a citizen panel that provides feedback on Ithe project´s work
- Shaping EU policy in and with CS, through horizon scanning, anticipatory policy and action research, informing policy briefs, webinars and workshops with key policy stakeholders. The aim is to foster more CS data to inform evidence-based policies and identify future directions in CS policy.
- Developing impact assessment tools and assessing the impact of CSIs and our own framework, especially on GD and SDG targets. Insights will be presented within the wider CS ecosystem and feed into recommendations for national and EU policies.