University libraries strengthening the academia-society connection through citizen science in the Baltics

Abstract

BACKGROUND: THE EUROPEAN POLICY LEVEL LibOCS (University libraries strengthening the academia-society connection through citizen science in the Baltics) tackles a well identified need: the need of Baltic universities and their libraries to fully integrate open science (OS) and citizen science (CS) as both are strategic to the European Union (cf. “Shaping Europe’s digital future, October 2020 https://ec.europa.eu/digital-single-market/en/citizen-science ). In terms of digital transition, the Digital Europe Programme (DIGITAL) which is the first financial instrument of the EU focused on bringing digital technology to businesses and citizens, has open and citizen science at its core. 3 examples follow among many others. First, in the DIGITAL Europe “European Digital Innovation Hubs Work Programme 2021-2023”, one can clearly see emphasis on both open science and civic engagement as means to reach digital innovation. Second, “Cybersecurity”, the other pillar of the EU DIGITAL Europe, is also about open data (thus open science). Finally, the last pillar of Digital Europe Programme, “Artificial Intelligence” clearly tackles issues at the core of open and citizen science, as “as data fuels the development of AI, DIGITAL also aims to set up true European data space and facilitate safe access to and storage of large datasets”. The importance of open and citizen science is of paramount importance, and universities in the Baltic region should scale up to be well prepared for current and future challenges. The final report of the European Open Science Policy Platform remarks about citizen science that “while the citizen science community believes that Citizen Science across Europe is at the level of adoption, the rest of the stakeholders have evaluated progress as being still in the early stages of discussion, planning and some initial implementation”. Indeed, there is a major difference between having citizen science activities at laboratory level (or department) and performing or supporting them at organizational level. In 2016, LERU (The European Association of Research Universities) released an Advice Paper for HEIs to take an active role in citizen science. University of Tartu is a member of the CE7 Group which has a special partnership with LERU. BACKGROUND: THE CURRENT SITUATION CS as one part of the OS is still in the development phase, and sometimes there is a disconnect between CS and OS. As part of the OS, CS can take various forms from being just informed about scientific research to active involvement in the research process. CS can solve the pan-European OS effort to open, share and re-use research in addressing various societal problems. Therefore CS has a genuine (and heavily under-used) potential for OS. NEEDS ADDRESSED The current LibOCS project focuses on civic engagement in open science activities and aims to integrate CS findings into OS cycle. The Baltic region, is receiving special attention because of inequalities in Open and Citizen Science adoption. Academic libraries in Baltic states have been actively involved in OS activities for about a decade now. These libraries offer OS support services in HEIs; however, involvement in CS is still in the development phase. The connection between citizen-generated data at citizen science projects to open science cycle is yet to be achieved. There is thus a huge potential in making science more accessible to society, by streamlining open and citizen science for improved knowledge at universities and beyond. The project's primary goal is to raise awareness and mainstream citizen science activities in Baltic countries (EE, LV, LT), which are experts in open science but not in citizen science. Besides keeping track of CS and OS implementation progress and procedures, document and publicly FAIR-share best practices, and engage non-expert public groups in social engagement and collaboration. A Greek SME and a German partner enhance transfer of knowledge in citizen science.