A national web portal for everyone interested in citizen science in Sweden is being developed. ARCS is a collaboration project between the University of Gothenburg, the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Umeå University and the civil society organisation VA (Public & Science).
The aim of the project is to help Swedish universities to use citizen science in a responsible and sustainable way, to interact with society. The portal, which will also have an English version, will be officially launched in May 2019. It will offer, among other features, tools, guidelines and forums for researchers, citizens and other stakeholders who want to get involved in citizen science. There will also be an interactive directory of all citizen science projects currently running in Sweden.
Planned activities in the ARCS project include making an inventory of current and past Swedish citizen science projects, exploring Swedish researchers’ view of citizen science and compiling best practices for data quality, technical implementations, ethics and communication in citizen science projects.
ARCS is an acronym for “ARenas for Cooperation through citizen Science”. The project is funded by Vinnova – Sweden’s innovation agency, the University of Gothenburg, the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences and Umeå University. The project is led by Dick Kasperowski, an Associate Professor in the Theory of Science at the University of Gothenburg.
Information will be added to the Swedish portal www.medborgarforskning.se and English version www.citizenscience.se over the coming months.
For more information contact Fredrik Brounéus at VA.
