Large Research Infrastructures in the field of frontier Physics have opened new observational windows to the universe and explore the structure of matter in extreme detail. These advancements require high levels of expertise and sophistication. On the other hand, many of our citizens are lacking this level of expertise. They can merely observe these developments through outreach activities but cannot actively contribute in the development of new scientific knowledge.
This fact induces a gap between frontier science and society that can spawn misconceptions about the content, context and mission of public funded frontier science.
The newly launched REINFORCE project will tackle this issue and try to answer these key questions:
- Can citizens contribute in the development of new knowledge in frontier science?
- Can citizens apply this new knowledge to solve societal problems?
- How can we integrate citizen feedback?
REINFORCE goes thus beyond outreach programmes and aims to minimize the gap between Society and Large Research Infrastructures in the field of Physics through the:
- development and implementation of 4 cutting-edge Citizen Science projects in the fields of Gravitational Waves, Neutrino Astronomy, Particle Physics and Cosmic Ray interplay with geoscience and archaeology with citizens. Citizens will analyze data and support the optimization of sensitive detectors in order to enhance their discovery potential.
- Implementation of a participatory design in citizen science: Communities of citizens will be developed, trained and empowered to contribute in the scientific mission of Large Research Infrastructures.
- Effective inclusion of sensitive citizen groups as well as the active interaction with secondary and tertiary education.
- Aggregating best practices in a pan-European policy roadmap.
REINFORCE aspires to engage more than 100,000 citizens across Europe and beyond, to help enhance society’s science literacy and awareness and to contribute in the production of scientific knowledge by citizens for society.
REINFOCE has officially started on 1 December 2019 and will run for 36 months. The project is coordinated by the European Gravitational Observatory (EGO) and includes 11 partners from 6 European countries and Argentina.
Stay tuned for updates and upcoming opportunities to take part in this fascinating project and sign up for the ESIA newsletter to stay informed!
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