Building Trustworthy Citizen Science Infrastructures: Call for Contributions to RSA 2026
✳️ Citizen science is increasingly recognised as a vital component of inclusive, impactful, and policy-relevant research across Europe.
✳️ As participatory approaches mature, the focus is shifting from isolated projects toward robust, trustworthy, and sustainable research infrastructures that can support long-term collaboration between citizens, researchers, and policymakers.
✨ In this context, the RIECS-Concept project, together with the European Citizen Science Association (ECSA), is organising a dedicated session at the RSA Annual Conference 2026.
Session SS56: Citizen Science, Governance, and European Cooperation
✳️ Session SS56 – “Building Trustworthy, Sustainable and Collaborative Citizen Science Infrastructures: Regional Governance, Policy Integration and European Cooperation” will explore how citizen science can be meaningfully embedded within regional governance frameworks and European research policy.
✳️ The session brings together perspectives from governance studies, science and technology studies, public administration, and research infrastructure design. It is organised by:
⚫ Prof. Dr Simona Epasto (University of Macerata, Italy)
⚫ Dr Franziska Stressmann (ECSA, Germany)
⚫ Dr Carolina Doran (ECSA, Germany)
⚫ Alberto Anticoli (ECSA, Germany)
Key Themes
📌 Contributions are invited that address, among others, the following topics:
⚫ Governance models for citizen science across local, regional, national, and European levels.
⚫ AI governance, data ethics, and open science in participatory and citizen-generated research.
⚫ Institutional sustainability beyond short-term, project-based funding.
⚫ Policy impact pathways, particularly how citizen-generated data can inform and shape regional decision-making.
📌 The session aims to advance both conceptual and practical discussions on how citizen science infrastructures can become durable components of Europe’s research and innovation ecosystem
Call for Contributions – Deadline 12 February 2026
✨ Researchers, practitioners, and policymakers working on citizen science governance, participatory policymaking, research infrastructures, or science–policy interfaces are warmly invited to submit theoretical, methodological, or empirical contributions ✨
📅 Submission deadline: 12 February 2026
🔗 Submission details: Contributions should be submitted via the RSA website: https://www.regionalstudies.org/news/2026-rsa-annual-submitted-sessions/
Published 2026-02-11