The European Union Award for Citizen Science honors excellent achievements in knowledge progress via the empowerment of civil society in future development. The Award recognizes European Research Area Citizen Science Programs that effect change, increase knowledge, and exhibit new Open Science procedures that rethink existing practices while addressing social, cultural, environmental, educational, and political advances.
Citizen Science is defined as “wide public participation in scientific research activities when individuals actively contribute to science either via intellectual effort or surrounding knowledge, or through their tools and resources” (European Commission, 2014). The Award accepts proposals from a wide range of activities that exhibit remarkable instances of both people and scientists and researchers interacting with science and research.The Award is open to initiatives that involve individuals in scientific and social activities that seek to offer scientific advances and social benefits, assist communities, and create an open and inclusive civil society.
Ars Electronica bestows the Award on behalf of the European Commission each year. In September, the Award will be presented during the Ars Electronica Festival. There are no entry costs for the tournament. Each application must pertain to a project that is either finished or progressed enough, as demonstrated by preliminary results, to allow the jury to judge its value at the time of submission. Moreover, the submitted initiatives/projects must be no more than two years old or, if finished more than two years ago, must show a major update or further development via active work within the previous two years.
Benefits:
- Grand Prize : 60000
- Diversity & Collaboration Award : 20000
- Digital Communities Award : 20000
- Honorary Mentions : No Cash prize
Eligibility:
- The competition is open to Citizen Science Initiatives in the European Research Area. This includes the European Union, all overseas countries and territories linked to EU member states (Aruba, Bonaire, Curaçao, French Polynesia, French Southern and Antarctic Territories, Greenland, New Caledonia, Saba, Saint Barthélemy, Sint Eustatius, Sint Maarten, St Pierre and Miquelon), and all third countries associated to or currently negotiating an association agreement with Horizon Europe (for the 2023 iteration of the Prize: Albania, Armenia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Faroe Islands, Georgia, Iceland, Israel, Kosovo, Moldova, Montenegro, Morocco, North Macedonia, Norway, Serbia, Tunisia, Turkey, Ukraine, United Kingdom).
- The competition is open to applications from natural persons (such as individual researchers, creatives, artists, and other professionals), groups of natural persons, legal entities (such as associations, research and higher education institutions, public bodies, NGOs, companies, and other legally established organizations), and groups of legal entities (such as research consortia).
- Community initiatives may be submitted only by an authorized representative. This may be an individual or an organization as specified above.
- Initiatives must be at the time of submission either be ongoing, completed or far enough along in their design for the jury to be able to assess its quality and impact and the likelihood of it being successfully implemented. The same applies to collaborative arrangements – at the time they are submitted, they must already be up-and-running and in the implementation stage. No consideration will be given to entries that are purely concepts, ideas or proposals for collaboration. Entries must be no older than two years or, if completed more than two years ago, must still show a significant update or further development through active work within the last two years.
- Initiatives that have received funding from Horizon Europe or other European Union funding schemes are eligible to receive the European Union Prize for Citizen Science, but European funding is not a requirement for entry.
- Initiatives participating in the IMPETUS Accelerator Program are eligible to receive the European Union Prize for Citizen Science if they fulfill the eligibility criteria (especially 4., see above).
- Citizen Science Initiatives consisting of or benefitting entities subject to EU sanctions are not eligible to apply.*
Eligible Regions: The competition is open to Citizen Science Initiatives in the European Research Area.
Application:
- Initiative metadata (title, start date (year), end date (if applicable), involved parties, links, etc.)
- Video documentation or slideshow (approximately 3-5 minutes in length)
- Images that document the progress and outcomes of the initiative (JPG, TIF, BMP, PNG) at the highest possible resolution; compressed files (such as .zip or .lzh files) are not accepted.
- A clear, detailed description of the concept, the form of interaction and practical implementation; aim or research question of the initiative; including an explanation of how the submission responds to the award criteria
- A profile of the community of citizen scientists and their role in the initiative, including how they have been / are recruited
- A statement on how the prize money will benefit the initiative or the community involved in the initiative in case the initiative wins
- A printable portrait photo and a biography of the creator or creator group
- The applicant has the option to submit additional material such as images, documents and drawings (as PNG or PDF) to support the communication of their initiative. Additional material will only be reviewed during the final jury selection process and will not be reviewed during the pre-selection process or initial review by the jury.
- If your entry is awarded a Prize, your material will be used for the catalog and the IMPETUS and Ars Electronica websites or any communication purpose from the IMPETUS consortium members or the European Union (see Rules and rights), so we ask you to prepare your picture and text material carefully.
- The applicants are asked not to physically submit irreplaceable originals, as the entered material cannot be returned.
