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The European Commission has awarded INCREASE the “Grand Prize” of the EU Prize for Citizen Science 2024. Endowed with 60,000 EUR, the Prize recognises the project’s impact and outstanding achievements in contributing to forging a pluralistic, inclusive and sustainable society in Europe and advancing our knowledge through the empowerment of civil society.
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INCREASE project coordinator Prof. Roberto Papa from the Polytechnic University of Marche, Italy expressed his gratitude, saying: “We are thrilled, honoured, and grateful to the European Commission and the Prize Committee for their recognition of our work. Their spotlight on the importance of citizen involvement in science is a testament to our shared vision of shaping the future of our societies together”. Dr Kerstin Neumann from IPK Gatersleben, who co-coordinates the INCREASE Citizen Science Experiment (CSE) on the common bean with Prof. Papa, adds: “Besides all the hard-working partners from the INCREASE project, we want to explicitly thank all stakeholders and multipliers for supporting the dissemination of the CSE across Europe. But most of all we want to thank each of our thousands of participants, who are highly motivated and dedicate a lot of time to their tasks as citizen scientists. You are a wonderful community, thank you!”.
Selected by an independent jury of experts, the winners of this second edition of the EU Prize for Citizen Science were officially announced today.
Winning this prestigious prize was made possible by the immense commitment, motivation, and dedication of thousands of European citizen scientists involved in the INCREASE project, for which the INCREASE team is incredibly grateful.
The INCREASE team will use the prize money to expand the INCREASE Citizen Science app with new functionalities and to reinforce communication measures, such as developing videos showcasing the experiment's results in plain language, events, or toolkits for schools.
The EU Prize for Citizen Science is funded under Horizon Europe, the EU research and innovation programme (2021-2027). It is run by the EU-funded project IMPETUS , which is managed by the European Research Executive Agency (REA).
Read the full press release issued by the European Commission here.
Plus, for further insights into the project activities, achievements, and INCREASE’s approach to involving citizens read an interview with Roberto Papa and Kerstin Neumann here.
More information on the project and the experiment can be accessed on the INCREASE website and through explanatory videos . Further updates and news are available via the INCREASE social media channels: