The three-year Crowd4SDG project concludes with a final conference on March 17, open to the public upon registration. The 5 finalist teams will present their citizen science initiatives, developed over the course of the program's three cycles, and all focusing on SDG 13, Climate Action.
A final conference to explore possible futures for climate action
On March 17, the final conference of Crowd4SDG will present the results of three years of this European project to promote the development of citizen science projects focusing on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), and more specifically on climate action, SDG 13.
Five teams were selected and guided through the three “GEAR cycles” - a new innovation methodology -, respectively exploring a specific sustainability dimension of climate preparedness, in relation to another SDG: sustainable cities (SDG 11), women's empowerment (SDG 5) and human rights (SDG 16).
The five finalists will have two days of preparation - including participation in the Geneva Trialogue Conference - devoted to coaching sessions to accelerate their projects and find possible solutions for pursuing them in the future.
The final conference is open to the public, but the’registration is compulsory. The day will include contributions from the Learning Planet Institute's research team and from all partners of Crowd4SDG: CERN, University of Geneva (UNIGE), Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (IIA-CSIC), Politecnico di Milano (POLIMI), United Nations Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR), and Université Paris Cité.
- Morning sessions: demonstrating the potential of citizen science for monitoring the SDGs
The morning session revolves around presentations and panel discussions, with presentations exploring citizen science tools with artificial intelligence, demonstrating the value of citizen science data for monitoring the impacts of extreme climate events, empowering local communities with a citizen science solution kit, among others; with speakers from the consortium and participants in Crowd4SDG's GEAR cycle.
- Afternoon sessions: hackathons
Three hackathons will run in parallel throughout the afternoon, also focused on the theme of using citizen science tools, and how they can be used beyond the Crowd4SDG project and aims to develop ideas around citizen science and crowdsourced data collection with the SDGs. The hackathons will be led by Crowd4SDG partners and are as follows:
- How can online public deliberation tackle climate change? The case of transport in international Geneva
- Using crowdsourcing tools and digital currencies to transform public participation in climate resilience research
- Harnessing citizen science for data-driven sustainable development policies
5 finalist teams committed to meeting the challenges of climate action
During these three years - GEAR Cycle 1, GEAR Cycle 2 and GEAR Cycle 3 -Hundreds of highly creative social projects were submitted to the Crowd4SDG program by young participants. In the end, five teams saw their projects evolve through the GEAR cycle and were selected for this final Crowd4SDG conference.
GEAR #1
A flood warning system using machine learning and hardware sensors.
GEAR #2
A project that facilitates the collection, analysis and visualization of data on women and climate change, and makes visible the knowledge of indigenous women in climate action and planet protection.
NB: this project is co-directed by Longmun Dawam and our former student Merlyn Hurtado.(AIRE master program)
A project to provide year-round drinking water to targeted rural communities in Nigeria facing difficulties in accessing clean drinking water.
GEAR #3
AquaTech aims to alleviate water shortages in communities that rely on boreholes through monitoring solutions that provide access to real-time data on hand-pumped borehole failures.
Let's Clean Up aims to achieve a cleaner, healthier environment by optimizing waste management and reducing the amount of garbage dumped on the ground.
About the Crowd4SDG project and its “GEAR" innovation cycle
The Crowd4SDG project is led by a transdisciplinary consortium of six partners and promotes the development of citizen science projects aimed at achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), with a focus on climate action. The aim of this EU-funded project is to assess the usefulness of practical innovations developed by teams of participants, and to research and investigate how AI applications can enhance and provide effective citizen monitoring of SDG targets and indicators.
Crowd4SDG is a Horizon 2020 research and innovation action supported by the European Commission's Science with and for Society (SwafS) program.
The consortium Crowd4SDG is made up of the Université Paris Cité and its Learning Planet Institute laboratory, the University of Geneva, CERN, the Spanish National Research Council and its Artificial Intelligence Research Institute, the Politecnico di Milano, and the United Nations Institute for Research and Training.
The initiatives organized by Crowd4SDG follow a new innovation methodology called the GEAR (Gather, Evaluate, Accelerate, Refine). While the citizen science projects developed in Crowd4SDG's three GEAR cycles all aimed to address SDG 13, Climate Action, each GEAR cycle explored a specific sustainability dimension of climate preparedness, linked to another SDG: sustainable cities (SDG 11), women's empowerment (SDG 5) and human rights (SDG 16).
Crowd4SDG's final conference will bring the three-year project to a close. During this time, a wide range of stakeholders from the UN, governments, the private sector, NGOs, universities, innovation incubators and maker spaces have advised the selected citizen science project and exploited the scientific knowledge and technical innovations it has generated. This final event is an excellent opportunity to highlight the achievements and projects of the GEAR cycle finalists, as well as the powerful synergy between youth initiatives and research projects.
For more information on the projects, visit the website and videos on social media :
This publication is part of the UNESCO Chair in the Science of Learning, established between UNESCO and Université Paris Cité, in partnership with the Learning Planet Institute.
The ideas and opinions expressed in this publication are those of the authors. They do not necessarily represent the views of UNESCO and do not commit the Organization.
Photo credits: ©Quentin Chevrier
