Impetus

IMPETUS will support and give recognition to citizen science (CS) in Europe. It aims to:* enable more diverse citizen science initiatives (CSIs) to access funding;* bring CS closer to society and policy makers;* acknowledge CS? role in tackling the greatest challenges of our times; and* enable CSIs to contribute to Green Deal (GD) and UN SDG commitments.We will achieve this by:* funding CSIs through 3 open calls, selected on expected impacts, volunteer engagement, EDI, openness and quality data. We will offer 20k? to kick-start 100 CSIs and 10k? to sustain 25 CSIs addressing pressing needs of the European society. Each call will have 2 challenges; we will convene a citizen panel to define one and provide feedback on our work.* setting up an accelerator to provide the funded CSIs with an integrated programme of support, training, mentoring, and resources. The accelerator will facilitate peer learning, enable CSIs to contribute to SDG and GD targets and forge connections with quadruple helix stakeholders.* launching the EU Prize for Citizen Science, awarded to CSIs for outstanding achievements, allowing them to continue and expand their work and showcase it to a wider audience. We will award 3 prize categories for 3 years: outstanding achievements, diversity and innovative grassroots projects. Each time, we will reach out to advisors to identify exceptional nominations and to the citizen panel to vote in the grassroots category.* shaping EU policy in and with CS, through horizon scanning, anticipatory policy and action research, informing policy briefs, webinars and workshops with key policy stakeholders. The aim is to foster more CS data to inform evidence-based policies and identify future directions in CS policy.* developing impact assessment tools and assessing the impact of CSIs and our own framework, especially on GD and SDG targets. Insights will be presented within the wider CS ecosystem and feed into recommendations for national and EU policies.