We are partner of the ERICA's project!
ERICA's main objective is to improve citizens’ environmental awareness and civic engagement through the development of a new educational methodology on citizen science for environmental monitoring. Citizens will gain the capacity to initiate and manage citizen science initiatives, collect and assess environmental information, and convert such data into "actionable knowledge" that is perceived as useful and immediately applicable by citizens, local authorities, academic institutions, and NGOs.
To reconcile environmental goals with fossil fuel supply and demand policies, both bottom-up and top-down approaches must be employed to promote societal and ecological transformation. A key example of bottom-up approaches are citizen science initiatives of environmental monitoring, i.e., research activities launched and carried out by non-professional citizens to support scientific research in monitoring impacts on the environment through the collection and analysis of data. In this context, the ERICA project targets adult citizens to support them in citizen science for environmental monitoring activities and especially in acquiring new skills and capabilities necessary to initiate and manage citizen science actions at local and EU level, ultimately enhancing civic engagement and environmental awareness, specifically linking local environmental degradation with greenhouse gas emissions and climate change.
The project aims to train adult citizens on methodologies for collecting and analyzing environmental data and monitoring the polluting effects of the fossil fuel industry, which is the dominant cause of greenhouse emissions leading to climate change. Citizen training can produce evidence for use by policy makers, regulatory authorities, and companies to aid in the fight against climate change and promote environmental protection.
The project will implement a new training methodology to engage citizens in environmental policy making through citizenscience initiatives. The methodology will offer flexible, high-quality, and digital learning opportunities for citizens to take direct action in their local environment and greenhouse gas emissions. Citizens will acquire new knowledge on the citizen science movement, on the technological tools and methods for collecting environmental data and on connecting issues related to the local impacts of the fossil fuel industry and climate change.
We will develop an E-booklet of best practices and an e-learning platform as a tool for creating mutual learning across different countries.
We are working together with the Erasmus University of Rotterdam, COVA CONTRO, SOCIALIT SOFTWARE E CONSULTING SRL, Adam Mickiewicz University, ASSOCIATION EUROPÉENNE POUR LA DEMOCRATIELOCALE and the University of Barcelona.
The ERICA platform will be designed as an open-access online platform where all the formative contents of the ERICA methodology and training are collected, uploaded and shared. The platform will work as a driver for lifelong learning and foster the digital competences of adult citizens. The platform will be integrated with the technologies and devices identified in WP2 for environmental monitoring, which will be deployed in WP4 during pilot activities for the monitoring of the pilot sites in Basilicata, Tarragona, and Poznan. The exploitation of the inputs and data gathered will maximize its usability, perception of usefulness, thus favoring further adoption. The platform will guide end-users in the application of citizen science methodologies, improving their civic engagement and participation in environmental issues.
We have already worked in in Basilicata together with COVA CONTRO and ReCommon in 2020 assessing water and air pollution close to the ENI oil refinery industry.
Here and here you can read more about our investigation.
The project is an Erasmus + Project for Cooperation partnerships in adult education.
