Explore Citizen Science Projects
In order to find out how information about HPV needs to be prepared to reach the target groups, we are working together with parents, teachers and students in the project “Humane PapilloWAS?” to reveal what is known about HPV and which misinformation is circulating.BackgroundOnly 46% of the population in Austrian are aware about human papilloma viruses, or HPV, and only 34% associate HPV with cancer. This shows that there are gaps in the population's knowledge of a virus that almost...
The AmphiBiom project is focused on the study of the European green toad in Austria. With the support of Citizen Scientists, we investigate the distribution of this endangered amphibian species, which, as a typical pioneer species, can quickly colonize newly emerging water bodies.Therefore, the European green toad is an ideal species for projects to investigate the distribution status through call monitoring and the installation of small water bodies with the support of the Citizen Science...
Citizen science-based bumblebee monitoring is a pillar of the Austrian wild bee survey. Most wild bee species can only be distinguished under a microscope. The genus of bumblebees (Bombus) is an exception and can usually be distinguished at species level after a training phase in the field (see Gokcezade et al., 2010), so that not only professionals can help with the observation and recording of bumblebees. Bumblebee monitoring ties in with the already existing reporting platform...
What is the project about?The crowdsourcing project "Viennese playbills 1930-1939" is about the metadata capture of the playbills from the holdings of the Vienna City Library from this period. Previously only organized by theater and not indexed individually, during the project these valuable historical sources will become recorded individually and thus discoverable for all. The playbills provide insights into an initially internationally acclaimed and lively Viennese theater world, which was...
Better governance of ecosystem services at local scales in the Wienerwald region A joint research project of the University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Vienna (BOKU) and the University of Vienna. What is ServeToPe studying and what are its goals?Society uses a variety of services that natural ecosystems provide, such as clean water, an attractive landscape for recreational purposes, food, or renewable energy sources. Many of these so-called ecosystem services (ESS) are...
What is the project about?The crowdsourcing project "Letters 1920-1934" is about the transcription of the unique letter collection of the Vienna City Library from this period. In contrast to historical printed works, which are now subjected to automatic full-text recognition as standard, this is still not so easy to do for manuscripts - especially when the documents come from many different writers, as in this case. Since the democratization of knowledge plays a central role in the range of...
It is an open secret that hardware operating on our smart devices contains not only plastic, but also conflict materials such as tungsten, tin, tantulum and gold. Technology is therefore not neutral. These resources are mined in conflict regions, assembled to electric circuits under harmful labour conditions and mostly ending up in contaminating landfills. This pollution is best understood as an enactment of ongoing colonial relations to Land. Arts-based research methods seize artistic...
From alpine crested newt to sand lizard - gardening enthusiasts report pleasePrivate gardens not only provide a place of peace and relaxation for humans but can also serve as important habitats and stepping stones for many animal and plant species. Especially the two endangered species groups of amphibians and reptiles can benefit from a garden designed with nature in mind. However, occurrences of common tree frogs, smooth newts, common lizards, and other species in residential areas are...
With your ideas towards a innovative social sector for all Our society is facing numerous social challenges and the public administration, charities & social service providers, civil society and (social) enterprises are already working to solve them. In the face of increasingly complex challenges, there is a need for more collaboration and dialogue across sectors. Together we can achieve more! UpdateSocial is designed to provide the framework for collaboration!In all sectors of our...
The lack of sustainability in human activity is leading to the global destabilisation of our natural systems. The resulting biodiversity and climate crises require a transformation to an environmentally sustainable society. However, the expertise in the field of taxonomy required for this transformation is often only shared by a few experts. This leads to a bottleneck in biological species knowledge, where, depending on the group of organisms, often only a few citizen scientists have the...
What is the project about?The crowdsourcing project "Letters 1914-1919" is about the transcription of the unique letter collection of the Vienna City Library from this period. In contrast to historical printed works, which are now subjected to automatic full-text recognition as standard, this is still not so easy to do for manuscripts - especially when the documents come from many different writers, as in this case. Since the democratization of knowledge plays a central role in the range of...
Language is one of the most important means of human communication, an essential part of our culture and it can also fulfill an identity-forming function. At the same time, it is constantly changing with the society that uses it. There are words that were used a century ago, but that no one knows today. Simultaneously, there are other words are still in use but have changed their meaning.With the "ABCs of Dialect" you can rediscover old German dialect words and help us process the...
Counselling centres for women* are important institutions that have been founded since the 1980s by the second women's movement. In the project, researchers are conducting research together with counsellors and clients of Viennese women's* counselling centres. We are interested in the life stories of women* who seek help at counselling centres. How can women lead a good life in this society today and what role can women's counselling play in this? In workshops, questions and methods are...
SoilPlastic is a citizen science project that collects data on plastic in soils. No prior knowledge is needed to participate and you can enter your observations in the SoilPlastic app in just a few minutes.What is it about?Plastic products and their remains are ubiquitous. However, we still know little about how much and which types of plastic end up in soils and what effects this has. Observations by citizen scientists help scientists to fill this knowledge gap. This is an...
Flexibilisation of WF-mowing dates according to the phenological model The ÖPUL-measure Nature Conservation results in farmers usually having an agreement on a fixed mowing date. Due to the ongoing climate change, vegetation development fluctuates more and more especially during spring and early summer. Therefore, it was proposed to expand the flexibility of harvest date requirements. For this purpose, over a hundred farmers all over Austria started to observe the course of panicle...
Biodiversity and ecology of freshwater bacteriaThe bacterial genus Aquirufa, which was discovered and scientifically described in cooperation with pupils, is the eponym and focus of the research project. The aim is to research the ecology, biodiversity and distribution of Aquirufa in water bodies through the active and creative participation of citizen scientists in the entire research process.Many people only know bacteria as pathogens, although only a small proportion of...
The sale of electrical and electronic equipment is constantly increasing and accordingly e-waste has already become the fastest growing waste stream in the world. Our society needs to face this challenge without delay, so the Recycling Heroes project aims to raise awareness about e-waste, especially among students but also in society in general, by combining the principles of the circular economy with citizen science methods.ParticipationAs citizen scientists, the students develop a...
Participate in archaeological field surveys and/or in cleaning, documenting & interpreting archaeological finds.A transdisciplinary look at the early Neolithic communities in the Schletz settlement clusterThe project aims to explore the surroundings of the famous Neolithic settlement of Asparn/Schletz (Lower Austria). Numerous human remains suggest a violent attack on this site in the Late Linear Pottery Culture, approx. 7.000 years ago. Due to its size and earthworks...
Plastic Pirates - Go Europe! A Citizen Science Initiative to investigate plastic pollution along riversThe pollution of beaches and riverbanks in Europe with plastic waste does not stop at borders. Preventing micro- and macroplastics in the environment, addressing this challenge scientifically and researching sustainable materials are therefore tasks we need to work on together across Europe.Plastic Pirates - Go Europe! was first developed in Germany in 2016. Since January 2022, with the...
Breaking the blame game: COwLEARNING for sustainable beef and dairy supply Our society faces grand challenges, such as mitigating climate change and adapting to its consequences, ensuring a healthy diet and maintaining cultural landscapes with high biodiversity. A sustainable agri-food industry addresses these challenges. In Austria, with its high share of meadows and pastures, cattle husbandry is particularly important. Several aspects of dairy and beef supply are perceived as...
Every observation counts!The City Nature Challenge (short: CNC) is an annual nature competition between regions that takes place in spring (usually at the end of April, beginning of May) and is held simultaneously in various cities and regions worldwide. On four consecutive days, people around the world document the diversity of wild animal, plant and fungi species in their region using photos and sound recordings and share them on iNaturalist. Together with others the observations are then...
"Crows in the zoo" is a Citizen Science project of the Department for Behavioral and Cognitive Biology of the University of Vienna in cooperation with the Konrad Lorenz Research Center and the Zoo Vienna. The researchers aim to find out more about the species and subspecies of crows that use the zoo area. All visitors of the Zoo Vienna are welcome to join in and contribute collecting behavioural data by using an app developed for smartphones.As typical cultural followers, corvids regularly...
Be an expert on your disease and join our research!The PATIO initiative is working hard to strengthen the voices of prostate cancer patients and their caregivers heard in medical research.Why is it important to act now? Porstate cancer affects a considerable number of people in Austria. On the one hand, around 65,000 men have suffered from this particular type of cancer by the end of 2020 (Statistics Austria, 2022), and on the other hand, there are countless partners, children...
DeVOTE is a research project funded by the European Research Council (ERC) from January 2021 to December 2025, and led by Ass.-Prof. Carolina Plescia to develop and apply a new approach to study what ‘voting’ means for ordinary citizens. The project’s goals are:understand what ‘voting’ means for ordinary citizens;examine the variation of 'voting' meanings across individuals and across countries;study how elections create and modify these 'voting' meanings;investigate the consequences of...