The OeAD advises, promotes and connects people and institutions in education, science, research and culture with its future-oriented programmes. As the agency for education and internationalisation of the Republic of Austria, it is the interface to educational opportunities for all phases of life - from kindergarten and school to higher education and science, vocational training and adult education. With different funding lines, children, young people as well as adults are enabled to participate in social processes as well as in science, art and culture.

With its Center for Citizen Science and, especially, the Young Science initiatives, the OeAD supports the engagement of young people and adults with science and research in order to gain a better understanding of research and scientific work. The Center for Citizen Science serves as an information, advisory and service point for citizen science and carries out a number of initiatives such as the annual research competition "Citizen Science Award". With the centre, the OeAD primarily addresses researchers and scientific institutions with the aim of increasing awareness of the citizen science research approach in Austria. The research funding programme "Sparkling Science 2.0" and the funding of "Children's and Youth Universities" are also coordinated at the OeAD Center. Other Young Science initiatives such as the Young Science Ambassadors, who visit schools on a voluntary basis, the Young Science topic platform for pre-scientific work or diploma theses or the initiative "Pupils to Universities" are primarily aimed at schools and extracurricular educational institutions.

Further information:

• www.zentrumfuercitizenscience.at
• www.youngscience.at

The Municipal Department 22 for Environmental Protection (MA 22 for short) of the City of Vienna is the only authority that is represented with a citizen science project on Österreich forscht, namely the "Wiener Gebäudebrütern". However, MA 22 has been focusing on citizen science for a long time. With the help of the apps "Naturbeobachten in Wien" and "Wiener Flora und Fauna App" and via e-mail, nature observations in Vienna can be reported by the public. In July 2016, the people of Vienna were called upon to report stag beetles (Lucanus cervus), a strictly protected species typical for Vienna. More than 400 reports were received, which can now be incorporated into the work of MA 22.

MA 22 is thus also an international pioneer, because in only a few countries authorities use citizen science as a scientific method. As one of the first partners of Österreich forscht, MA 22 has shown, by joining the Citizen Science Network Austria, that it wants to continue to work with citizens to improve environmental protection in the city of Vienna.

GenTeam is a loose association of genealogists who work independently or in teams on databases and want to make these data available to all researchers free of charge. All staff members work voluntarily; GenTeam is not profit-oriented. The geographical focus of the data collections is on present-day Austria and its neighbouring areas.

GenTeam is one of the partners of the first hours of the Citizen Science Network Austria, and was the first project in the field of historical research, and last but not least has brought other partners from this scientific field into the network. Therefore, GenTeam has been a valuable partner in the Citizen Science Network Austria from the very beginning and we are very pleased to have a highly valued and reliable colleague in the network in Felix Gundacker, the head of GenTeam.

You run or participate in a citizen science project? This project could also be listed on Österreich forscht. There are no costs involved. The professional or institutional background of a project is not important. The only requirement is a project description in German, and it must be possible to participate in Austria. On Österreich forscht you can find projects of universities, associations, NGOs, museums and also of citizens.

But what are the advantages of having my project listed on Österreich forscht?

On the one hand, Österreich forscht supports the networking of citizen science practitioners, and on the other hand, Österreich forscht makes it easy for citizen science projects to be found by interested citizens. For this purpose, the Österreich forscht team offers several services that are exclusively available to projects on Österreich forscht:

• Your project is presented on Austria's largest citizen science platform with over 40.000 site visits per year: Every year, many people from all over Austria access Österreich forscht. They look for new projects, information on citizen science or read the posts on the Österreich forscht blog. Listed projects benefit from this additional outreach by potentially attracting new citizen scientists to a project or by drawing the attention of journalists to the project.
• If you are starting a new citizen science project and have few resources available, you can also use Österreich forscht as a project website and make your project information available there.
• Deep Linking: By linking to your project website on Österreich forscht and linking back to Österreich forscht on your project website, the findability of the project in search engines is significantly increased.
• Österreich forscht-newsletter: We promote your project via our monthly newsletter. In addition, you have the possibility to advertise short news from your project via the newsletter.
• Your project and project news will be promoted via the social media channels of Österreich forscht. We are also happy to promote the project's own social media channels via the corresponding handles. If you do not have your own social media channels, a campaign for your project can also be carried out on Facebook or Twitter in cooperation with Österreich forscht.
• Use of the Österreich forscht-blog: As a project listed on Österreich forscht, you have the possibility to independently publish posts on the blog without them having to be approved in advance by the blog's moderators. You can also create your own project team on the blog, which allows several people to publish blog posts on behalf of your project (this is very helpful if you have several project members who all want to share information from your project). This team can also be subscribed to by your citizen scientists, i.e. they will then receive an automatic email as soon as you publish a new blog post in the team. The blog posts are of course also promoted via social media and the newsletter. You can interact directly with your citizen scientists through the comment function in the blog. Every registered user can also rate your blog posts.
• You can publish project updates once a year in the annual performance report of Österreich forscht. This performance report is published on Österreich forscht and sent to all project coordinators on Österreich forscht and the representatives of all partner institutions in the Citizen Science Network Austria.
• Participation in events (co-)organised by Österreich forscht: Österreich forscht organises several events every year and offers special advantages to the projects, such as exclusive access.

If you are in the process of submitting a funding proposal for your project idea to a funding body, we will of course be happy to support you with a Letter of Support or Letter of Interest, if you would like to have your project listed on Österreich forscht after successful funding. Please note that for being listed you must also fulfil the quality criteria for Citizen Science projects on Österreich forscht.

How does the listing process work?

First, it needs to be determined whether the project meets the quality criteria for citizen science projects on Österreich forscht. For this purpose, this questionnaire including FAQs on individual questions must be answered. We have created an easy-to-fill-out online questionnaire, which is only available in German, because we would need a German text for the evaluation. Should there be any further uncertainties, please feel free to contact us at any time at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. We will be happy to help you and explain the background of the criteria. Once the questionnaire has been completely filled in and sent to us, it will be examined by us as coordinators of Österreich forscht and, if necessary, also reviewed by members of the working group for quality criteria. If some answers are unclear or do not correspond to the criteria, we will contact the project management and give tips on how the criteria can be fulfilled. The questionnaire is then revised again by the project management and sent back to us. This process is deliberately designed as a dialogue and not as a classic application system. This means that the questionnaire can be filled in and resubmitted until all criteria have been met.

After a positive conclusion of the quality criteria process, we send an e-mail to the project management detailing exactly which contents we can present on Österreich forscht. This includes a project description, pictures, videos, and links to project websites or social media channels. After we have received this content from the project management, we compile it into a project page. Before the project is advertised via the Österreich forscht-channels, the project management can check all contents again and give the final OK.

If you have any questions about this listing process, please send us an email to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. We are looking forward to getting in contact with you!

The project Pilzdaten-Austria.eu aims at a comprehensive documentation of the occurrence and distribution of fungi in Austria, and to present and evaluate the available data. It is an Austria-wide cooperation of numerous mycologists, citizen scientists and institutions, which collect distribution data of fungi or hold collections of fungal specimens, coordinated by the Austrian Mycological Society.

The freely accessible online database Pilzdaten-Austria.eu continues the previous Bio-Office database of Austria's mushrooms and allows to view dynamic maps of more than 16,095 fungal species from almost 61,836 localities and to download the more than 748,186 records as tables according to various selection criteria and sorting. In addition to location and collection date, many reports contain notes on habitats and substrates, on the identification and documentation of the mushroom as well as the sourceof the stored data. Hints on further data sources, constructive comments as well as suggestions for further improvents of the Mushroom Data Austria are welcome. New reports of finds are checked before they are fed into the system.

Cooperation, especially the communication of mushroom findings, is explicitly desired. Everyone can contribute to the expansion by uploading their own finds (individual records or excel lists) and photos. 

The web pages also contain Latin and German names of the mushrooms recorded in the database as well as an indication of the degree of endangerment. Many species of fungi are also presented with pictures A considerable number of observations on the occurrence of fungal species are reported by amateur mycologists. Citizen scientists throughout Austria are thus making a significant contribution to the project's success with their fungal data.

Participation in the database project, especially the communication of fungal findings, is welcome. Please do not hesitate to contact us.

On request the raw data will be made available to interested persons. Please contact us via our contact form.

Podcast episode

If you would like to learn more, you can listen to the Wissen macht Leute podcast episode about the project (in German). More information can be found here.

Photo gallery

• Amanita regalis Amanita regalis
• Cortinarius subtortus Cortinarius subtortus
• Cortinarius sanguineus Cortinarius sanguineus
• Sparassis brevipes Sparassis brevipes
• Macrocystidia cucumis Macrocystidia cucumis
• Geastrum triplex Geastrum triplex
• Ganoderma Ganoderma
• Irmgard taking a photo Irmgard taking a photo
•  

Knowledge about citizen science can be acquired online as well as at various institutions in many different learning formats. In addition to universities, which present the basic methods of citizen science in various courses, there are also further education opportunities offered by associations or networks. Since such continuing education opportunities are developing very dynamically, please contact your institution directly or write to us if we should send you any offers.

The Citizen Science Association regularly offers webinars in English on specific topics in citizen science which are conducted by experts in their respective fields in a very professional manner.

Another option for finding out and learning more about citizen science is books and publications. We have provided a small selection of these here:

• Citizen Science: Innovation in Open Science, Society and Policy (2018): This anthology offers an impressive overview of citizen science in Europe in English and can be downloaded for free. Österreich forscht also gives a short review of this book in a blog entry. 
• Citizen Science – Public Participation in Environmental Science (2012): This book in English offers a good first introduction to the topic and tries to inform on a broad basis, but remains very focused on the U.S. American area. As the title suggests, the authors of this book deal with citizen science in the environmental sciences, thus excluding the humanities and social sciences. Österreich forscht also gives a short review of this in a blog entry.
• Citizen Science Terminology Matters: Exploring Key Terms (2017): This overview article (also in English) deals with different terms used to describe citizen science and the people involved in it. The article is available for free. Österreich forscht also gives a short review of this in a blog entry.
• What is citizen science? What is to be considered in planning and implementation and what examples or recommendations are there for this? These are the questions dealt with in the handbook "citizen science for All". It is a publication of the platform Bürger Schaffen Wissen (GEWISS), in which the experiences of 31 authors are incorporated. This publication is also available for free and we have written a review of it.
• The Science of Citizen Science (2021): An anthology resulting from a COST Action on citizen science summarises many different aspects of citizen science from a European perspective and presents them in 26 chapters. The book was illustrated by our partner SPOTTERON. The book is written in English and available free of charge as a pdf. A summary of the book in German can be found in Katrin Vohland's blog post.

In addition, there are also many collections of guidelines and tools for citizen science projects. The most extensive collection is offered by the European Citizen Science Association on its platform and on EU-Citizen.Science. On EU-Citizen.Science there are also a number of online citizen science training courses that focus on different aspects of citizen science. We have tested some of them and present them in the following blog posts:

• Introduction to Citizen Science
• Citizen Science Typologies
• Designing for Learning through Citizen Science
• Leading a 'Train the Trainer' Workshop
• Citizen Science Projects: How to make a difference (Part 1)
• Storytelling for Citizen Science

If you need information or literature on a specific topic and cannot find it here, don't hesitate to contact us at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

Head: Daniel Dörler, BOKU University

The open science trainings working group is concerned with specific open science tools and their discipline-specific application. Tools that are used in the entire research cycle are brought together in regular meetings. The tools identified form the basis for training workshops in which the use of the individual tools is explained. Experts are invited to lead the training workshops. The results are collected, processed and, where possible, made available online.

The open science trainings working group has set itself the goal of promoting the dissemination of Open Science methods and facilitating their implementation in everyday scientific work. Project managers often lack knowledge of specific tools or their application. The training workshops, which are available to all interested parties, follow a “train-the-trainer” approach, where those who complete them should acquire the knowledge needed to then be able to pass on that knowledge of how to use specific tools to others. The goal is to offer discipline-specific training workshops. Workshops are announced on Österreich forscht.

The working group was established in 2018 in cooperation with the Open Innovation in Science Center at the Ludwig Boltzmann Gesellschaft and the Open Science Network Austria (OANA). In July 2019, the working group was transferred to a collaboration project as part of Wissenstransferzentrum Ost (WTZ Ost). The associated funding will make it possible to hold regular training workshops and provide a more intensive range of trainings until the end of 2021. If you are interested in the working group, please contact Daniel Dörler (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.) or Benjamin Missbach (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.) at any time.

Previously organized training-workshops:

GitHub 4 Newbies (25/10/2018):

Trainer: Stefan Kasberger

The GitHub 4 Newbies workshop was designed to introduce the concept of version control to scientists who do not have a technical affinity for the GitHub platform. This should enable participants to share their own projects, events and other activities with the community and to participate in other GitHub projects themselves.

Finding and getting found: a workshop on academic literature search (26/04/2019):

Trainer: Peter Kraker

In this workshop, questions concerning the search for scientific literature and how innovative tools based on Open Content can help to solve these questions were discussed. Specifically, Open Knowledge Maps, a visual interface to scientific knowledge, was presented in detail. Search engines and so-called discovery tools are also a way for other people to find research. The participants learned more about how these tools work and how you can use this knowledge to their advantage. Dr. Peter Kraker gave practical tips to finally answer the question: How do I get my research to appear in search engines and discovery tools?

How can I make my data FAIR? (27/06/2019):

Trainers: Daniel Spichtinger and Susanne Blumesberger

What is open data and is open data necessarily good data? Meanwhile, open data is a prerequisite for the registration of citizen science projects on Österreich forscht to be listed as a project on the platform. In addition, the preparation of data is now regulated by the FAIR Data Concept (Findable - Accessible - Interoperable - Reproducible). What is FAIR data and how can I prepare my data in a "fair" way are questions that more and more researchers are asking themselves. In this hands-on workshop, the aim was to take a closer look at their own data. Daniel Spichtinger and Susanne Blumesberger led this workshop together and guided the workshop participants to check their own data for FAIRe principles. The goal of the workshop was to prepare one's own research data in such a way that it complies with these principles.

Open Science & Care: Opportunities and Barriers - a Dialogue (25/11/2019)

Trainers: Petra Sallaba, Barbara Kieslinger, Jakob Doppler

Care plays a major role in an ageing society. The demand for care is increasing alongside the average age in society, as is the cost of care. Research in the field of care is primarily conducted from this perspective of rising costs. However, care concerns not only medical services that can lead to costs and added value for society, but also a social aspect between carers and those being cared for that is often disregarded, despite having a major impact on the success of care. It is therefore all the more important to initiate research projects that are focused on the needs of those being cared for and those who are carers. This can only take place with the involvement of carers and those being cared for. Participatory and clearly designed research into care is therefore particularly important. Nevertheless, comparably few research projects are participatory and clearly designed, which is mainly because research of this nature creates new challenges for project managers. The three-hour workshop provided an insight into open and participative research, started a dialogue between researchers and carers and those being cared for and showed what opportunities there are to use open methods for your own research. All information about and results from this workshop are available for free on the website of the Center for Open Science. 

Webinar: Digitization and Participation in Health Research (07.07.2020)

Trainers: Barbara Prainsack, Pietro Michelucci, Johannes Oberzaucher

Corona presents us all with different challenges. Very often the keyword digitization is currently used to enable seemingly new forms of collaboration and participation. This webinar, which is being organized in the framework of the Knowledge Transfer Center East, aims to show which digitization steps and participation opportunities have been available in this field for a long time, how they have been received, which opportunities have arisen, which hurdles have been overcome, but also what we can learn from them for the future. Critical questions were raised in the introduction: What does digitization mean in this area of research, which is also very much based on sensitive and highly personal data? Will digitization and participation also automatically make research cheaper because no premises and fewer staff are required? Where are the limits of digitization and participation beyond laboratory-based research? The possibilities and opportunities arising from digitization and participation were also discussed in the introduction: personalized medicine is within reach as a result of digitization. New questions concerning the lives of patients that were not previously addressed can now be heard and implemented. Three projects were then presented that show how digitization and participation can look like in concrete terms:

• Stall Catchers by EyesOnAlz: Stall Catchers is an online game that anyone can play - experience is not required. In the game you watch films from the brains of mice and try to identify vessels as open or blocked. This helps to accelerate Alzheimer's research at Cornell University.
• Smart VitAAlity: Within the framework of Smart VitAAlity, an integrated Active and Assisted Living system in the Smart City Setting "Health, Inclusion and Assisted Living" is being evaluated together with 230 senior citizens. The service aims at a long-term preservation of the quality of life and its dimensions (health, social inclusion) as well as a positive influence of subjective well-being.

In a concluding group discussion the experience and findings were reflected upon and the online audience had the opportunity to ask questions.

The webinar and all slides of the speakers are now freely available on the Open Science Framework site of WTZ Ost.

Workshop: senseBox - Citizen Science and Open Hardware for SDG 11 - Sustainable Cities and Human Settlements

The number of people living in cities will rise to over 5 billion by 2030. With this increase, existing challenges will come into even sharper focus. Together with citizens, concepts must be developed and awareness created for sustainable living.

The participation of citizens in the design of their living space increases the quality of life and identification with their own city or district. By observing the air quality in the district, an understanding of the connections between traffic, heating or the use of stoves and high fine dust pollution can be built up and, in the best case, an adjustment of one's own actions for the benefit of the entire city can happen. Furthermore, air quality measurements are often not openly available or transparent, and are often not available across the board. Although there are official standards, these are not sufficient to provide a comprehensive picture of air quality. However, the quality of living and resource-saving and healthy living in one's own four walls can also be improved, e.g. through the use of correct ventilation strategies. Here, too, the focus is on the triad of observation, understanding and action. SDG 11 of the Sustainable Development Goals of the United Nations aims to create liveable cities and settlements. Air quality is an important factor in this. For this, methods from the context of Open Science, especially the use of open source hardware and software and the generation of open data, are advantageous. This guarantees transparency and makes it possible to compare different districts. The senseBox offers a tool that enables citizens to participate in the generation of data and is also openly available hardware.

In the workshop on 18.12.2020 which was conducted online as part of the Knowledge Transfer Centre East, three sensors were installed which are important in the context of Healthy Living: Environmental Sensor, Fine Dust Sensor and CO2 Sensor for the indoor area. The CO2 sensor can be used, for example, during the time of the corona pandemic to indicate when a room needs to be ventilated. The environmental sensor can measure several values such as humidity or temperature. The fine dust sensor is used to measure fine dust particles of different sizes.The workshop provided a challenging but very rewarding introduction to the senseBox ecosystem and all its possibilities. Participants were able to gain insight into an open tool and also used the workshop to ask questions and discuss. We hope to have laid a good foundation for further projects with the senseBox.

All slides of the speakers are now freely available on the Open Science Framework site of WTZ Ost.

Workshop: Open Education: Presentations, Slides & open licences

Trainers: Sandra Schön, Joachim Losehand

Due to the current situation, online education has gained a lot of importance. Most meetings, training sessions or teaching events now take place via video conferencing. Teachers and lecturers constantly face the challenge of finding new resources for their (teaching) events and adapting them for the needs of their audience. In addition, every work is protected by copyright law and may not be modified or republished without the permission of the creators. This makes the already challenging task of providing appropriate materials even more complex. In a three-hour workshop Dr. Sandra Schön (Forum Neue Medien in der Lehre Austria, short fnma, for the project "Open Education Austria Advanced") presented Open Educational Resources (OER) as a solution to the problem described above. Dr. Joachim Losehand, M.A., M.A. (Creative Commons Austria) gave an overview of the Austrian copyright law and explained how open licensing through Creative Commons can also be used for online lectures.

All slides of the speakers are now freely available on the Open Science Framework site of WTZ Ost.

Webinar & Workshop: Copernicus: Using Europe's satellite data for your own climate research

Trainers: Christian Fuchs, Edward Comyn-Platt, Thomas Nagler, Wouter Dorigo, Markus Immitzer, Martin Sudmanns

The current societal challenges are vast and can only be tackled in a joint effort: Climate change, the biodiversity crisis and the COVID-19 pandemic are just a few of them. The last months have shown us in particular that in order to deal with these crises, large amounts of data must be freely available to be able to react quickly. With Copernicus, the European Union has implemented an Earth observation system based on satellites that renders global data on our environment and security openly available in near real time. This can meet needs at both global and regional levels to better understand our planet and sustainably protect the environment in which we live. Citizens worldwide - from policy makers and researchers to commercial and private users - as well as the global scientific community benefit from Copernicus data and the information it provides. Copernicus provides open-access services in a number of areas, including directly contributing to the monitoring of climate change. This three-hour event, entitled "Copernicus: Using Europe's satellite data for your own climate research", presented the European Earth observation programme Copernicus using a variety of examples from polar research, water monitoring, vegetation analysis and agriculture. The broad range of speakers also shows that the expertise on Copernicus in Austria is very large and that all speakers are open to new collaborations.

All slides of the speakers are now freely available on the Open Science Framework site of WTZ Ost.

Webinar & Workshop: How to win grants with open science

Trainers: Ivo Grigorov, Marion Poetz, Barbara Sanchez-Solis, Vanessa Hannesschläger, Michalis Tzatzanis, Florian Heigl, Daniel Dörler

Since the start of the EU's Horizon Europe funding programme, Open Science is a prerequisite for successful applications. But other funding bodies also increase their funding when projects use Open Science methods. Science should be open, data should be accessible and the population should be involved. But although Open Science is gaining more importance than ever, the definition and the methods that are counted as such are often unclear. In this event, the most important aspects of Open Science were presented by experts and the definitions of the different aspects of Open Science of the European Commission were explained. This presentation is intended to provide applicants and National Contact Points with a basis for implementing or advising on Open Science methods.

All slides of the speakers are now freely available on the Open Science Framework site of WTZ Ost.

Webinar: How to address Open Science in EU projects

Presenters: Michalis Tzatzanis, Barbara Sanchez, Florian Heigl, Daniel Dörler

With the start of the EU’s Horizon Europe, Open Science is a prerequisite for successful applications. But other funding bodies also increase their funding when projects use Open Science methods. Science should be open, data should be accessible and the public should be involved. Although Open Science is gaining more importance than ever, the definition and the methods that are counted as such are often unclear. In this webinar, the definitions of the different Open Science elements of the European Commission were explained. It also provided practical guidance for implementing the so-called mandatory and recommended Open Science practices. This event was part of the event series “Research Data Management in Austria”.

All slides of the speakers are now freely available on Phaidra, the recording of the webinar is available on Youtube.

Sustainability Award 2022

The workshops organized in the working group in the framework of the "Innovation Matters"-project funded by the AWS received the Sustainability Award 2022. Find more information in the corresponding blog post (in German).