Current projects

We are tracing the Sculptured Resin Bee! Home of the Sculptured Resin Bee (Megachile sculpturalis, Smith 1853) is far away in Japan, China, Korea and Taiwan. In 2008, the Sculptured Resin Bee was discovered in southern France as the first introduced wild bee species in Europe. Since then, the bee…

Have you ever seen a sparrow hawk in Vienna? Did a badger cross your path on your way home at night? Or do you have swallow nests at your housing complex? We are interested in your observations in Austrian cities! The project works specifically in urban areas. With the help…

The Ideenbox (box of ideas) collects the problems of citizens and patients around the topic of health (such as physical and mental health issues, social consequences, care, health prevention...), for which solutions are to be developed with citizens, researchers and other stakeholders. Which health problem do you want research to solve?…

Project description When it comes to language, everyone can have a say! "IamDiÖ – German in Austria" invites you to explore the diversity, change and use of all possible forms of German in Austria, from dialect and standard language to youth language and jargon. By including the knowledge, opinions, experiences and…

Visitors of the Cumberland game park in Grünau im Amtal (Upper Austria) are warmly invited to use an app to enter sightings and behavioural observations of greylag geese, common ravens and northern bald ibises and thus support current research projects and the long-term monitoring of the Konrad Lorenz Research Center…

The kestrel is the most common raptor in the city of Vienna. Since 2010, the "Vienna Kestrel Project" has been investigating how these falcons have adapted to city life. A key component of our research is knowledge about nest locations which allow us to access broods for further investigation. The…

In Viel-Falter: Butterfly Monitoring volunteers, together with researchers from the Department of Ecology of the University of Innsbruck, observe, identify and count butterflies. Given the diverse habitats in Austria, around 210 different species of butterfly live here, considerably more than in the whole of Germany. At the same time, many…

Austria is rich in a wide range of mineral deposits. Precise documentation of both “old” deposits (e.g. mining heaps and tunnels, slag heaps) and “new” location spots (e.g. quarries, natural outcrops, road cuts, etc.) is one of the focuses of the Department of Mineralogy and Petrography at the Natural History…

Many weather phenomena as well as their impacts and damage on the ground are reported in real time or immediately after the event by means of weather reports. Within the framework of the Trusted Spotter Network Austria, all reporters can be trained to become particularly trustworthy observers. All weather and…

“Explore the European landscape and help science to protect the climate and the environment!” Do you like to be out in the fresh air? Would you like to make a concrete contribution to protect the environment and the climate and earn something in addition? With the FotoQuestGo app, you can…

In the Hallstatt salt mine there are numerous textile remains from the period between 1500 and 300 BC, which provide an insight into ancient weaving techniques. They are scientifically analysed and reworked in the Prehistoric Department of the Natural History Museum in order to understand the manufacturing technique and the…

Project description The Pollen Diary (www.pollentagebuch.at; www.pollendiary.com; Patient's Hayfever Diary) was already launched as a scientific project in 2009. Meanwhile it has become an important service for pollen allergy sufferers in 13 European countries: Austria, Germany, Switzerland, France, Great Britain, Sweden, Finland, Croatia, Hungary, Lithuania, Serbia, Slovenia and Turkey. The…

Important groundwork for bird protection The association BirdLife Austria has been researching and protecting the native avifauna for over 50 years. Citizen science has always been an essential basis of this work, as BirdLife's expertise is based on decades of collecting bird records. In the past, observations were recorded on…

Annual counts This advanced citizen science project requires knowledge of the common native breeding bird species and participation over several years. Twice a year, the participants count all birds seen and heard at fixed points. The total of all counts is then used to calculate population trends. The available data…

"Pilzfinder" - what it's all about Until a few decades ago, knowledge of wild edible and poisonous mushrooms was widespread. Especially the older population knew about the seasonal occurrence of the mushrooms. Finding mushrooms is a popular hobby for young and old, which is accompanied by great experience. In order…

Amphibians and reptiles under observation in Austria Importance and evaluability of databases increase with the extent, the precision and the currency of the data stored. The Natural History Museum Vienna, one of the largest non-university research institutions in Austria, houses more than 30 million objects from the fields of biology,…

Are swallows nesting at your house or in your stable? Have you seen a badger in the middle of town? Or do you regularly observe a kestrel in your garden? We are interested in your observations in rural settlement areas!

The golden jackal (Canis aureus) was not considered native in Austria, until the first golden jackal discovery was made in 1987, followed by sporadic records scattered over several federal states and in 2007 the first reproduction record was documented in the National Park "Neusiedler See-Seewinkel". Since then, rumours about camera…

The growing flood of images cannot be processed by institutions alone. Partnership with citizen scientists is vital. Topotheque is a digital archive and network in which this historical legacy can be gathered. For the locally resident Topotheque users, every new image and new piece of information means a valuable building…

Nan-O-Style is a research and education project by the University of Salzburg, Department of Biosciences. What is Nan-O-Style researching? Nan-O-Style researches the complex topic of nanotechnology. Together with Austrian schools, we want to discover new and previously unknown interactions between modern lifestyle products and nanomaterials. Are there undesirable interactions and…

With the Citizen Science Project "CITREE" a crowdsourcing instrument for monitoring the growth of urban trees, will be developed and used. It builds on the "Sparkling Science" project "Woody Woodpecker", which deals with the growth, structure and function of wood. Urban trees fulfill a variety of functions, such as improving…

Participatory exploration of the "Kremser scorpion” (Euscorpius tergestinus) with school students This projet is currently in its data evaluation phase.  "Triestino scorpion" (Euscorpius tergestinus - still listed as E. carpathicus in the Red List of NÖ), which are threatened with extinction in Lower Austria, exists as an archaeozoon in Krems.…

Which are the most common bee viruses in Austria and are these viruses related to winter losses of local bee colonies? To answer these questions, 200 beekeepers from all over Austria are working as Citizen Scientists in the "virus monitoring" for three years (2018-2020). Each year in September they collect…

Schmetterlinge Österreichs: an app for scientifically recording Austria's butterflies On behalf of Blühendes Österreich, a charitable foundation of REWE International AG and the environmental NGO GLOBAL 2000, butterfly expert Peter Huemer published a report on the dramatic state of the butterfly fauna in May 2016. In Europe, their number had…

On Geo-Wiki.org you can participate in global environmental monitoring and help to observe and document the earth and what happens on it on a large scale. Whether it is deforestation, the varying size of fields in agriculture or the fast and precise evaluation of hurricane damage - your contribution is…