The Road Ahead: Preparing for Biodiversity Citizen Science Megaprojects

This high-level roundtable focused on the planning, coordination, and communication needed to organize major citizen science events, such as biomarathons and city-wide biodiversity hackathons. As part of the #RoadtoCOP17 efforts, the discussion addressed key questions: How can communities be motivated to participate? What tools and partnerships (with expert communities, institutions, local authorities, etc.) are required to ensure scientific rigor and inclusivity? The session concluded with actionable recommendations and commitments from participating stakeholders to collaborate in future biodiversity initiatives.

The roundtable will be followed by a reception, which will offer participants the opportunity to network and explore further collaboration.

About the speaker:

Dr. Jaume Piera is the research group leader of Environmental and Sustainability Participatory Information Systems at the Department of Physical and Technological Oceanography of the Institute of Marine Sciences (ICM-CSIC).

Dr. Piera holds a Ph.D. in environmental sciences (University of Girona), M.S. in biology (University of Barcelona), and B.S. in telecommunications engineering (Technical University of Catalonia). He has over 20 years of experience in multidisciplinary research programs and 15 years in the management of national and international research projects (seven as principal investigator and one as coordinator). His research interests revolve around information technologies applied to environmental monitoring technologies. His current research focuses on designing and evaluating scientific and technological infrastructures for environmental monitoring, particularly those based on citizen science approaches  (known as Citizen Observatories). Dr. Piera’s research interests also include designing and evaluating technologies to facilitate citizen participation and engagement in scientific research, promoting the use of local and traditional knowledge in conservation and education programs, and developing new methods for analyzing citizen science data. He is currently leading the design of Do-It-Yourself instruments for water quality monitoring in the European Union projects (FP7-CITCLOPS, Citizens’ Observatory for Coast and Ocean Optical Monitoring, and H202-MONOCLE), and is now coordinating the development of innovative services for citizen observatories in the European Open Science Cloud within the framework of the H2020-COS4CLOUD project. Dr. Piera is also a member of the steering committee at the European Citizen Science Association (ECSA), where he chairs the “Data, Tools and Technologies” working group. He has participated in many outreach activities: ICM Science Week and national outreach projects such as MARDUINO (My buoy, our data, and the sea).