June came with a buzzing sensation in Brussels. But it was not just the late-Spring bees zigzagging around. It was the vibrant energy of a community that came together in the city for two days of inspiring ideas, enriching encounters, and compelling conversations. On June 18 and 19, two events brought the community together: the Citizen Science Fair, and the ECS Cluster Event.
Together, these two events, co-organised by Stickydot as part of our role in the ECS project, offered a moment to connect, celebrate, and take stock: What’s happening in citizen science across Europe? Where are we heading? And what do we still need to make meaningful engagement the norm, not the exception?
First off, the Citizen Science Fair. Tucked into the lovely garden of the Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences and co-organised by Scivil, the fair brought together over 30 citizen science initiatives from Belgium and beyond. It was a sight to behold: project stands came alive in a festival-like scene, with colourful posters, booklets, data collection tools and the curiosity of visitors eager to discover citizen science.
And discover citizen science they did! From traffic counting and marine biodiversity monitoring to vaginal microbiome health studies, the fair showed just how diverse and creative the citizen science landscape has become, and created a space for learning about new tools, new methods, and new ways of collaborating across sectors and disciplines. Over on the ECS stand, we offered visitors a creative and hands-on experience, built on Legos and imagination, to show that everyone has what it takes to become a citizen scientist.
On the very next day, the setting, tone and dress code might have changed, but the spirit stayed strong. The Cluster Event on Advancing Public Engagement and Citizen Science in the ERA, held at the European Commission’s Research Executive Agency and co-organised with the ECS and IMPETUS projects, invited a different kind of exchange. Less posters and prototypes. More policies and priorities.
With researchers, policymakers, EU-funded project representatives and engagement practitioners all in the room, the day kicked off with keynote speaker Jean-David Malo, Acting Director of the European Research Area & Innovation. His message landed clearly: citizen science and public engagement are not just nice-to-haves. They are, as he put it, “fundamental necessities for ensuring the relevance, impact, and social acceptance of our R&I endeavours.”
Then came a spotlight moment: a roundtable discussion where four Horizon Europe projects, ECS, COALESCE, REINFORCING and IMPETUS, presented a common set of policy priorities. Moderated by Stickydot’s Marzia Mazzonetto and joined by Georgios Papanagnou from the Commission’s Directorate-General for Research and Innovation, the session delivered a clear message: long-term, structural, and systemic support is essential if citizen science and public engagement are to move beyond project-based bursts of activity.
The day closed on a celebratory note, with IMPETUS announcing the winners of the EU Prize for Citizen Science. Among them, the Grand Prize went to HEROINES, a powerful project based in Serbia, working with Roma women to co-produce knowledge through shared oral stories. A meaningful reminder of why inclusive participatory science matters.
At Stickydot, we’re proud to have helped shape and deliver these two events. It had been a long time since these communities came together like this, and you could feel how much it was needed. So, our message to the community is this: let’s keep talking. Let’s keep asking, challenging, and building the structures we need to strengthen public engagement as the EU’s way of doing research.
Itching for more citizen science and public engagement policy? Read and endorse ECSA and ECS’s position paper Citizen Science for the future of Europe!
Written by Alexandre Torres
