Co-CiPhil: Co-creating environmental citizen science capacity in the Philippines

Summary

Citizens of developing countries such as the Philippines often do not get the opportunity to have an active role in local environmental decision-making. Co-created citizen science is considered as an essential step in democratising conservation policies, due to its potential to broaden the understanding of these complex issues among the general public and to facilitate communication between citizens and legislators. Such citizen-science studies require careful design and investigation though, as they often yield data of sub-optimal quality. Although several Philippine academics aim at setting up impactful community-based research, they often lack knowledge of and skills in designing and conducting such studies, and in analyzing the data they yield.

In this International Training Programme, UHasselt and KU Leuven collaborate with the Visayas State University and the Mindanao State University – Iligan Institute of Technology in the Philippines in co-developing capacity in quantitative and qualitative citizen-science research methodology. In total, four two-week workshops, each consisting of two five-day courses that cover multiple topics in environmental citizen-science methodology, will be organised, alternatingly at each of the two partner universities in the Philippines. Educational methods that align with the Universal Design for Learning will be applied and specific attention will be devoted to using citizen-science research methods to empower women and minority groups.

This project will yield increased understanding and skills in citizen science among local researchers and educators. It will increase the societal impact of the institutions’ research activities, and as we apply a train-the-trainer strategy, we provide the means to develop local courses in these topics. Philippine educators will use these to develop a Master of Biostatistics and a related PhD programme in collaboration with UHasselt. Lastly, in order to validate our project and to make it sustainable beyond its duration, we actively assist in setting up and conducting two local citizen-science projects.
Due to its link with existing and future local research topics related to environmental protection, this project aligns well with multiple environmental policy markers, while its main envisaged impact lies in creating democratisation of environmental management by building capacity in co-creating citizen science.

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