IMPETUS

IMPETUS will support and give recognition to citizen science (CS) by enabling a wider range of citizen science initiatives (CSIs) to access innovative funding.
We aim to bring CS closer to society and policymakers and to acknowledge its role in tackling the greatest challenges of our times. We will have a strong focus on enhancing its contributions to the Green Deal and the UN SDGs.

What is the Green Deal? The European Green Deal is a set of policy initiatives developed by the European Commission with the overarching aim of making the European Union (EU) climate neutral in 2050. It was approved in 2020. Learn more here and download the EU Green Deal here.

What are the UN SDGs? The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) or Global Goals are a “shared blueprint for peace and prosperity for people and the planet, now and into the future”. They are 17 interlinked global goals, set up in 2015 by the United Nations General Assembly (UN-GA) and are intended to be achieved by 2030.
Learn more here and download the app here!

We will support Citizen Science Initiatives through:

1. 3 Open Calls, selecting the initiatives based on expected impacts, volunteer engagement, EDI, openness and quality data. We will offer 20k to kick-start 100 CSIs and 10k to sustain 25 CSIs addressing the pressing needs of European society
2. Setting up an accelerator that will provide an integrated programme of support, training, mentoring, and resources. The accelerator will facilitate peer learning, enable CSIs to contribute to UN SDG and GD targets and forge connections with quadruple helix stakeholders.
3. Launching the EU Prize for Citizen Science, awarded to CSIs for outstanding achievements, allowing them to continue and expand their work and showcase it to a broader audience. We will award 3 prize categories for 3 years: outstanding achievements, diversity and innovative grassroots projects. Each time, we will reach out to advisors to identify exceptional nominations and to the citizen panel to vote in the grassroots category.
4. Convening a citizen panel that provides feedback on our work
5. Shaping EU policy in and with CS, through horizon scanning, anticipatory policy and action research, informing policy briefs, webinars and workshops with key policy stakeholders. The aim is to foster more CS data to inform evidence-based policies and identify future directions in CS policy.
6. Developing impact assessment tools and assessing the impact of CSIs and our own framework, especially on GD and SDG targets. Insights will be presented within the wider CS ecosystem and feed into recommendations for national and EU policies.