GREAT Poster at the 5th European Citizen Science Association Conference

This year's European Citizen Science Conference ECSA2024 took place in Vienna, Austria, from the 3rd to the 6th of April 2024. The motto of the conference was Change and people from across the globe came together to discuss different perspectives and the role of citizen science in times of change.

Game-based approaches have been part of citizen science for many years. One of the most famous examples is Foldit, an online game where citizens engage in protein research and thereby contribute to cutting-edge bioengineering work.

Surprisingly, at the ECSA2024 conference only two posters with a focus on citizen science in the context of games were presented. Nimisha Parashar and colleagues from the University of Nottingham spoke about the role of gamification and behavior change in transforming citizen science engagement. It was great to exchange experiences with this research group as their topic is also related to climate change. Thus, we had a great opportunity to dive into some of the experiences they had and established a connection to build on in the future.

The GREAT poster, presented by the ZSI team, had a lot of visitors and raised interest across the citizen science community. Katharina and Barbara were busy answering questions about the project during the 1,5-hour poster session on Thursday, 4th of April 2024.