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Short Abstract

Waag promotes sustainable societies through citizen science, emphasizing collaboration among citizens, governments and researchers. The Smart Citizens Lab addresses challenges like differing timelines, data quality and action gaps, and explores action perspectives each party has to overcome these.

Abstract

Waag Futurelab is a research organisation that works on the development of a sustainable and just society. Waag uses public research methods to collaborate with citizens, governments, designers, artists and scientists.

Challenges we see:

• Divergent Timelines and Language: Citizens and government entities often operate on different timelines and use distinct terminologies, creating barriers to effective collaboration.

• Data Quality Perception: Citizen science data is frequently viewed as insufficiently rigorous for policymaking, limiting its influence on decision-making processes.

• Action Gap: While policymakers express interest in supporting citizen science initiatives, translating knowledge into actionable steps remains a significant hurdle.

Our approach focuses on building reciprocal public-civic collaborations. Waag recognizes a growing phenomenon in the Netherlands: "participation tiredness", where citizens feel their contributions lack real impact. To combat this in the project Hollandse Luchten, we are implementing shared measurement plans that ensure citizen involvement in data collection, fostering a sense of ownership and accountability. We actively engage municipalities in the research process, aligning citizen concerns with governmental priorities to create a shared action plan. Additionally, we employ various tools and methods for shared data interpretation, allowing both citizens and policymakers to analyze data collaboratively.

We explore action perspectives for different stakeholders and how they can strengthen one another. We see transparency in expectations as fundamental, from the notion that ‘no one measures, just to measure’. A crucial next step is for governments to go from supporting citizens to be able to do their research, to become active participants in the research.