Ancona.- The European Commission has awarded the “INCREASE – Intelligent Collections of Food Legumes Genetic Resources for European Agrofood Systems” project the first prize, also called “Grand Prize”, in the context of the “EU Citizen Science Prize 2024”. Equal to 60,000 euros, the prize is awarded every year to the best Citizen Science project.
The INCREASE Citizen Science project coordinated by Prof. Roberto Papa, full professor of Agricultural Genetics at the Polytechnic University of Marche, is recognized as remarkable impact and exceptional results in contributing to forging a pluralistic, inclusive and sustainable society in Europe and advancing our knowledge through the empowerment of civil society.
“We are thrilled with the recognition received from the European Commission and the Prize Committee – states the Rector Prof. Gian Luca Gregori – their attention to the importance of participatory forms and the involvement of citizens in science represents a clear indication of the need to effectively involve all citizens in the identification of sustainable solutions, starting from the objectives of safeguarding biodiversity and ecosystems, ensuring healthy and sustainable diets for the inhabitants of our planet”.
“The idea behind it – states the project coordinator, Prof. Roberto Papa, full professor of Agricultural Genetics at the Polytechnic University of Marche – is to make agricultural genetic resources available, preserved in gene banks and mostly accessible to expert users, including to all interested parties, farmers and all citizens. Citizens are therefore involved in both the conservation and evaluation of plant genetic resources, contributing to the collection of data that helps to understand the adaptation of common bean varieties in different environments and to evaluate their potential interest as food products”.
Dr Kerstin Neumann of IPK Gatersleben (Germany), who co-coordinates the INCREASE citizen science experiment (CSE) on the bean together with Prof. Papa, adds: “In addition to all the partners involved in the INCREASE project, we want to explicitly thank all the interested parties involved in INCREASE for the support and participation in the dissemination of the CSE throughout Europe. But above all we want to thank each of the thousands of participants, who are highly motivated and dedicate a lot of time to their tasks as citizen scientists. You are a wonderful community, thank you!”.
Selected by an independent jury of experts, the winners of this second edition of the EU Citizen Science Prize were officially announced today. Winning this prestigious award was made possible by the immense commitment, motivation and dedication of thousands of European citizen scientists involved in the INCREASE project, for which the INCREASE team is incredibly grateful.
The INCREASE team will use the prize money to improve and expand the INCREASE Citizen Science app with new features and to strengthen communication measures, such as developing videos showing the experiment results in plain language, organizing events or the creation and dissemination of toolkits for schools. The EU Citizen Science Prize is funded under Horizon Europe, the EU’s research and innovation program (2021-2027).
INCREASE project info: https://www.pulsesincrease.eu/it/experiment
The INCREASE Citizen Science Award:
https://ars.electronica.art/citizenscience/en/winners/
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