Are we on the same page? Making project engagement and evaluation work across European cities and cultures

Sardo, Margarida; Fogg Rogers, Laura; Laggan, Sophie; Vleugels, Ilse; Bracke, Anke; Franchois, Elke

Abstract

WeCount (Citizens Observing UrbaN Transport) is an H2020 project under the SwafS-programme which aims to empower citizens to take a leading role in the production of data, evidence and knowledge around mobility in their neighbourhoods, and at street level. The project employs participatory citizen science methods to co-create and use innovative low cost, automated, road traffic counting sensors (i.e. Telraam) and multi-stakeholder engagement mechanisms in several European cities. A number of low-cost, automated, road traffic counting sensors (Telraams) will be mounted on each participating household’s window facing a road, which will allow authorities to determine the number and speeds of cars, large vehicles, cyclists and pedestrians. Citizen scientists will be involved in collecting the data, analysing it and engage with key stakeholders throughout the process. Furthermore, the project will generate scientific knowledge in the field of mobility and environmental pollution and encourage the development of co-designed, informed solutions to tackle a variety of road transport challenges. Five pilots cities are involved: Madrid in Spain, Ljubljana in Slovenia, Dublin in Ireland, Cardiff in the UK and Leuven in Belgium. WeCount draws upon the successful ClairCity project. ClairCity was an EU H2020 research project which aimed to raise awareness about air pollution and carbon emissions in our cities, looking at how we all contribute to the problems and how they affect the air we breathe. A total of 8302 people from ClairCity cities/regions directly engaged with the project over its duration. The project evaluation emphasised the importance of designing engagement and evaluation activities which appeal to a wide variety of audiences to ensure that a broad cross-section of society can participate in engagement with policymaking or citizen science.

In this paper we present the WeCount monitoring and evaluation framework, instruments and tools and will explore how to make them work effectively across different countries, languages and cultures. We will also give insights on how we adapted to the changes brought by the Covid-19 pandemic. Learnings from ClairCity will be shared, as well as the successes, challenges and barriers encountered by large-scale evaluations.

• Presentation Conference Type: Conference Paper (unpublished)
• Conference Name: Citizen Science SDG Conference
• Start Date: Oct 14, 2020
• End Date: Oct 15, 2020
• Deposit Date: Nov 11, 2020
• Publicly Available Date: Nov 11, 2020
• Public URL: https://uwe-repository.worktribe.com/output/6845035
• Additional Information: https://www.cs-sdg-conference.berlin/files/assets/EU%20Citizen%20Science%20SDG%20Tagung/Programme/CS_SDG_abstract_volume.pdf