CROPS and ScienceUs Join Forces for a Final Conference in Athens
CROPS is teaming up with the ScienceUs project for a joint Final Conference in Athens, and we're inviting you to be part of it.
The event, "From Local Action to European Impact: The ScienceUs–CROPS Journey in Citizen Science Upscaling," will look at how citizen science initiatives can move beyond local experimentation to reach new communities and create lasting impact across Europe. It will bring together citizen science practitioners, researchers, policymakers, project partners and stakeholders to share experiences and discuss practical approaches to upscaling. On the 25th in the morning, five citizen science initiatives supported by ScienceUs will present their journeys, covering topics from coastal and climate resilience to water monitoring and energy poverty. The session will also explore how citizen-generated knowledge can support inclusive policymaking, with an introduction to the ScienceUs Upscale Academy and its portfolio of resources.
On the 25th in the afternoon, we will focus on CROPS' journey, addressing three key questions: which citizen science projects are ready to scale, how they can be successfully replicated and adapted, and how a scaled initiative can stay sustainable and connected to its communities. This session will draw on CROPS' experience in project curation, replication, orchestration, sustainability and community building. The day also includes a CROPS Matchmaking Workshop, facilitated by OutBe, giving participants a chance to connect and explore potential collaborations, followed by an open networking session to close things out.
It's a great opportunity to celebrate what both projects have achieved and to look ahead to the future of citizen science upscaling in Europe. Register here: https://tinyurl.com/r9t243w6 More details on the ScienceUs event page: https://scienceus-project.eu/final-conference-in-athens/
CROPS at ECSA 2026
Across four intense and inspiring days, CROPS contributed to advancing one key question: how do we scale citizen science in a way that is sustainable, impactful, and inclusive?
Together with partners including Earthwatch, IIASA, and INOVA, CROPS designed and delivered a series of sessions tackling the core challenge of scaling citizen science.
From theory to stress-test: what we learned validating citizen science with EU experts
That report gave us our CROPS Scalability Assessment Framework: nine enablers of scaling, from "proof of value" to "community and champions" to "alignment with local context."
The CROPS project was established to build up where that map left off, and to find out whether the theory holds up in the real world.