The University of Warsaw Library (BUW) is organizing an international conference
From Participation to Publication: The Role of Citizen Science in Modern Research.
The conference will be held on April 23–24, 2026 (Thursday–Friday) in a stationary format at the University of Warsaw Library, Dobra Street 56/66.
The conference focuses on citizen science — an increasingly important part of modern research that brings together scientists and citizens to discover, analyze, and publish research results. The event will gather experts from Poland and partner universities of the 4EU+ Alliance who will share their experiences of implementing projects that engage the public in science.
The program (details below) includes workshops, presentations of research projects, and discussions on the role of citizen science in building open and responsible science.
We invite you to participate!
The conference is organized as part of the 4EU+ETERNITY project financed by NAWA.
Programme
Day I – April 23, 2026 (Thursday)
09:30-10:00 – Registration of participants (welcoming coffee)
10:00-10:30 – Conference opening.
Zygmunt Lalak, University of Warsaw Vice-Rector for Research
Krzysztof Nierzwicki, University of Warsaw Library Director
10:30-11:00 – Citizen Science – Introduction. Perspectives of: Poland, UW, 4EU+ Alliance – Zuza Wiorogórska, University of Warsaw Library & The Faculty of Journalism, Information and Book Studies
11:00-11:30 – It started with a "Sztambuch" (Album amicorum): The TranskriBUW group - from promotion of the BUW manuscript collection to engagement in joint transcription – presentation – Agnieszka Kościelniak-Osiak, Deputy Director of the University of Warsaw Library & Urszula Szwed-Strych, Promotion, Exhibitions and Cooperation Department of the University of Warsaw Library
11:30-12:15 – Workshops on Citizen Science – Part 1
Three parallel workshops led by:#1 Learning from the Past: Interdisciplinary Citizen Science with Archaeological Leather – Marie Rathcke Lillemark & Anders P. Tøttrup – Natural History Museum Denmark | University of Copenhagen #2 Hands-On DNA Barcoding: Unlocking European Fungal Diversity – Julia Pawłowska, Michał Kochanowski, Marta Tischer from the University of Warsaw & Iryna Yatsiuk, the University of Tartu
#3 Citizen Science in Libraries: From Projects to Practice – Laure Turcati & Mathilde Delaunay from Sorbonne University
12:15-12:45 – Coffee break
12:45-13:30 – Workshops on Citizen Science – Part 2
13:10-14:30 – Lunch break
14:30-16:00 – Workshops summary & discussion
16:00 – Closing of Day 1
Day II – April 24, 2026 (Friday)
Session 1 – Citizen Science at the University of Warsaw
09:00-09:30 – Tracking Hyalomma: How Citizen Science Follows the Journey of Tropical Ticks Across Europe – Wiktoria Romanek, University of Warsaw, Faculty of Biology9:30-10:00 – FunDive: engaging citizen scientists in fungal diversity monitoring across Europe to boost common conservation goals – Julia Pawłowska, University of Warsaw, Faculty of Biology
10:00-10:30 – Coffee break
10.30-11.00 – Shared Archaeology: Citizen Science in Berenike – Emilia Smagur & Mariusz Gwiazda, Polish Centre of Mediterranean Archaeology, University of Warsaw
11.00-11.30 – Citizen science activities in the co-creation process with children and adults – Anna Nicińska, Faculty of Economic Sciences | DeLab UW, University of Warsaw
Session 2 – Citizen Science in the 4EU+ Alliance
11.30-12.00 – Citizen science at Charles University and the challenges of building support – Milan Janíček & Michaela Lebedová, Charles University12.00-12.30 – Digitising Provenances: A Mini Citizen-Science Project at Heidelberg University’s Collection of Classical Antiquities – Polly Lohmann, Heidelberg Center for Cultural Heritage, UHEI
12.30-13.30 – Lunch break
13.30-14.00 – Citizen Science as Institutional Infrastructure: Connecting Core Museum Functions – Anders P. Tøttrup – Natural History Museum Denmark | University of Copenhagen
14.00-14.30 – Science Together: a professional network on Citizen Science – Laure Turcati, Sorbonne University
14.30-15.00 – Co-creation in Public Engagement and Stakeholder Engagement: pathways for participatory and democratic knowledge valorisation – Veronica Ceruti, University of Milan
15.00-15.30 – Hackademia: transforming students into citizen scientists through hackathons – François Grey, University of Geneva
15.30-16.00 – Conference closing session
About the Conference
Today's science is based on the principles of openness, transparency, and collaboration. One of the key indications of this trend is citizen science — an approach in which researchers and citizens jointly create the scientific process, from formulating research questions, through data collection, to analysis and publication of results. Citizen science is not only a way to broaden the sources of knowledge, but also to strengthen the public trust in science and build lasting bonds between universities and society.
The University of Warsaw Library is organizing an international conference entitled From Participation to Publication: The Role of Citizen Science in Modern Research, which will take place on April 23–24, 2026, at the University Library in Warsaw (Dobra Street 56/66).
The event is organized as part of the 4EU+ETERNITY project, carried out by the partner universities of the 4EU+ Alliance: the University of Warsaw, Charles University in Prague, Heidelberg University, Paris-Panthéon-Assas University, Sorbonne University in Paris, University of Copenhagen, University of Geneva, and University of Milan.
The conference focuses on the role of citizen science in modern research and how academic institutions can support it. Discussions and presentations will cover both the European perspective and the local experiences of 4EU+ Alliance universities in promoting open science and developing cooperation with citizens in research.
- presentations of research projects carried out in line with the idea of citizen science at 4EU+ Alliance universities,
- practical workshops for librarians, researchers, and science supporters,
- discussions on the role of universities in developing and coordinating citizen science initiatives.
The conference is part of the broader goal of the 4EU+ Alliance, which is to activate the community of practitioners involved in citizen science and to develop common mechanisms for coordinating activities within the Alliance.
We believe that the exchange of experiences between partner universities will contribute to increased international academic cooperation, improved quality of research and teaching, and strengthening the position of Polish universities internationally.
The date of the conference is not insignificant. April is a month dedicated to citizen science.
Organizing Committee
- Zuza Wiorogórska – Chair
- Anna Książczak-Gronowska
- Karolina Minch
- Lilianna Nalewajska
- Zu Sendor
Abstracts
Agnieszka Kościelniak-Osiak, Deputy Director of the University of Warsaw Library & Urszula Szwed-Strych, Promotion, Exhibitions and Cooperation Department of the University of Warsaw Library
It started with a "Sztambuch" (Album amicorum): The TranskriBUW group - from promotion of the BUW manuscript collection to engagement in joint transcription – presentation
Like many academic libraries, the University of Warsaw Library (BUW) faces the challenge of the limited research usability of the valuable manuscripts in its collections. While these materials are available as high-resolution scans in the University of Warsaw Digital Library, CRISPA, their full scholarly potential—for analysis and searchability—depends on accurate textual transcriptions.
Recognizing this challenge, BUW’s Promotion Department took an active interest in addressing the issue and sought ways to bridge the gap between non-searchable archival documents and public engagement. This led to the launch of a dedicated Facebook-based community, TranskriBUW – We Decode Manuscripts. By adopting a citizen science framework, the department aimed to transform manuscript transcription from a solitary task into a collaborative and participatory initiative.
This presentation focuses on the communication dynamics developed within the TranskriBUW group. It examines the communication strategies, outreach activities, and community events designed to encourage participation and sustain members’ engagement in the transcription of valuable manuscripts from the BUW collections.
Wiktoria Romanek – Faculty of Biology, University of Warsaw
Tracking Hyalomma: How Citizen Science Follows the Journey of Tropical Ticks Across Europe
Ticks of the genus Hyalomma are important vectors of Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever virus (CCHFV) and other pathogens, such as Rickettsia spp. and Anaplasma marginale. These thermophilic ticks, introduced to Central Europe by migrating birds, seem increasingly capable of surviving and developing in the region, likely due to warmer and drier seasons.
Understanding their expansion relies not only on field monitoring and molecular analyses but also on citizen science, which plays a key role in tracking tick occurrence on humans, domestic animals, and in the environment. Public involvement greatly enhances surveillance capacity and helps assess emerging health risks associated with Hyalomma in Poland and beyond.
Julia Pawłowska – Faculty of Biology, University of Warsaw
FunDive: Engaging Citizen Scientists in Fungal Diversity Monitoring Across Europe to Boost Common Conservation Goals
Despite being essential for our ecosystems, fungi are often neglected in nature conservation and monitoring. FunDive engages citizen scientists from almost 30 European countries in coordinated campaigns to collect occurrence records of rare fungal taxa across the continent, to improve knowledge of pan-European fungal diversity and distribution patterns, which are crucial for understanding macroecological processes and help with data-driven European Red Listing decisions.
Emilia Smagur, Mariusz Gwiazda – Polish Centre of Mediterranean Archaeology, University of Warsaw
Shared Archaeology: Citizen Science in Berenike
The Berenike Project is a Polish–German archaeological expedition carried out jointly by the Polish Centre of Mediterranean Archaeology of the University of Warsaw and the University of Heidelberg. It aims to reconstruct daily life and investigate the trade networks of the ancient Red Sea port, whose inhabitants, sailors, and merchants participated in long-distance exchange across the Indian Ocean, reaching regions as distant as India, Africa, and Arabia.
The project also incorporates citizen science initiatives, engaging volunteers in fieldwork—such as data collection, excavation documentation, and material analysis—as well as using digital platforms that allow remote participants to follow and contribute to the research.
Anna Nicińska – University of Warsaw
Citizen Science Activities in the Co-Creation Process With Children and Adults
The presentation explores the methods and lessons learnt from the citizen science and co-creation workshops in the CoMobility project, which aimed at developing sustainable mobility solutions in local communities around Warsaw primary schools.
The focus is on the specific design enabling the successful inclusion of children in citizen science activities, reaching beyond data collection. Lessons learnt, obstacles, and opportunities for citizen science contributions to urban mobility will be discussed to show that children are able and needed to collaborate with adults in co-designing solutions to the challenges related to public spaces dedicated to children.
Milan Janíček, Michaela Lebedová – Charles University Library
Citizen Science at Charles University and the Challenges of Building Support
The Open Science Support Centre at Charles University expands on the topic of Citizen Science. Our presentation will summarize the main challenges we face during the process of extending the provided support. We will also present several interesting initiatives and ongoing projects and introduce a new Czech-Slovak citizen science platform designed to serve as a central project database and a support hub for researchers.
Polly Lohmann – Heidelberg Center for Cultural Heritage, University of Heidelberg
Digitising Provenances: A Mini Citizen-Science Project at Heidelberg University’s Collection of Classical Antiquities
The Collection of Classical Antiquities at Heidelberg University was founded in 1848 and consists of about 1,200 large-scale plaster casts (copies) and 9,000 original Greek and Roman archaeological objects. A collection of letters and an acquisition list, the so-called Old Inventory, provides information about when, where, and by whom those objects were acquired. It is the most important source of the provenances, the objects, and the history of the collection in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. But only by transcribing those historical documents and identifying the objects listed they can be put into use. The paper presents those processes that took place in the course of a mini-citizen project, actively involving the audience interested in the project.
Laure Turcati – Sorbonne University
Science Together: A Professional Network on Citizen Science
The Science Ensemble (SE – Eng. Science Together) network of the Sorbonne University Alliance brings together leaders of a wide variety of CS projects. It enables cross-disciplinary topics related to the coordination of CS projects to be addressed. I will present the achievements of this network and the benefits of participating for project leaders.
Veronica Ceruti – Public Engagement and Territorial Relations Office, University of Milan
Co-Creation in Public Engagement and Stakeholder Engagement: Pathways for Participatory and Democratic Knowledge Valorisation
Although the University of Milan does not yet have a formalised institutional programme dedicated to Citizen Science, several faculty members already employ Citizen Science methodologies in their projects. At the same time, the University has established structured co-creation and co-design approaches as preferred methods for developing Public Engagement and Stakeholder Engagement initiatives.
These processes involve continuous knowledge exchange, shared goal-setting, identification of audiences and beneficiaries, and the design of communication and impact assessment processes. This experience is also providing a solid methodological basis for the future development of more systematic Citizen Science pathways within the University.
François Grey – University of Geneva
Hackademia: Transforming Students Into Citizen Scientists Through Hackathons
Since 2015, the University of Geneva has been experimenting with the use of hackathons to motivate student participation in research and innovation, as a form of citizen science, for the benefit of both the university and the city of Geneva.
In this talk, we will describe a range of hackathon typologies that have been tested, from Hackademia, a University-only hackathon focused on solving challenges facing our digital services, to the Open Geneva Festival, a city-wide hackathon that involves dozens of public and private partners.
We will discuss what motivates students to participate, including different ways of obtaining ECTS credit for hackathons that have been tested, and what the measures of success for a hackathon should be.
The Division de l’Information Scientifique (DIS), responsible for our library services, has been an active participant in many of these hackathons. We will present some concrete results of their participation, and suggest possible future directions for hackathon-based collaboration between libraries and students.
Anders P. Tøttrup – Natural History Museum Denmark | University of Copenhagen
Citizen Science as Institutional Infrastructure: Connecting Core Museum Functions
Natural history museums are charged with advancing research, stewarding collections, and delivering education and public engagement. Over the past decade, the Natural History Museum of Denmark (NHMD) has pursued these responsibilities through the strategic development of a citizen science (CS) research section, designed to integrate public participation directly into museum-based research workflows. This paper examines the extent to which NHMD’s CS portfolio contributes to the museum’s core mandates. Using nine case studies and a four-pillar assessment framework, we evaluate impacts across research, collections, education, and engagement.
Our analysis shows that museum-led CS initiatives can produce peer-reviewed outputs, expand specimen and data holdings, support structured learning pathways, and engage national audiences through multiple modalities. Projects such as DNA & Life, Insect Mobile, and Microlife illustrate a progression from outreach-oriented activities to research-embedded, co-creative collaborations. The formal integration of CS at NHMD—enabled by strategic institutional commitment and external funding—has repositioned CS as a transdisciplinary connector between traditional natural history domains and the wider public. We argue that embedding CS within museum infrastructures strengthens research and collections while enhancing museums’ societal relevance and long-term sustainability as participatory scientific institutions.
WORKSHOPS – 23 April, 11.30-13.30
Learning from the Past: Interdisciplinary Citizen Science with Archaeological Leather
[Anders Marie Rathcke Lillemark & Anders P. Tøttrup – Natural History Museum Denmark | University of Copenhagen]
In an era marked by digital and environmental transitions, innovative educational approaches are essential to engage students and other members of the public in interdisciplinary, authentic and hands-on learning experiences. This workshop presents the citizen science landscape in Denmark describing state of the art examples of innovative engagement, communication, collaboration, digital tools and novel research approaches.
We will showcase the project Next Generation Lab, a Danish citizen science project that bridges natural sciences and archaeology by involving high school students in the analysis of urban archaeological leather and bone collections. During the workshop we invite participants to engage in some of the hands-on approaches that connects project participants to their local biodiversity and cultural heritage through the project’s activities.
During the session the workshop participants will thus, as a practical example of our educational approach, work with methods to identify ∼400 years old archeological leather samples from the underground of Copenhagen. We will use a classic, archeological approach of morphological species identification based on the grain pattern of the leather investigated with a microlens connected to the camera phone.
Based on this exercise we wish to involve the participants in discussing the value and potential of working with authentic materials and research questions in a citizen science setting.
Workshop #2 – Hands-On DNA Barcoding: Unlocking European Fungal Diversity
[Michał Kochanowski, Marta Tischer, Julia Pawłowska, Faculty of Biology, University of Warsaw; Iryna Yatsiuk, University of Tartu]
DNA barcoding is widely used by researchers to confirm the identification of many organisms, including fungi. Although this method was once limited to scientific specialists, several steps can now be performed by the general public, making it more accessible and higher-throughput. We invite you to join FunDive in extracting DNA from fungal specimens collected across more than 30 European countries. During the workshop, you will also prepare fungarium specimens for deposition in official collections and learn how anyone can analyze fungal biodiversity using FunDive’s open, DNA-derived data.
Workshop #3 – Citizen Science in Libraries: From Projects to Practice
[Laure Turcati, Mathilde Delaunay – Sorbonne University]
Join us for an engaging workshop to discover the diversity of Citizen Science, exploring its concepts and real-world applications. We'll facilitate an open discussion on the significant benefits of actively promoting CS within library settings. Finally, participants will collaboratively brainstorm and share practical strategies and actionable steps for effectively integrating CS programs in libraries.
Registration
Registration form
Registration form
Contact
For organizational and substantial matters, please contact:
Zuza Wiorogórska
z.d.wiorogorska@uw.edu.pl