Barcelona already has a catalog of citizen science
It is the only city of the world that drives this discipline from the Town Hall and is now publishing the first catalog, which includes twenty projects to promote the city.
Citizen science is one of the pillars of the laboratory cities, the new paradigm in which Barcelona city seeks its space. "No city in the world has yet found concrete formula", said Inés Garriga, Director of Creativity and Innovation of the Cultural Institute of Barcelona (ICUB), a situation that allows the Catalan capital to experience and promote their model. "The city is the laboratory that incorporate different visions of citizenship. That goes beyond the intelligent city and work for people," she added.
Research, innovation, creativity, experimentation laboratory are concepts of cities. Spaces in the disciplines converge, knowledge is open, cross, shared, participatory and accessible to the citizen. For this reason the ICUB has been the area of the Town Hall of Barcelona from which is driving this model, and citizen science plays a prominent role.
"We live in a transformation process in which knowledge is socialized, as content and method," stated Jaume Ciurana, Deputy Mayor for Culture, Knowledge, Creativity and Innovation. "Citizen science is not scientific research with volunteers," explained Josep Perelló, coordinator of the Office of Citizen Barcelona Science Laboratory (BCNLab), "but a way of working in which the citizen has an active role in research".
In Barcelona citizen science began to take shape already defined in 2012. Emerged in the universities but the city has appropriate, with initiatives such as the Office of Citizen Science BCNLab. From this space projects that universities, museums and civic institutions conduct and aims to be a bridge between researchers and citizen-scientists coalesce.
The publication of the catalog reflects the desire to disclose in detail the twenty projects that operate under the principles of citizen science, to advance their practice and encourage citizens to take part. They have printed a thousand copies of the book, which can be purchased at the headquarters of ICUB, in the palace of the Virreina, and can also be downloaded from here.