The Oxford Internet Institute is part of a new Horizon2020 project – SciShops. The project, which started in September 2017, will promote and prove the benefits of starting a science shop for every type of organisation. It will also highlight the advantages that civil society gains from being involved in science through community-based participatory research.
The project will establish ten new science shops in Europe in order to map and expand the field’s ecosystem in Europe.
To help organisations wishing to set up new science shops, strategies and tools will be developed, such as a knowledge hub, a SciShops navigator and twinning and matchmaking platform.
In-depth case studies of existing science shops are currently being conducted in order to compile best practices from around the world.
The project has also launched a pan-European survey to gather insights from researchers, communities, policy makers and local authorities on their knowledge and experience of participatory community-based research. Anyone wishing to take part can find the survey at https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/SciShops
The SciShops project comprises 18 partners from Europe and is coordinated by SYNYO in Austria.
For more information, visit the SciShops website: http://www.scishops.eu/, subscribe to the newsletter and follow the project via social media: Facebook: @scishops, Twitter: @SciShops_eu
Participatory research evolved as an alternative system of knowledge production. It recognises all people as researchers, in pursuit of answers to the questions of their daily struggle and survival. Under this system, the intention is to mobilise the people affected by a problem under study to take action and become part of the process of change.
Science shops were firstly established in the Netherlands in the 1970s. Since then, the concept has expanded across the world, and across various types of organisations and fields. Representing one model of community-based research, science shops bring together relevant stakeholders for demand-driven research projects.
This project aims to expand and build upon the Science Shop ecosystem that currently exists in Europe and beyond.
