On Monday, Sept. 26, 2022, we were part of an inspiring conference on “Opportunities and Limits of Participation in Science” at the Museum für Naturkunde Berlin. As director of the European Science Engagement Association, Dr. Annette Klinkert gave a presentation entitled Do we need a new definition of ‘excellence’ to foster participation? Impact of international research funding programs on academic culture change.

Co-determination, participation, engagement

The keywords co-determination, participation, engagement were the topics of the conference organised by Chemnitz University of Technology and the Museum für Naturkunde Berlin. The conference gathered a diverse community who all work on participation in science (e.g. Citizen Science, socio-ecological transformation research, transformative research approaches, human-technology interaction, participation research) and society (e.g. reallabs, maker spaces, FabLabs, science stores). Science policy representatives were also present at the conference.

Practice-oriented and interactive forum

The conference focused on capacity and network building as well as knowledge exchange in the field of participation in research. It also stimulated a discourse on participation in science and showed different perspectives and approaches to participatory fomats – from Citizen Science to civil society advocacy and citizen councils. Dr. Annette Klinkert’s input was part of a working group on “Participation in Science: An International Perspective.” moderated by Dr. Mhairi Stewart, Victoria Shennan & Dr. Wiebke Rössig and with further input from Dr. Mhairi Stewart, Dr. Wiebke Rössig and Dr. Benedikt Fecher. More detailed information about the program can be found here.