To facilitate long-term citizens’ involvement in CS projects it is vital to strengthen the effective and productive dialogue (Bonn et al., 2016). Thus, “Digital Citizen Science: Network, transfOrm, groW” (short Citizen Science NOW), aims to foster EU citizens' engagement and access to CS by: · establishing local and regional community NETWORKS that effectively connect citizens, adult educators and HEIs and promote sustainable CS development; · digitalising and TRANSFORMING adult CS training experiences; and · empowering adult citizens with the essential competence and skills to GROW personally and professionally in the partner regions.
In response to the call for Responsible Research and Innovation and valorisation as higher education institutes’ (HEIs) Third Mission, citizen science (short for CS) is a promising approach of knowledge co-production that: 1. enhances social inclusion, civic engagement and democracy in the EU regions; 2. promote effectiveness of solving complex and ambiguous societal challenges; 3. foster active citizenship and ownership; and 4. advance societal progress in democratic societies (Bonn et al., 2016; Vohland et al., 2021). However, CS faces the challenges of attracting, training, and maintaining a stable pool of citizen scientists at the local and regional levels in the German, Dutch and Spanish contexts due to: 1. lacking sustainable CS networks to support regional/local CS development 2. lacking access to and awareness of CS offers due to significant silos between HEIs andalogues between citizens, adult- and higher educators; raise their awareness and capacity of practicing CS; and make CS more accessible to citizen regional adult educators 3. lacking high-quality learning offers that equip adult citizens to actively engaging in/ initiate CS projects AND validate their learnings via practical projects.