Science and Universities

Projects under this acceptance contemplate the generation of new knowledge with the active participation of citizens in at least one stage of the research process. The projects must consider the citizen as an essential part of carrying out the proposed research.

Projects will have to guarantee one of these 4 levels of citizen participation:

• Level 1. Crowdsourcing. Citizens capture or process data.
• Level 2. Distributed intelligence. Citizens interpret data.
• Level 3. Participatory science. Citizens participate in defining problems, challenges, objectives and data collection.
• Level 4. Collaborative science. Citizens design with scientists the research to be carried out. The research must have a direct impact on the citizen's immediate environment and can motivate very specific actions in the city.

Projects will seek to ensure that the research has a social and socio-environmental impact and is capable of providing directives for public policies at local and national level.

The projects and the institutions promoting them will promote policies of equal treatment and opportunities between men and women in order to combat any discrimination and harassment based on sex, both in the scientific environment and in any other sphere of society.

As far as possible, projects shall endeavour to:

• establish access plans and protocols that are practical and capable of generating a common repository of open and accessible data;
• properly document (by establishing plans and protocols) the programming codes to work towards the generation of a common, open repository;
• maintain an open science policy and use Creative Commons licences to reinforce re-applicability;
• seek common experimental platforms, whether common tools (software and technology widgets) or experiments designed on the same basis for sustainable scientific activity.

The project leaders will combine strict research with communication actions integrated in the activity and do it organically in order to bring the results and the research process closer to the non-expert citizen.

Projects shall communicate the results of their research to the citizens participating in the set of experiments and fieldwork, preferably before anyone else.

All participating groups are invited to support the Office's community of practice:

• by informing and keeping the other groups informed about the status of their project and their interests;
• actively participating in the regular meetings of the Office to promote networking and open and participatory governance.

Projects shall actively contribute to the visibility of all the Office's projects and the cross-cutting activities generated.

Everyone involved is invited to create a trusting, collaborative and non-competitive environment.