Citizen science | Barcelona Metròpolis

Barcelona is the European Capital of Innovation this year, a designation that makes even more relevant the City Council’s desire to integrate new technologies into the lives of the public and connect with the network of major cities that will define the urban dynamics of the 21st century.

Being the mobile capital and having political initiatives to turn Barcelona into a smart city would be meaningless if not accompanied by a parallel strategy to bring science and innovation to the public. What is needed is a public that is open and ready to participate, and especially to share in innovation.

Barcelona is also aiming to be an international leader in digital manufacturing, and has already become the world’s first city to have a public network of digital manufacturing associations. The 10th International Fab Lab Conference, held at the Museum of Design, brought together representatives from this kind of organisations from around the world. The city has also launched BCNLab, part of a European network of urban laboratories, and iCity, a project that will allow access to public information systems to facilitate the co-creation of both public and private services.

We are facing a revolution that will mark a turning point in how we generate and share information. Citizen science was born out of a collective need and the belief that the more interconnected creativity is, the more powerful it becomes. It is also a more democratic and transparent way of doing things and is aligned with the concept of the citizen lab.