A science-shop experience for the co-creation of scientific knowledge

A science-shop experience for the co-creation of scientific knowledge

Author: Daniela De Filippo – Carlos III University of Madrid, Spain

Co-authors:

  • Nuria Bautista-Puig – Carlos III University of Madrid, Spain
  • Marí­a Luisa Lascurain – Carlos III University of Madrid, Spain
  • Elí­as Sanz-Casado – Carlos III University of Madrid, Spain

Citizen science has become a new way of conducting research by integrating several social stakeholders in the process of producing scientific knowledge. In this sense, the science shop is an initiative that, although it emerged in the 1970s in the Netherlands, has renewed interest in its ability to engage different stakeholders to work in solving local problems. Thus, from the collective identification of different social needs/problems, strategies are put in place to transform them into research questions and find solutions.

The objective of this presentation is to show how our experience in science shop initiatives has been used to solve the problems of its environment. The case of study that is going to be analyzed is the newly created science shop at the Carlos III University of Madrid, under the HORIZON 2020 project “Enhancing the Responsible and Sustainable Expansion of the Science Shops Ecosystem in Europe”.

The experience and methodology developed in this science shop, whose theme is environmental sustainability, will be presented, emphasizing the mechanisms used for the co-creation of knowledge. Lessons learned in this framework are going to be presented. One aspect to highlight is the integration of the science shop in the dynamics of the university and its insertion in a transversal way in the organizational framework of a Higher Education Institution (HEIs). Likewise, integration has not only been structural but, at the content level, the science shop has joined the challenge of working with/in the university in the achievement of certain Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

One of the conclusions obtained from this experience is the positive assessment of the joint work between diverse social actors for the resolution of local problems, as well as the change of perception of these actors about their transformative potential and their real possibilities of co-creation of scientific knowledge.

The author has not yet submitted a copy of the full paper.

Presentation type: Visual presentation
Theme: Transformation