3 new Oxford Citizen Science projects funded by UKRI

UKRI recently announced the 53 projects funded through their place-based and citizen science funding schemes. Three grants led by Oxford researchers have been funded, with a further two supported by Oxford. Congratulations! Read the project descriptions below.

Reconfiguring Citizen Participation in Cybersecurity (Julia Slupska and Gina Neff, Oxford Internet Institute)

Cybersecurity can seem obscure and daunting. Yet, everyone can be made vulnerable by technology. Drawing on feminist participatory action research, we provide cybersecurity support combined with open discussion spaces which invite citizens—especially those excluded from technology discussions—to participate in defining what makes them feel threatened or empowered online. Read the overview for Citizen Participation in Cybersecurity

Co-creation of CERN OpenData projects with UK school students - pilot study (Alan Barr, Physics)

This pilot project brings cutting-edge CERN OpenData science into UK classrooms. The citizens performing the science will be UK school students and their teachers, assisted by researchers in UK universities and the Institute for Research in Schools. The students will be undertaking a full spectrum of scientific activities, and leading their own research using data from the world’s highest energy particle collider.

Geospatial Design of Energy Systems for Africa: Citizen Science (Malcolm McCulloch, Engineering, and Chris Lintott, Physics)

GeoDESA Citizen Science aims to integrate local perspectives in rural electrical grid design. Using an online citizen science platform alongside outreach workshops, they are engaging citizen scientists in mapping rural areas of sub-Saharan Africa. By integrating local perspectives into large-scale data, they are developing smart, sustainable grid designs to connect around one billion who do not have electrical access.

Plus partners in another two:

Innovative Digital Citizen Science: Active Learning for Disaster Relief

A team of researchers from Lancaster University and the University of Oxford (Chris Lintott, Physics) are partnering with citizen scientists to explore how people and AI can work together in crisis situations to provide responders with the most accurate information on where help is needed during and after a natural disaster.

Queen's University Belfast - Exploring Citizen Science Use Cases with the Lasair transient alert broker

The Legacy Survey of Space and Time (LSST) will effectively generate the largest movie of the changing night sky. Partnered with the Zooniverse team in Oxford (Chris Linttot, Physics), Queen’s University Belfast researchers are exploring how to combine citizen science and automated routines to efficiently sift through the survey’s data stream to identify transient sources worthy of rapid follow-up.