ACSA partners with Minderoo

Collaboration & partnerships, Communication & promotion
Building community preparedness and awareness through citizen science ACSA is pleased to announce a new partnership with the Minderoo Foundation’s Wildfire and Disaster Resilience Program (WDRP). ACSA will collaborate with the WDRP on a program designed to use citizen science methods to empower members of the public to contribute to and co-design research projects that will increase the disaster resilience for landscapes and community at local and national scales. This partnership builds on ACSA’s commitment to build the mechanisms to enable the citizen science community to play an important role in monitoring bushfire recovery and building resilience for future events. Stay tuned for further details on this new and exciting partnership and how you can become involved. For further detail about the MDRP have a listen to Adrian Turner, CEO…
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National Science Week

National Science Week

Communication & promotion, Education, Engaging citizens, Meetings and Events
      ACSA is proud to support Australia’s National Science Week (15-23 August).  There will be a number of citizen science activities to mark the week. Remember these are all online so anyone can participate! 15/08: The Secret life of nudibranch (Gold Coast Libraries) 15/08: Get the GC Reef lowdown (Gold Coast Libraries) 17/08: Whales in the city with Dr Olaf (Humpbacks & High Rises) 17/08: Introducing citizen science to younger people (ACSA ACT & Region) 19/08: Lunimary Lecture: Whales in the city (Gold Coast Libraries) 20/08: What Makes Science Good? (The University of Adelaide) 25/08: The Science and Citizens of the Coorong (Murraylands & Riverland Landscape Board) For more citizen science Science Week activities please click here, and for a complete list of all the National Science Week activities please visit the official website.
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SEED Citizen Science Hub Launch

SEED Citizen Science Hub Launch

Collaboration & partnerships, Communication & promotion, Meetings and Events
The NSW Department of Planning Industry and Environment has launched the SEED Citizen Science Hub to support and grow citizen science in NSW. The hub sits on the SEED (Sharing and Enabling Environmental Data) platform, which is an openly accessible and trusted platform for environmental data. The hub provides many benefits for scientists and data users, project organisers and participants alike, including project registration and promotion, networking and data access, interest from volunteers curious about projects in their local area or finding online projects they can contribute to from home. The hub increases the impact your contributions can have by being openly available to communities, scientists and decision makers. The hub harnesses the enthusiasm, interest and efforts of citizen scientists to enrich the range and depth of data available, to be used as part…
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ALA presentation: underpinning citizen science in Australia

ALA presentation: underpinning citizen science in Australia

Collaboration & partnerships, Communication & promotion, Meetings and Events
ACSA-ACT & Region invites you to join a special online presentation by Peter Brenton of the Atlas of Living Australia (ALA). This presentation will provide an overview of the ALA, including the tools, services and information it provides. It will also cover the benefits to data providers in making their data freely available through the ALA. Time will also be allocated to a Q&A session were your ALA questions will be answered. Underpinning citizen science in Australia Presented by: Peter Brenton Date: 30 July 2020 Time: 7:30PM Format: Online (Zoom) Register here! The Atlas of Living Australia (ALA) is our national facility for biodiversity data, aggregating occurrence observations and other biodiversity information from thousands of sources into a standardised public access data repository which is used by the general public,…
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Environmental biosecurity webinar series – begins in 2 weeks

Environmental biosecurity webinar series – begins in 2 weeks

Communication & promotion, Meetings and Events
The Environmental Biosecurity Office (EBO) is excited to inform you about a new monthly environmental biosecurity webinar series beginning in two weeks. The monthly webinars will run during the last week of each month using Microsoft Teams, and will be held in place of the Environmental Biosecurity Roundtables for 2020. Each webinar will feature three keynote speakers and explore a particular theme relating to environmental biosecurity. The speaking sessions will run for no more than one hour and be followed by a half hour facilitated discussion for those who wish to dive deeper into the topic being discussed. If you have a spare 60 or (even better) 90 minutes a month, you may like to consider logging on for this engaging series! The EBO is planning to use the department’s…
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Global Citizen Science practitioners invited to contribute to UNESCO’s 2021 initiative to promote Open Science

Global Citizen Science practitioners invited to contribute to UNESCO’s 2021 initiative to promote Open Science

Collaboration & partnerships, Communication & promotion, Social research in CS
Open Science, the movement working to make research more accessible and transparent, has been developing since the late 1990s. Citizen Science, has been developing in parallel and benefits from many of the technological advances that have allowed Open Science to flourish. As our networks have been working hard to raise the profile, understanding and uptake of Citizen Science so those encouraging the practice of Open Science have been doing the same with increasing success. Now with an understanding of the importance of the widespread collaboration of communities and science to address urgent planetary challenges, UNESCO has identified the need to encourage science to be more connected to societies’ needs and to offer real opportunities to allow everyone to participate and benefit from what science can offer. They have established a…
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Putting a Citizen Science Stamp on it!

Putting a Citizen Science Stamp on it!

ACSA development, Collaboration & partnerships, Communication & promotion
By Michelle Neil At the end of March 2019 I had just returned from the USA Citizen Science Association’s Conference in Raleigh NC and I had just submitted my ACSA blog about my adventures. I was still buzzing about everyone I had met, the sheer volume of people (over 800!) that were at the Conference and how well citizen science was presented plus the funding and grant opportunities and global collaborations that we talked about. Yet back in Australia, I was frustrated.  Despite the Australian Citizen Science Association’s (and my) best efforts, many Australians still didn’t know what citizen science is or how anyone can contribute to increase scientific knowledge. My husband, John, overheard my grumbling and, with the latest Australia Post Stamp Bulletin in hand, said, “You know what…
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Bushfire recovery Project Finder is live

Collaboration & partnerships, Communication & promotion
In mid-April CSIRO officially announced its partnership with ACSA and the Atlas of Living Australia in producing the Citizen Science Bushfire Project Finder. CSIRO’s Chief Executive Larry Marshall and Minister for Industry, Science and Technology Karen Andrews were both quoted in the media release with Minister Andrews reiterating her commitment to citizen science “Despite the challenges we are facing, the Australian spirit remains strong and it is obvious that our citizens are eager to do their part in the bushfire recovery process.” The Bushfire Project Finder features a geographic filter enabling users to identify available projects in their area. It can be accessed here.  The media release prompted a number of media inquiries with some great publicity resulting from this work. Have a listen to ALA’s Director Andre Zerger on ABC’s Goulburn-Murray (time stamp 2.19) or ACSA Chair Erin Roger followed by the Australian Museum’s Paul Flemons on ABC…
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“Join Flutracking” Prof Paul Kelly urges Australians

“Join Flutracking” Prof Paul Kelly urges Australians

Collaboration & partnerships, Communication & promotion, Engaging citizens
On 6 April 2020 Professor Paul Kelly, Deputy Chief Health Officer, encouraged all Australians to join Flutracking to help track the spread of COVID-19. Following this  Dr. Craig Dalton, co-ordinator of Flutracking.net reached out to ACSA and asked for our assistance in spreading this message far and wide. Participating in this citizen science project is easy, and will provide incredibly valuable information that can help us track COVID-19 and other illness in real time. Join Flutracking at https://info.flutracking.net/ and complete a simple 30 second survey once a week. Join Flutracking now.
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City Nature Challenge is GO!

City Nature Challenge is GO!

Communication & promotion, Engaging citizens
“Imagine how many species we could document if everyone in Australia just spent a few hours a day for four days documenting the biodiversity in their own backyard!” Sick of staying indoors? Have you heard about the biggest backyard bioblitz Australia has ever seen?  For the first time ever the City Nature Challenge is being contested by four Australian cities. Due to COVID-19, the City Nature Challenge (Australian organisers) are also encouraging everyone in Australia to join in the fun and bioblitz their own backyards (or balconies) in the name of science! It all takes place from the 24th to 27th April inclusive, but there are also daily challenges leading up to the big event, so get the kids involved too! Please note: the iNaturalist app is rated as ages…
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