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Welcome to October and #CitSciOzOnline!We are very excited to launch our month-long online celebration of citizen science on Wednesday 7th October, with fabulous speakers, interesting topics, coffee room chats, prizes and more! Read on for all the details, including the event summary, speaker bios, registration details and sponsor information. This is a free event for ACSA members, so if you've been thinking about joining us, now is the time!  With thanks to our sponsors... Registration & Tickets Get your tickets here! One ticket will gain you access to the whole event, and you can attend as many sessions as you wish. All information will be sent to you via email prior to each session. This event operates on a 'pay what you can afford basis' (from $0-$20) and is FREE for for Australian Citizen Science Association members.  Session…

The National Environmental Science Program (NESP) grants are open until 30 June 2020, seeking applicants to deliver research in applied environmental science to support decision-makers from across the Australian community. The program will be delivered through four thematic research hubs and seek to deliver national scale applied environmental research programs, but also strong engagement and outcomes with local communities. ACSA sees citizen science as a strong pathway to support these outcomes and is actively exploring opportunities to connect with bid consortia on collaborations and to communicate our identified research goals for our national Community of Practice. We would welcome any thoughts and ideas from our ACSA community on NESP engagement opportunities - please contact Amy.

Just before COVID-19 threatened to change the world as we know it, and as the bushfires started raging across the country, Dr Yaela Golumbic, who you may remember from her CitSciOz18 blog, had embarked on a journey to map citizen science in Australia. With help from many in this community, and responses from almost 100 citizen science project leaders, scientists and practitioners across Australia, this work has attracted much national and international interest. Initial findings from the research are now available in this participant report, providing a glimpse into the unique characteristics of our Australian citizen science community.

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…