You’re invited to one more round of HEIDI Project events before Christmas

For the last year, the HEIDI Project has run several rounds of events, as have our partners in France, Greece, Malta and Cyprus. Some of these have been the Citizen Science For All Talks, most of which are now up on YouTube. We’re so proud of these, and grateful for so very many citizen science experts for coming to give short talks on their fields of expertise – from astronomy to noise pollution, from engaging with marginalised communities to data quality.

We’ve also held webinars to upskill researchers, students and community members on various aspects of citizen science, such as communication, event running and project creation, plus several roundtables with students, university staff and community groups to learn more about what type of digital action different stakeholder groups are interested in, what digital skills people would like to learn and how HEIs can support digital action.

We’re now entering the final phase of the HEIDI Project: Intellectual Output 5, Embracing Bottom-Up Digital Actions in Higher Education. Part of this will be writing a guide, for which reason we’ve been holding roundtables with different stakeholder groups – would you like to come along? You don’t need to have been to any of our HEIDI events before. You just need to have some interest in “digital action”: citizen science, makeathons or hackathons – quite a wide range of activities, many of which took on a special importance during the Covid-19 pandemic, and which can teach us a lot about working together and about resilience in crises even though many restrictions have now been lifted.

There are also some interesting webinars and roundtables to which we’d like to invite you. Whether you’re an expert in digital action or a beginner, your voice is welcome – come along, ask questions, tell your stories, or just listen in if you prefer.

All these events are free and most are online, though some are hybrid and you can attend in person.

Upcoming Roundtable:

17th November, 17:30 GMT:

Voluntary Organisations Roundtable: Understanding the Needs for Digital Action. Hybrid event (on UCL campus or Zoom). Register here.

Upcoming Webinars:

Tuesday 29th November, 16:30GMT

HEI Ethics for Digital Action. A panel of experts will tell us about their citizen science or makerspace projects and the impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic on their work, such as their methodological framework, recruitment of participants, communication, and more. On Zoom; register here.

Friday 9th December, 17:00GMT

Scientific Outreach, Citizen Science and Marginalised and Indigenous Communities. There is currently little knowledge of how citizen science can be utilised to engage with marginalised and indigenous communities, or in context such as during war or human or environmental exploitation: this webinar looks at some stories, common barriers and lessons learned. On Zoom; register here.

Interactive Events:

Tuesday 6th December, 18:00 GMT (Note: If after Christmas is preferred, we’ll move this to January. Please let us know.)

Training for Digital Skills for Community and Voluntary Organisations. Alice Sheppard, who ran our citizen science training webinars, will run one especially aimed at non-academics (though academics are still welcome!). We’ll hear about some how-tos with getting started in activities such as citizen science, share resources and tips, and do some online problem-solving together. The interactive element is optional: if you’re feeling shy, you’re welcome to just listen in. Register here.

Tuesday 8th December, 17:30 GMT

Higher Education and voluntary groups co-creation event. Join people from and interested in Higher Education and the voluntary sector to co-create methods to support Digital Action projects. Share your thoughts and ideas to co-create a methodology for identifying the barriers, opportunities, and needs of Digital Action projects run by Higher Education (HE) academic or support staff and members of voluntary organisations. This event will be run by Hannah Gibbs. Register here.

Feel free to get in touch with us if you have any questions about these events. You can e-mail Alice or Hannah at UCL, tweet us at @HeidiProject or find us on Facebook.