A Horizon Europe project
Doing
more4nature with citizen science
more4nature is a Horizon Europe project funded under Food, Bioeconomy Natural Resources, Agriculture and Environment that started in January 2024, ending in December 2027, formed by a consortium of 21 partners and led by IHE Delft.
more4nature (10.3030/101133983) is structured into work packages that reflect the socio-technical approach of the project.
- 01Create transformative change in citizens, communities and authorities in monitoring, protecting and improving pollution, biodiversity and deforestation.
Clean rivers, lakes, oceans, soils and skies are the basic building blocks of healthy ecosystems and communities. In this theme, more4nature explores how citizen science can monitor, promote and enforce current policies to prevent air, water and plastic pollution.
- 02Increase trust in citizen-generated data as complementary to official observations and enabling its validation, sharing, and reuse.
Thriving wildlife and resilient ecosystems sustain the diversity of life on our planet. In this theme, more4nature explores how citizen science can help by promoting compliance with policies that protect species and ecosystem diversity and monitoring policy effectiveness.
- 03Generation of indicators using the European Open Science Cloud (EOSC) as a platform.
Deforestation and forest degradation aggravates climate change and the loss of biodiversity. The main driver of deforestation is the expansion of agricultural land, and the EU is responsible for about 20% of deforestation and forest degradation worldwide mainly through imports of agricultural products. In this theme, more4nature explores how citizen generated data can best support deforestation-free imports and the implementation of complementary international agreements by ensuring uptake of relevant citizen generated data in compliance assurance.
- 04Empower citizens and communities by co-designing actions with local authorities to protect their environment in diverse LivingLabs via guidance, tools and capacity building.
Deforestation and forest degradation aggravates climate change and the loss of biodiversity. The main driver of deforestation is the expansion of agricultural land, and the EU is responsible for about 20% of deforestation and forest degradation worldwide mainly through imports of agricultural products. In this theme, more4nature explores how citizen generated data can best support deforestation-free imports and the implementation of complementary international agreements by ensuring uptake of relevant citizen generated data in compliance assurance.
- 05Enable authorities and national agencies to combine authoritative data and citizen science data for monitoring of policy frameworks.
Citizen science is becoming accepted for biodiversity (e.g. species occurrence quantification and forest monitoring) and air quality (e.g. by the deployment of low-cost sensors) but a deeper transformation is needed in the way authorities collaborate with citizens to integrate CGD in the monitoring frameworks for Zero pollution, biodiversity protection and deforestation prevention.
A socio-technical approach implemented via Dooble Loop Action Research.
Work Packages
- 01/04
Social dimensions: Empowering citizens in collaborative environmental compliance assurance.
- 02/04
Technical dimensions: Geospatial modelling with FAIR Citizen Generated Data.
- 03/04
Case studies on collaborative environmental compliance assurance for zero pollution, biodiversity protection and deforestation prevention.
- 04/04
Communication, Dissemination and Exploitation.
Social dimensions: Empowering citizens in collaborative environmental compliance assurance.
Technical dimensions: Geospatial modelling with FAIR Citizen Generated Data.
Case studies on collaborative environmental compliance assurance for zero pollution, biodiversity protection and deforestation prevention.
Communication, Dissemination and Exploitation.
Partners
The more4nature activities are focused on three key thematic areas in environmental protection:
The multidisciplinary more4nature consortium brings together a unique combination of collaborations, with scientific experts from the social sciences, data science and technology, and natural sciences, most of whom also have substantial experience with hands-on Citizen Science. The consortium combines institutional actors, namely environmental agencies and institutions with citizen science initiatives and environmental NGOs practicing Citizen Science and intermediaries as well as a network of Fab Labs and Designers and the private sector. This enables the consortium to implement its ambitious and truly innovative socio-technical approach for large-scale double loop Action Research.