This EC-funded research project assesses how grassroots citizen scientists in three world regions (East Asia, Western Europe, Central Africa) mobilize new data devices and technologies to tackle environmental threats; and how formal institutions respond to citizen-driven environmental data practices. With concerned stakeholders, it addresses the challenges and pitfalls that emerge in these processes with the aim of developing mutually responsive environmental data governance approaches.

The project is led by Dr. Michiel Van Oudheusden and supervised by Prof Jennifer Gabrys, who leads the AirKit proof-of-concept project.

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Funding: H2020-MSCA-IF-2018 (836989)

Duration: 01/09/2019 - 31/08/2022

Research Theme: Science and Technology

Image Credit: Hans Boeykens

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Michiel Van Oudheusden (PhD, 2012, University of Antwerp) is a Marie Skłodowska-Curie research fellow, working at the intersections of environmental sociology, policy making and digital participation. He researches how science, technology, and innovation (STI) are governed in diverse sociotechnical fields, including new and emerging technologies, nuclear science and engineering, and sport and recreation. From 2008 to 2012, he reflected with Flemish nanoscientists and technologists on how nanotechnologies shape new, collective futures. This exploration resulted in his PhD thesis on the politics of participation in technology assessment. While based at the University of Liège (2012-2015), he compared Flemish and Walloon STI policies. In 2015, he joined the Belgian Nuclear Research Centre SCK-CEN, where he studied safety and security governance, citizen-driven radiation monitoring, and reached out to policymakers, scientists, members of civil society, and the public at large, with a view towards inciting responsible research and innovation in the nuclear field. He is affiliated to KU Leuven and a cofounder and co-coordinator of the FWO-funded Belgian Science, Technology and Society network.

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