Crowd4SDG
Crowd4SDG is a Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Action supported by the European Commission’s Science with and for Society (SwafS) programme and sponsored by CERN IdeaSquare with the partnership of key players in AI, Sustainability and Engineering.
Crowd4SDG is a transdisciplinary research project funded under the Horizon 2020 “Science with and for Society” (SwafS) programme of the European Commission. The initiative investigates how Citizen Science (CS) can support the monitoring and implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), particularly by contributing non-traditional data and fostering grassroots social innovation.
The initiative focuses particularly on SDG 13, Climate Action, and is implemented by a transdisciplinary consortium of six partners: Université de Genève, CSIC (Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas), Politecnico di Milano, Université Paris Cité, UNITAR (United Nations Institute for Training and Research), and CERN, through its innovation space, IdeaSquare.
#Open17ClimateGender Challenge – GEAR Cycle 2
As part of GEAR Cycle 2, I participated in the #Open17ClimateGender Challenge, launched in August 2021. This edition of the challenge focused on the intersection of climate change (SDG 13) and gender equality (SDG 5), encouraging the development of crowdsourcing-based projects that address specific societal challenges. These included assessing the different impacts of climate-related disasters on women and men, improving data on women’s participation in environmental governance, and evaluating gendered vulnerabilities in the context of climate change.
The challenge invited global participants to propose crowdsourcing-based solutions to issues such as gendered impacts of climate change and women’s roles in environmental governance. From over 150 submissions, selected teams underwent a five-week coaching program led by UN and European research experts. We developed socially impactful projects using crowdsourcing tools and data methodologies.
From this experience, I collaborated on the development of Poli4SDG, a prototype application focused on supporting users during environmental crises and climate-related disasters. The app, structured for both web and mobile platforms, was designed to align with SDG 13 and integrate gender equality considerations from SDG 5. Based on Citizen Science principles, it features a public, typology-based crisis catalog enriched by user contributions. This project served as the basis for an academic paper (Valeriani & Biasiolo, 2023) exploring the app’s functionalities and the role of civic technology in emergency response.
