Gemeinsam Wissen schaffen: Citizen Science, Kommunikation und Vertrauen | 5. - 6. Oktober 2026, Berlin

How can citizen science be strategically implemented and sustainably embedded within university structures? This session brings together practitioners, researchers and institutional actors working at the intersection of participatory research and higher education. It aims to create a collaborative space for exchange, mutual learning and reflection on enabling conditions for long-term institutionalization.

As an input, we will briefly present the Public Engagement Hub at the University of Tübingen. The Hub acts as an agile interface, facilitating exchange between academia and civil society. The hub brings together experts from the university in the fields of citizen science, media literacy and video production, public engagement and science communication. We will share insights into its development, its role within the university’s strategic framework as well as successes and pitfalls encountered along the way.

Building on this example, the session will open into a collegial exchange focused on shared challenges and transferable approaches. A central aim of the roundtable is to foster solidarity and mutual learning across institutional contexts.

Guiding questions for discussion include: How can citizen science be integrated into university strategies? How can its implementation be meaningfully evaluated? How can mistrust among researchers toward citizen science be addressed and transformed? What training, incentives, and support structures effectively empower researchers to engage in participatory approaches? And what opportunities exist for cross-institutional collaboration to strengthen the recognition of citizen science?