Final round for the Crowd4SDG programme: 5 finalists will present their citizen science projects on March 17th
The 3-year project Crowd4SDG culminates in a Final Conference on March 17th, open to the public on registration. The 5 finalist teams will present their citizen science initiatives, developed in the three cycles of the programme, and all addressing the SDG 13, Climate Action.
01 03 2023
Final round for the Crowd4SDG programme: 5 finalists will present their citizen science projects on March 17th

The 3-year project Crowd4SDG culminates in a Final Conference on March 17th, open to the public on registration. The 5 finalist teams will present their citizen science initiatives, developed in the three cycles of the programme, and all addressing the SDG 13, Climate Action.

A final conference to explore possible futures for climate action

On March 17th, the Crowd4SDG Final Conference will deliver the results of 3 years of this EU project aiming to promote the development of citizen science projects addressing the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) with a focus on climate action, SDG 13. 

Five teams have been selected and guided across all three “GEAR cycles” – a novel innovation methodology -, respectively exploring a specific sustainability dimension of climate preparedness, in connection with another SDG: sustainable cities (SDG 11), women empowerment (SDG 5) and human rights (SDG 16). 

The 3-year project Crowd4SDG culminates in a Final Conference on March 17th, open to the public on registration. The 5 finalist teams will present their citizen science initiatives, developed in the three cycles of the programme, and all addressing the SDG 13, Climate Action.

The five finalists will have two days of preparation – including participation in the Geneva Trialogue conference – dedicated to coaching sessions to accelerate their projects and come up with possible solutions to carry them on in the future.

The Final Conference is open to the public – but registration is required. This day will include input from the research team of the Learning Planet Institute and all its partners of Crowd4SDG: CERN, Université de Genève (UNIGE), Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (IIA-CSIC), Politecnico di Milano (POLIMI), United Nations Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR), and Université Paris Cité.

  • Morning sessions: demonstrating the potential of citizen science for monitoring SDGs

The morning session centers around presentations and panel discussions, with presentations exploring citizen science tools with artificial intelligence, demonstrating the value of citizen science data for monitoring the impacts of extreme climate events, empowering local communities with a Citizen Science Solution Kit, amongst more; featuring speakers from within the consortium and Crowd4SDG GEAR Cycle participants.

  • Afternoon sessions: hackathons

Three hackathons will run parallel across the afternoon, also centring around the theme of using citizen science tools, and considering how they can be used beyond the Crowd4SDG project and aims to expand upon ideas surrounding citizen science and crowdsourced data collection with SDGs. The hackathons will be led by Crowd4SDG partners and are as follows: 

  1. How can online public deliberation tackle climate change? The case of transportation in International Geneva
  2. Using crowdsourcing tools and digital currencies to transform public participation in climate resilience research
  3. Leveraging citizen science for data-driven policies on sustainable development

5 finalists teams engaged in tackling Climate Action challenges

Across these three years – GEAR Cycle 1, GEAR Cycle 2 and GEAR Cycle 3 -, hundreds of very creative social projects have been submitted to the Crowd4SDG programme by young participants. In the end, five teams have seen their project evolving through the GEAR cycle and being selected for this Crowd4SDG Final Conference.

GEAR #1

A flood alert system using Machine Learning and hardware sensors.

GEAR #2

A project that makes it easy to collect, analyze, and visualize data on women and climate change, and that is making visible the knowledge of indigenous women in climate actions and protection the planet

NB: this project is co-led by Longmun Dawam and by our alumni Merlyn Hurtado (AIRE Master’s programme)

A project aimed at providing drinking water all year round for target rural communities in Nigeria faced with challenges of access to clean water.

GEAR #3

AquaTech wants to mitigate water scarcity in borehole dependent communities through monitoring solutions that support access to real time data on hand pump borehole failures.

Let’s Clean Up wants to achieve a cleaner, healthier environment, by optimizing waste management and reducing waste abandoned on the ground.

About the Crowd4SDG project and its novel innovation “GEAR” cycle 

The project Crowd4SDG is led by a transdisciplinary consortium of six partners and promotes the development of citizen science projects aimed at tackling the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), with a focus on climate action. The goal of this EU funded project is to assess the usefulness of practical innovations developed by the teams of participants, and research and investigate how AI applications can enhance and provide effective monitoring of SDG targets and indicators by citizens.

Crowd4SDG is a Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Action supported by the European Commission’s Science with and for Society (SwafS) programme. 

The Crowd4SDG consortium is made up of Université Paris Cité and its lab the Learning Planet Institute, University of Geneva, CERN, the Spanish National Research Council and its Artificial Intelligence Research Institute, Politecnico di Milano, the United Nations Institute for Research and Training.

The citizen science initiatives organized by Crowd4SDG follow a novel innovation methodology called GEAR cycle (Gather, Evaluate, Accelerate, Refine).

The initiatives organized by Crowd4SDG follow a novel innovation methodology called GEAR cycle (Gather, Evaluate, Accelerate, Refine). While the citizen science projects developed in the three GEAR cycles of Crowd4SDG all aim to address the SDG 13, Climate Action, each GEAR cycle explored a specific sustainability dimension of climate preparedness, in connection with another SDG: sustainable cities (SDG 11), women empowerment (SDG 5) and human rights (SDG 16). 

While the citizen science projects developed in the three GEAR cycles of Crowd4SDG all aim to address the SDG 13, Climate Action, each GEAR cycle explored a specific sustainability dimension of climate preparedness, in connection with another SDG: sustainable cities (SDG 11), women empowerment (SDG 5) and human rights (SDG 16). 

The Crowd4SDG Final Conference will bring to an end this 3-year project. During this time, a wide range of stakeholders, from the UN, governments, the private sector, NGOs, academia, innovation incubators and maker spaces, have been involved in advising the selected citizen science project and have been exploiting the scientific knowledge and technical innovations that it generates. This final event is a great opportunity to highlight the accomplishments and projects of GEAR Cycle finalists as well as the powerful synergy between youth initiatives and research projects.


For more information on the projects, visit the website and videos on social media:


Cette publication s’inscrit dans le cadre de la Chaire UNESCO « Sciences de l’apprendre », établi entre l’UNESCO et Université Paris Cité, en partenariat avec le Learning Planet Institute.
Les idées et opinions exprimées dans cette publication sont celles des auteurs. Elles ne représentent pas nécessairement les vues de l’UNESCO et n’engagent en rien l’Organisation.


Crédits photo : ©Quentin Chevrier

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