EPICUR Citizen Science Project

Climate change is more and more visible. Extreme weather, heat waves, droughts, flash floods and wildfires have become part of everyday life in many regions of Europe. Younger generations are strongly affected by the effects of climate change. Many young people feel angry, helpless, and disillusioned by the apathy of the authorities. Meanwhile, seniors take a different approach to climate change: they are less anxious and more emotionally distanced.

Scientists from Denmark, Germany, Greece and Poland working as part of the EPICUR SGHAPE IT consortium of European universities studied these generational differences to better understand the social attitudes and emotions towards the climate crisis. At the heart of the project is encouraging young people to become civic researchers. This is why high school students from several countries helped gather data on how different generations of Europeans feel about climate change.

Young people took an active part in all stages of the pilot project: proposing survey questions, collecting data, interpreting results, and discussing feedback on the form and content of the study. Research teams from each university involved in the project met with the students during meetings and workshops organized at each stage of the project.

Projects like these provide younger generations with hands-on experience in scientific research, allow them to voice their opinion and show that their knowledge, sensitivity and opinion matter. The initiative lays the foundations for participatory research on a European scale, promotes civic learning, and develops good practices for cooperation with young people.

The pilot study tested a number of cooperation methods, reviewed study design and implementation, and proposed factors that should be taken into account in future activities of this type at the level of knowledge and organization.