9TH SEPTEMBER 2022, FINAL CONFERENCE IN CASCAIS, LISBON
On 9 September 2022 at Casa Sommer in Cascais, near Lisbon, took place the final conference of the project ‘Civic Monitoring For the Future of Europe’, with the participation of all the partners’organizations.
The conference started with an appreciation from Joana Balsemao, Councillor for the Environment of Cascais, for the civic monitoring initiative carried out through the project, emphasising the special attention that the municipality of Cascais pays to the active participation of citizens in the political and social life of the city.
The conference continued with a description of the national experiences of civic monitoring, focusing on the final results achieved, the best practices that have emerged to involve citizens in activities, and the strengths and weaknesses of the projects monitored.
Based on the civic monitoring experience of all organisations, some policy recommendations were also produced for European institutions to increase the impact of funded projects and citizen participation. Here a short summery ot them:
- Ensure adequate online and offline comunication and dissemination of the project and of its results among the community, especially to those closer to the project location.
- Envisage and improve citizens involvment and active participation in each stage of the implementation of an EU funded project, including the early designing stage
- Coordinate and support the regional planning authorities in their process of planning the call for tenders funded through EU structural funds, in particular ERDF and ESF
Click here if you want to find out more about the national civic monitoring activities in the project countries and the summarised conclusions.
The conference ended with the speech of Gianfranco Gatti, President of Demostene Centro Studi, the lead organization of the project. In his speech, he introduced the concept of citizens’ science by positioning civic monitoring as a social citizens’science practice.
Social citizens’ science refers to CS applied to social projects or projects with a specific focus on social aspects. In this sense, civic monitoring belongs to this branch.
Click here to learn more about this topic of citizens’ science.
To learn more about the conference content, please refer to the Resources section of the website, where you can view and download all the material.
