The bottom-up research initiative “Isala” received the European Commission’s first citizen science award: the Belgian project analyzes the vaginal microbiome with the voluntary participation of the population to simultaneously promote medical knowledge and awareness of women’s health. Two other award-winning projects deal with fixing broken electronics and underrepresented groups in a city.
The European Commission prize, worth a total of €100,000, was awarded for the first time this year. Ars Electronica in Linz was commissioned with the tender. Thus, the winners were presented on Monday at the Ars Electronica Center and the projects will be presented at the Ars Electronica Festival in September. The award is intended for initiatives that also involve people outside academia in research, promoting transparency and inclusion and illuminating new perspectives. 321 projects were registered.
The main prize is the European Union Prize for Citizen Science – Grand Prize, with a value of 60,000 euros. He went to a project named after Belgium’s first female doctor, women’s rights activist Isala van Diest (1842-1916). “Isala” deals with the microbiome – bacteria, viruses, fungi – in the vaginal area to be able to recognize clinical conditions earlier and obtain better therapies. Originally, the intention was to motivate 200 women to participate and send a swab along with a completed questionnaire – but the response was much greater: more than 5,500 women participated in just a few days. 275 were finally selected for a long-term study.
The Danish Urban Belonging Project, which looks at Copenhagen from the perspective of generally underrepresented groups, received the Diversity and Collaboration Award (20,000 euros). Members of ethnic minorities, the deaf, the homeless, the mentally ill and people of the LGBTIQ+ community documented their experiences in the city. The Digital Communities Prize, also endowed with 20,000 euros, went to “The Restart Project: The Right to Repair and Reuse your Electronics” from London. The project tries to minimize electronic waste – among other things, with restart parties and networking repair initiatives and volunteers interested in manual labor.
In addition to the three main winners, 27 projects received honorable mentions. There were honorable mentions, for example, for the project “SensJus: Sensing for Justice”, which ensures proof of environmental crimes, for “Surfside Science”, which deals with microplastics, or for the “Dark Sky Meter”, which maps light pollution globally .