Objectif Sciences International

Do you have an activity, a field site, expertise or a scientific question? Let's transform them together into a Participatory Science programme.

Thomas EGLI — 2026-08-11T16:38:39Z

Objectif Sciences International can build partnerships with NGOs, associations, universities, laboratories, companies, local authorities, travel agencies, foundations, educational institutions, field operators, public institutions, international organizations, professional networks, or independent project leaders who wish to directly involve citizens in a genuine research process.

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It is not necessary to arrive with a fully designed program.

You can contact us with:

a scientific question;
a subject you would like to document;
an existing field activity;
a destination or territory in which you work;
a network of researchers, citizens or local stakeholders;
a trip, expedition or educational program you would like to develop further;
a method or technology to test;
an issue faced by a population or territory;
data that need to be produced;
a scientific project seeking a participatory model;
or simply an idea whose feasibility you would like to test.

Our guiding principle: enable people who are not necessarily researchers to progressively become capable of making a genuine contribution to the production of knowledge, the experimentation of a solution or the implementation of an action documented scientifically.

What do we mean by “participatory research Participatory Research see : http://www.voyages-scientifiques.com ”?

A participatory scientific activity does not simply consist of presenting science, explaining a phenomenon, visiting a laboratory or accompanying a scientist in the field.

At Objectif Sciences International, we organize our work to create an experiential journey in which participants progressively become active contributors to a project that produces results.

Depending on the program, they may, for example:

learn to observe and recognize a phenomenon;
formulate or understand a research question;
learn a protocol;
carry out observations or measurements;
collect data;
contribute to improving a method;
build or use instruments;
interview residents or professionals;
analyze results;
compare several hypotheses;
participate in an experiment;
document the effects of a solution;
contribute to a database;
participate in restoration, remediation or conservation operations;
present their results;
contribute, depending on the project, to a scientific publication or to recommendations intended for decision-makers.

Participation can therefore involve physical, natural, engineering and experimental sciences as well as the humanities and social sciences.

It can take place within fundamental research, applied research, an innovation process, environmental monitoring, a social experiment or the documented implementation of a solution.

We can start from an activity you already carry out

You do not necessarily need to invent a new program.

A large part of our work may consist of examining what you already do and identifying how to add a genuine participatory research Participatory Research see : http://www.voyages-scientifiques.com dimension to it.

Example – A biodiversity conservation association

An association already organizes outings that allow participants to observe an endangered species in a mountainous region.

Instead of creating an entirely new activity, we can work together so that some outings progressively contribute to a scientific protocol: identifying signs of presence, geolocating observations, characterizing habitat, photographic monitoring, standardized surveys and data transmission.

The association retains its local and naturalist expertise.

Scientific partners guarantee the relevance of the question and the protocol.

OSI contributes, in particular, its experience in participatory research, educational progression and the organization of programs that enable non-specialists to become genuine contributors.

We can also start from a research question

Are you a researcher, laboratory or university with a question requiring a large number of observations, field sites, measurements or human interactions?

We can study with you which parts of the protocol can be opened to participants.

Example – A university laboratory

A team is studying the evolution of a coastal ecosystem and does not have enough staff to repeat certain observations on a large scale.

A participatory program can enable different groups to return several times a year, acquire the necessary skills and produce part of the observations under the supervision of a scientific protocol.

The trip is then no longer simply a visit to the territory: it becomes one of the means of producing the data required for the research.

Are you an NGO or an association?

Your organization may already possess what is most difficult to create:

a local presence;
expertise;
a community;
scientific partners;
a relationship of trust with residents;
a field of action;
several years of data or experience.

We can examine how these resources can become the basis of a viable and replicable participatory program.

The partnership may focus in particular on:

choosing the scientific question;
designing the participatory format;
educational progression;
choosing target audiences;
designing trips or expeditions;
tools for preparing operations;
allocating responsibilities;
the cost structure;
recruiting and training teams;
program visibility;
seeking additional funding;
progressively developing the program over several years.

Are you a university, laboratory or researcher?

You can use a partnership with OSI to develop the participatory component of existing research or to bring about a new program.

Depending on the situation, OSI can help build the bridge between:

researchers + field operators + participants + educational organizations + local partners + funders.

Example – A team working in the social sciences

Researchers want to understand how rural communities adapt their practices to rapid environmental changes.

Participants can be trained in a survey method, contribute to a campaign of interviews and observations, document certain practices and participate in the initial stages of structuring the data.

Participatory research is therefore not limited to naturalist inventories or physical measurements.

Are you a company?

A company may have a technology, know-how, a territorial network or an issue whose study may be of scientific and collective interest.

A partnership is not intended to turn a commercial operation into pseudo-research.

However, we can work with you to identify a genuine question of scientific or societal interest around which a participatory approach is relevant.

This may concern, for example:

water quality;
biodiversity;
soils;
agriculture;
energy;
materials;
uses;
mobility;
ergonomics;
collective intelligence;
behaviors;
climate adaptation;
reducing environmental impacts;
the design or evaluation of solutions.

Example – A technology company

A company is developing a low-cost environmental sensor.

A program designed with researchers and OSI can enable several groups of participants to compare measurements from the sensor with reference methods in different contexts.

Participants are not used merely as testers: they understand the question, learn the protocol, produce data and contribute to analyzing the limitations of the tool.

Are you a local authority, a territory or a public service?

Citizens can become producers of knowledge that is useful to their own territory.

A municipality, region, river basin agency, natural park or other public stakeholder may, for example, wish to better document:

a watercourse;
heat islands;
biodiversity;
soils;
erosion;
air quality;
landscapes;
uses of an area;
mobility;
certain effects of climate change;
or the effectiveness of a public action.

Example – A watershed

Several municipalities want to monitor more closely the evolution of small tributaries for which professional measurements are infrequent.

Residents, school pupils, students and visitors can learn different levels of protocols.

Participatory data do not necessarily replace regulatory measurements: they can provide complementary observation frequency, territorial coverage and alert capacity.

Are you a travel agency, tour operator, accommodation provider or tourism operator?

You already have a capacity that many scientific projects do not have: bringing people to a field site and giving them an experience.

We can examine how some of your trips can become participatory research journeys.

This requires more than adding a scientific lecture to a tour.

The objective is to build a program in which participants progressively become capable of taking action.

Example – A nature travel operator

An operator has been offering wildlife observation trips for several years.

The trip can retain much of its itinerary while incorporating a scientific thread throughout: defining observation stations, applying a reproducible protocol, collecting data, comparing observations, conducting daily analyses and transmitting results to a partner scientific team.

The enjoyment of the journey remains.

But the journey now also produces something that did not exist before it.

Are you a school, university or educational network?

A school trip can become a genuine research project.

A class can contribute before, during and after the trip.

Preparation beforehand makes it possible to acquire the necessary knowledge and methods.

The fieldwork becomes the production phase.

The return phase allows for analysis, presentation of results and, where appropriate, continuation of the program.

Example – A network of educational institutions

Several schools located in different countries study the same ecological indicator near their institution.

Students apply a common protocol, compare results between territories and monitor their evolution over the years.

Each institution carries out a local project while contributing to much broader collective research.

Are you a foundation, philanthropist or patron?

You can also contact us not because you already have a project, but because you would like to make it possible for a particular audience to participate in research.

For example:

fund the participation of young people who could not otherwise afford it;
enable girls and young women to access scientific programs;
fund shared scientific equipment;
fund a reconnaissance phase;
fund the creation of a new protocol;
enable a program to begin in a new territory;
fund several years of observations;
support the training of local stakeholders;
enable a proven project to scale up.

Funding can therefore directly contribute to increasing the quantity and quality of participatory research produced.

Are you an international organization or a public agency?

A resolution, international strategy or public objective rarely produces effects simply because it has been adopted.

It then requires stakeholders, territories, data and implementation capacity.

A participatory research program can become a means of connecting an international direction with thousands of documented local actions.

Example – An international recommendation

An international organization wants to accelerate the adoption of an environmental practice in several countries.

A participatory program can enable communities, schools, NGOs and researchers to test different implementation methods, document their results and progressively feed back comparable data.

Participatory research then also becomes a tool for moving from recommendation to action.

Are you an individual project leader?

You do not need to have already created a large organization.

A researcher, naturalist, engineer, science communicator, explorer, teacher, professional or group of people can initiate a program.

Depending on the project, it will then be necessary to determine which partners are needed:

scientific organization;
local operator;
legal entity;
educational team;
funder;
accommodation;
transport;
public institution;
company;
university;
or another member of a consortium.

We can work specifically on this architecture.

Do you only have an exceptional field site? That may be enough to get started.

A nature reserve, farm, forest, observatory, island, fab lab, scientific station, museum, archaeological site, village or territory can host research questions that no one had yet considered.

We can start from the resources available:

What is here? What is changing? What deserves to be measured? Which researchers might be interested? What could participants actually do?

The program can then emerge from this analysis.

Do you already have participants but no research yet?

This is also a possible starting point.

An organization may already welcome each year:

travelers;
students;
families;
school groups;
volunteers;
employees;
residents;
members of a network.

The question then becomes:

what new scientific production could be made possible thanks to this existing human capacity?

Do you have the research but not yet the audience?

We can work in the other direction.

A scientific question may be excellent while remaining difficult to turn into an accessible experience.

It is then necessary to identify:

what participants can actually do;
what they must learn before they can do it;
how much time this progression requires;
which tasks must remain reserved for specialists;
how to organize the experience so that it remains motivating;
what group size is appropriate;
which audiences are suitable;
which operations can be repeated.

The partnership can begin well before the first “real” research

Some projects require several years before reaching their definitive protocol.

This is not necessarily a problem.

The preparatory stages can themselves become useful when they are properly designed and documented.

For example:

survey different sites;
compare several field sites;
establish a baseline;
carry out initial inventories;
build a photographic database;
identify local partners;
test methods;
test equipment;
document access conditions;
establish an initial map;
identify relevant questions with local populations;
create the first datasets.

A participatory program can therefore tell and document a scientific journey over several years rather than claiming to have all the answers and all the protocols from the very first day.

A project can combine several scientific disciplines

There is no need to choose between natural sciences and human sciences.

The same program can, for example, combine:

ecology;
agronomy;
geography;
hydrology;
climatology;
economics;
anthropology;
sociology;
psychology;
education sciences;
engineering;
computer science;
data science.

Example – Agriculture and biodiversity

A program focused on the transformation of an agricultural landscape can combine biodiversity inventories, soil measurements, mapping, the study of agricultural practices and surveys of residents.

Participants then contribute to several layers of a shared understanding of the territory.

Several audiences can participate in the same program

The same research question can give rise to several formats:

expedition for adults;
family trip;
school program;
student internship;
program for professionals;
local operation involving residents;
science camp;
trip for teenagers;
mission dedicated to a group funded by a foundation;
scientific volunteering program;
one-off data collection event;
recurring program over several years.

Protocols, responsibilities, supervision and levels of progression are adapted to the audience concerned.

Welcoming minors, particularly when they are not accompanied by their legal guardians, naturally requires specific organization and responsibilities.

Who does what? There is no single partnership model.

OSI does not necessarily ask its partners to transfer all of their activities to it.

We build an allocation of roles tailored to each project.

Depending on the situation:

the scientific partner defines or co-defines the protocol;
a local partner organizes the field operations;
OSI leads the participatory research format;
a tour operator manages part of the travel;
several partners promote the program;
OSI or a partner manages registrations;
an organization hosts participants on site;
a university carries out the scientific analysis;
a foundation funds certain participants;
a company funds equipment;
a local authority facilitates access to the territory;
several organizations jointly handle communication.

The preliminary work consists precisely of determining:

who does what, who bears which responsibility, who incurs which expenses, who receives which revenues and who has which resources.

Registrations can be distributed among several partners

A program can be promoted by several stakeholders.

Depending on the chosen structure, OSI, an association partner, a tourism operator or another organization may participate in finding participants and managing registrations.

The allocation is defined on a case-by-case basis within the operational and economic architecture of the project.

The objective is to avoid an abstract partnership.

Each function must have an identified person or organization responsible for it.

Together, we build the economic structure of the operation

A sustainable program must know precisely the cost of each session.

Possible cost items include:

accommodation;
food;
transport;
supervision;
scientists;
coordination;
insurance;
premises;
equipment;
consumables;
logistics;
communication;
registration fees;
administrative costs;
investments required to develop the program.

The objective is to achieve a model in which running a new session does not financially weaken the program.

Registrations do not necessarily have to fund everything

A participatory research program generally involves several interconnected economic models.

1. The economics of the operation

Registrations or funding directly linked to participants make it possible to cover the cost of running the trip or session.

2. The economics of development

Launching a new territory, purchasing major equipment, creating a protocol or making certain investments may require additional resources.

3. The economics of impact

A foundation, company, local authority or public funder may wish to fund certain audiences, an increase in the number of actions, infrastructure or the scaling up of the program.

These three dimensions can be built together without artificially placing all development costs on the price paid by each participant.

We can seek several forms of funding

Depending on the nature of the project, additional resources may come in particular from:

public grants;
calls for projects;
philanthropy;
foundations;
patronage;
sponsorship;
CSR policies;
crowdfunding;
individual donations;
industrial partnerships;
territorial funding;
research funding;
educational funding;
funding for specific audiences;
impact finance when the project and its model are suited to it.

Funding is not, however, a separate stage from project design.

A project becomes easier to fund when it can explain precisely what each additional euro will make it possible to produce.

An initial reconnaissance mission can itself become an operation

Have you never worked in the proposed field location before?

That does not necessarily prevent you from beginning to build the program.

A reconnaissance mission can, in some cases, be organized with a very small group of experienced participants or partners.

Example – First exploration of a new territory

A team wants to create a program in a territory it does not yet know well enough.

A first small mission can be used to test travel arrangements, accommodation, several study areas, equipment, local contacts and certain preliminary observations.

The operation is explicitly presented as an exploratory phase.

It produces the information needed to design the next program instead of waiting for all this information to exist before getting started.

It is not always necessary to wait until everything is known before presenting the project

Developing a program takes time.

It may therefore be appropriate to publish sufficiently early a description presenting:

the subject;
the territory;
the general question;
the type of research;
the proposed experience;
the audiences concerned;
the main stages envisaged.

Elements that are still under development simply need to be presented as such.

The description can then be enriched as reconnaissance work progresses, new scientific partnerships are formed and the protocol advances.

Each new stage then also becomes an opportunity to tell the story of the project's progress.

We can help you choose the right participatory research question

This is often one of the most important stages.

An organization sometimes arrives with a very broad field:

“biodiversity”, “water”, “forest”, “climate”, “education”, “agriculture”, “health”, “astronomy”...

But a participatory program needs a sufficiently precise question in order to produce something real.

We can examine with you:

what is already being studied;
the scientific partners available;
the needs of the territory;
questions that are still poorly documented;
protocols accessible to different audiences;
the potential value of the data;
possibilities for repetition over time;
possibilities for replication in other territories;
public policies or international programs to which the project can contribute.

The challenge is not to create an additional scientific activity when a highly effective system already exists.

It may be far more useful to identify the angle that is still missing and that will make your project genuinely useful.

Your project can start locally and become international

Some programs begin in a single territory.

Once the protocol has been stabilized, it may become possible to reproduce it in:

several regions;
several watersheds;
several schools;
several reserves;
several countries;
several communities;
or an entire international network.

Fictional example – A first site becomes a distributed observatory

A monitoring protocol tested for two years in one valley works correctly.

The program is then offered to five comparable territories.

Participants produce the same categories of data.

The project progressively ceases to be a simple local activity and becomes a distributed knowledge infrastructure.

Your project can also join a broader ecosystem

Depending on the nature and maturity of the program, partners can also connect with different spaces and tools developed around Objectif Sciences International.

These make it possible, in particular, to work on:

program design and improvement;
team training;
educational methods;
economic models;
partnerships;
funding;
public visibility;
international cooperation;
scaling up projects.

Depending on needs and schedules, this may include collective preparation sessions, training courses, meetings between operators, Terra Scientifica, the Geneva Forum or other initiatives associated with the OSI ecosystem.

What we look for above all in a partner

We do not necessarily look for an organization that already has substantial resources.

Above all, we look for partners who bring at least one of the building blocks needed to create something solid:

a relevant question;
scientific expertise;
a field site;
a real issue;
a local network;
operational capacity;
an audience;
a technology;
data;
a method;
funding capacity;
dissemination capacity;
a long-term vision.

OSI can provide some building blocks. Other partners will provide others. The final project is often a collective architecture.

You can contact us at any stage of your project

You only have an idea so far

We can examine whether it can become a participatory research question.

You already have a scientific question

We can study what participants can actually produce.

You already have a field site

We can explore what research could be carried out there.

You already have a trip or activity

We can study how to transform it into a participatory research experience.

You already have the project but not its economic model

We can work on roles, costs, revenues and additional funding.

You already have a program that works

We can think with you about replicating it or scaling it up.

You are a funder

We can work with you on the type of participatory infrastructure or program that your funding could make possible.

How does a collaboration begin?

There is no need to prepare a fifty-page proposal. Contact us (email, telephone, LinkedIn, by coming to meet us at the Geneva Forum...).

For an initial discussion, a few pieces of information are enough:

Who are you?
What is your subject?
What resources do you already have?
In which territory or with which audience would you like to act?
What new output would you like to produce?
What are you currently missing in order to achieve this?

Based on these elements, we can determine whether cooperation with Objectif Sciences International makes sense and identify the first building blocks of the partnership.

What we will examine with you

During the initial discussions, we will seek in particular to understand:

the scientific value of the project;
its value for participants;
its value for the territory or society;
the genuine contribution that non-specialists can make;
the progression required for them to be able to make that contribution;
the essential partners;
logistical feasibility;
everyone's responsibilities;
the timeline;
the economic structure;
funding opportunities;
possibilities for replication;
and what makes the project complementary rather than redundant with what already exists.

Some situations in which you should contact us

“We are an NGO and have been present in a territory for twenty years, but we have never opened our work to participants.”

This is precisely a situation in which a partnership may be possible.

“We are researchers and would need thousands of observations spread over several years.”

Let us examine which parts of the protocol can become participatory.

“We are a travel agency and would like some of our trips to produce something scientifically useful.”

We can work on transforming the experience.

“We are a company and would like to fund a participatory program around an issue related to our field of activity.”

We can work with you to identify a scientifically relevant issue and an appropriate partnership structure.

“We are a municipality and want to enable residents to better understand and monitor their environment.”

A participatory observatory may be one possible response.

“We have an extraordinary research idea, but no economic model.”

Building the economic model can be part of the work.

“We do not yet have the money for the first mission.”

It may be appropriate to examine at the same time the reconnaissance phase, the future program, funding and the first communities likely to contribute to getting it started.

“Our project will not be able to produce genuine scientific results for another three years.”

That does not necessarily prevent the first documented stages from becoming a coherent part of the research journey.

What if your situation does not match any of these examples?

That is probably normal.

The most interesting partnerships often begin with a combination we have never encountered before.

Objectif Sciences International works at the interface between:

Science — Participation — Education — Fieldwork — Experience — Organizations — Territories — Funding — Impact.

You therefore do not need to know in advance which “box” you fit into.

Tell us what you know how to do, what you already have, what you are seeking to accomplish and what is currently holding you back.

Together, we will examine whether these elements can become the building blocks of a participatory research program.

Propose a partnership to Objectif Sciences International

To facilitate the initial discussion, you can send us:

the name of your organization;
your activity;
the territory concerned;
the scientific field or fields;
the partners you already have;
the audiences potentially concerned;
the idea or research question being considered;
the resources already available;
the current stage of the project;
and the main difficulties you would like to resolve.

Contact us to propose a Research project

Contact us to propose becoming a field organizer, for any type of partnership

You can contact us even if several of these pieces of information are still unknown. The design phase is precisely intended to identify them.

Participatory Research Project Creation – Permanent Call for Proposals

Thomas EGLI — 2026-01-25T16:24:40Z

Universities - Laboratories - Research Centers...

Gain for your research:

funding,
support for production,
and strengthened mobilization of results.

Do you have a research question, a need for knowledge, a field site or community in mind and want to broaden it through a Participatory Research initiative or project? Let's work together to design the project that suits you.

For over 30 years, the NGO OSI has promoted Participatory Research activities across all continents, including in support of Governmental Policies for Sustainable Development.

Respond to the Ongoing Call for Proposals by the NGO Objectif Sciences International.

Enjoy a simple and lightweight process: an express form (30–60 seconds), with no commitment, followed by a short qualification to frame the core of the project.

Increase your scientific output by broadening the research spectrum (multi-site, multi-audience)
Enable knowledge transfer and mobilization through the participatory dimension
Trigger and obtain additional funding thanks to operational formats of Participatory Research (scientific trips, hackathons, classes, observer networks, data challenges, etc.)

OSI and Participatory Research

1992: Launch of OSI's first Participatory Research project

2005: Pilot year: all children's and teenagers' science trips, school discovery classes, educational travel, and family trips are dedicated to real research and produce scientific results across all fields

2011: Granted Special Consultative Status with the UN (ECOSOC), and start of partnerships with UNESCO, UNEP, UN-Habitat...

2022: Co-Chair of the Selection Committee for the French National Research Agency's Participatory Research Call for Projects

Why this Call for Proposals?

Participatory research enables “more and better,” and “with”: more data, more fieldwork, more perspectives, and results more easily usable by society (public authorities, local governments, associations, companies, educational audiences...). Of course, there are many other benefits from the societal (engagement) and individual (capacity building, discernment, scientific literacy) perspectives as well.

The NGO Objectif Sciences International maintains this page with a Continuous Call for Proposals to help you initiate, shape, and deploy Participatory Research projects that strengthen at once:

scientific production (multi-site data collection, robust protocols, structured contributions),
transfer/mobilization of results (from the design stage, not just “at the end”),
the capacity to fund scientific production (fieldwork, facilitation, dissemination) via operational formats compatible with research.

A lightweight process

More than 30 years of experience are made available to you, including through an agile and entrepreneurial approach dedicated to designing Participatory Research projects, allowing for a lightweight journey designed to avoid burdening research teams at the proposal stage.

Step 1 — Express submission (30–60 seconds)

You outline the essentials via a short form, no documents to produce, no commitment.

Step 2 — Short qualification

OSI will contact you for a brief exchange to clarify the core of the project: research question, field, type of participation, possible trajectory, constraints, implementation and funding opportunities.

Step 3 — Optional project prototype framing

If interest and alignment are there, a short (video) session is held to turn the idea into an operational prototype (sketch): simple protocol, participation, data quality, format, timeline, dissemination.

Step 4 — Implementation (in chosen format)

Field coordination, followed by scale-up (multi-site / multi-season), publication and dissemination according to your strategy.

What you gain

1) Support for scientific production

broadened research scope (multi-site, multi-audience, multi-context),
faster field data collection,
improved ability to test protocols “under real conditions.”

2) Results mobilization integrated from the start

transfer, usage, appropriation: considered from the beginning,
structured dissemination and outreach (scientific + societal),
recognition and traceability of contributions (participants, partners, territories).

3) Additional funding through implementation formats

Depending on the format, the NGO can provide direct or indirect co-funding:

participation / training revenues (to fund field costs, logistics, participant facilitation),
public/private co-funding, sponsors, territorial programs, accessible due to the format chosen for the Participatory Research project,
foundations / philanthropy, funding one or several project components aligned with their goals,
dissemination / valorization budgets that complement the scientific core, through various pre-existing mechanisms.

Who can submit a proposal?

This Call for Proposals is deliberately inclusive: Participatory Research can stem from a scientific question, a local need, an association-driven issue, or a student project — and can then be strengthened with the right partners.

You can submit as:

Laboratory / University / Research center
Public authority (municipality, regional entity, natural park, public service…)
Association / NGO / collective
Students (master's work, group, PhD candidates, student association, junior enterprise…)
Company / startup (if relevant for transfer, implementation, or tools)
Citizens / field experts (if sponsorship is possible or can be built)

Even without a partner already identified, you can submit: OSI can assist with matching (lab, territory, participant network, dissemination partner, etc.) at various national or international events throughout the year.

What is eligible

To submit, you simply need:

a research question or need for knowledge,
a potential field/community (even broad: a territory, a network, a public, an ecosystem, a sector…).

Proposals are accepted at all levels of maturity:

idea / intuition,
already formulated question,
ongoing project (to scale / amplify / industrialize),
project ready for “landing” (valorize, disseminate, transfer, sustain).

Types of projects sought

The page welcomes a continuum, from “data collection” to “co-constructed”:

Participatory Science: public contribution to data collection / observation / interpretation (structured crowdsourcing).
Participatory Research: co-construction from the outset (question, method, analysis, dissemination) with societal actors.

Open themes: all. Technologies, physics, chemistry, electronics, energy, transport, paleontology, archaeology, meteorology, oceanography, environment, health, education, culture, territories, transitions, biodiversity, climate, water, risks, humanities, integrated agriculture, regenerative economy…

Priority to topics where participatory approaches truly scale up speed, geographic diversity, or result mobilization.

And extra credit for projects that can engage the public in fundamental research or in support of sustainable development!

Possible operational formats

OSI has a library of formats compatible with Participatory Research, such as:

Scientific trips / scientific expeditions / camps
Discovery classes / school projects
Hackathons / bootcamps (proto + data + tools)
Observer networks & multi-site campaigns
Data challenges / gamification (image analysis, classification, etc.)

These formats are fundable because they allow for mobilizing:

participation (field / training / supervised experience),
territorial partnerships,
public, strategic, international funding,
support from foundations / philanthropy,
dissemination and valorization budgets,
while strengthening scientific production.

What Objectif Sciences International provides

Goal: zero unnecessary burden for research teams, and maximum robustness on implementation.

Depending on the project, OSI can provide:

Participatory engineering: participation design + data quality
Community engagement: recruitment, engagement, retention
Logistics & pedagogy: for trips/school/hackathon formats
Communication & dissemination: science + general public + partners
Financial planning support: packaging, budgeting, partners, adaptations
Field deployment: multi-site coordination, tools, operational monitoring

How the project is dimensioned after qualification

After the one-click submission and brief project outline discussion, OSI helps you clarify:

the scientific core (question, hypothesis, indicators, simple protocol),
the type of participation (who contributes, how, with what safeguards),
the format (trip, network, school, hackathon, data challenge…),
the timeline (season, fieldwork, constraints),
the trajectory: pilot → scale-up → publication/dissemination → sustainability.

Trusted framework: what you validate and control

The Lightweight Process ensures rigor without burden at the start.
You retain control over:

principles of transparency and recognition of contributions,
open science when relevant and possible,
intellectual property / licensing options (open / hybrid / transfer),
data and consent management where necessary,
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Global Alliance of Citizen Science for Ocean

Thomas EGLI, Chloé LAROSE — 2024-09-18T11:05:00Z

The Global Citizen Science Alliance for Ocean is a global initiative that invites everyone to take action for ocean conservation by participating in concrete scientific research.

Data collection, collaborative games, educational workshops: the project brings together citizens, schools, and researchers in a shared dynamic.

Accessible to all, it builds bridges between science, engagement, and local action, across the world.

Science can no longer be the concern of a few, nor the ocean the concern of none: a global alliance to connect perspectives, connect knowledge, and unite commitments around the Ocean.

Click here to view the official commitment.

The Global Citizen Science Alliance for Ocean is a global initiative that aims to build an international alliance of citizen science applied to the ocean, structured around four pillars: field data collection, participatory digital tools (including gamification), environmental education, and South-North cooperation. It draws on local dynamics driven by 'Ocean Clubs', strengthened by international scientific and educational infrastructures. The project places particular focus on Central and West Africa, aiming to reduce disparities in access to research, while contributing to the knowledge, protection, and sustainable governance of marine ecosystems.

The Global Citizen Science Alliance for Ocean is set against a backdrop of increasing pressure on marine ecosystems. Climate change, biodiversity collapse, pollution (plastic, noise, chemical), and unsustainable extractive practices are threatening oceanic balance. Faced with these systemic challenges, academic research, though essential, cannot alone meet the urgency of the ecological crisis. A more open, collaborative, distributed, and inclusive production of knowledge is emerging as a key strategic lever. In this context, the project offers a model of global participatory research Participatory Research see : http://www.voyages-scientifiques.com , rooted in citizen engagement, technological innovation, and interdisciplinarity. It seeks to strengthen local capacities to observe, understand, and document the state of marine environments, while bridging scientific knowledge, local knowledge, and active pedagogy. This project aligns with SDG 14 of the United Nations 2030 Agenda and fits within the United Nations Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development. From the Arctic to West Africa, from island archipelagos to urban coastal zones, the initiative brings together a wide diversity of actors (e.g., scientists, educators, students, citizens), around a common mission: to make the ocean visible, understandable, and protected through an unprecedented global mobilization.

The Global Citizen Science Alliance for Ocean is an international participatory science initiative that enables everyone—youth, families, schools, associations, curious citizens—to actively engage in ocean protection. It aims to make scientific research a collective and accessible endeavor, mobilizing a wide range of audiences through field activities, digital tools, and innovative educational formats.

This global project seeks to build an international alliance of citizen science applied to the ocean, based on four complementary pillars: i) field activities, through citizen-collected data; ii) digital tools that enable large-scale participation (including gamification); iii) educational initiatives, adapted to different contexts; and iv) South-North cooperation aimed at building local capacities and reducing inequities in access to research. It is rooted in local dynamics supported by international scientific and educational infrastructure, with a particular focus on Central and West Africa, identified as priority development zones. The project revolves around Ocean Clubs, self-declared groups that emerge locally across all continents, initiated by students, teachers, researchers, or community organizations. These clubs act as hubs for action and research, supported by an international network of experts and institutions. Equipped with sensors, drones, mobile applications, or underwater cameras, participants collect data on marine biodiversity, water quality, pollution, or the effects of climate change. All data are structured according to open protocols and transmitted to a shared database, sometimes in real time, via networks such as Terra Forma.

But the project goes beyond data collection. The data are integrated into a massive multiplayer educational video game, co-designed with Massively Multiplayer Online Science, the Computer Science School at McGill University, and a recognized game developer. Players around the world complete scientific missions: identifying species, classifying plankton images, analyzing sound recordings. Inspired by the Project Discovery model (EVE Online), this system transforms scientific analysis into a collaborative challenge, combining rigor, accessibility, and enjoyment.

The project also helps strengthen ocean education and scientific literacy. It develops pedagogical resources for schools and NGOs, supports the integration of marine environment content into educational curricula, and promotes systems like “blue passports” to recognize citizen engagement. Special attention is given to regions often overlooked by major oceanographic campaigns, Central and West Africa, Pacific Islands, indigenous coastal communities, by supporting the creation of local research centers and the inclusion of traditional knowledge in global scientific dynamics.

Led through a multi-stakeholder governance model, the project already brings together over a dozen partners (e.g., universities, research centers, NGOs, public institutions) based in France, Canada, the United States, and beyond. Engaged scientists contribute to defining protocols and validating data. A steering committee composed of representatives from each partner will ensure strategic coordination and project deployment, especially ahead of its official launch at the United Nations Ocean Conference in 2025.

Main Objectives

The Global Citizen Science Alliance for Ocean is structured around three core pillars, scientific production, citizen engagement, and educational innovation, integrated into a systemic approach to marine conservation. Cross-cutting objectives include building local capacities, opening new international partnerships, and supporting large-scale data structuring.

1) Producing scientific data through citizen participation: The project aims to generate reliable, relevant, and geographically diverse environmental data through a global network of Ocean Clubs. Citizens, whether students, teachers, fishers, or volunteers, are trained to use accessible tools (sensors, drones, underwater cameras, mobile apps) to measure biodiversity, water quality, pollutants, or climate effects. Guided by shared protocols, results are transmitted in real time to an open-access database (via networks like Terra Forma) and shared with scientific partners. The goal is to enhance observational capacity in under-monitored regions, particularly in Central and West Africa.

2) Deploying a digital platform for collaborative science: Field-collected data are transformed into interactive missions within a massively multiplayer educational game, developed with MMOS, McGill University, and a partner game studio. Players are invited to analyze real scientific data (plankton images, acoustic signals, pollution measurements), contributing to cross-validation while raising environmental awareness. This innovative approach, already tested in Project Discovery, mobilizes a wide public, including those far from coastlines. Beyond gaming, the initiative develops open digital tools, including a data platform, interactive maps, and visualization interfaces accessible to researchers, citizens, and decision-makers.

3) Strengthening environmental education and citizen engagement: The project embeds participatory science into both formal and informal education systems: open-source pedagogical resources, teacher training modules, school activities, public workshops, events, etc. It supports schools, NGOs, and local authorities in adopting marine issues, and recognizes engagement through tools like the “blue passport.” The aim is to develop a shared ocean literacy in support of ecological transition. Priority is given to historically underrepresented territories by supporting the creation of local citizen research centers, as seen in initiatives in Cameroon and Small Island Developing States.

4) Structuring international scientific and territorial cooperation: The project contributes to a strengthened cooperation dynamic around the sustainable blue economy, marine pollution mitigation, illegal fishing, and ecosystem resilience. It aims to build bridges between scientific actors, coastal territories, public institutions, and educational networks. This ambition includes consolidating a shared technical framework and supporting local research and observation policies, following a model of scientific diplomacy and shared development.

These four dimensions reinforce one another to create a scalable, reproducible model of citizen science at the global level. Supported by multi-stakeholder governance, the project aims to foster a generation of citizen-researchers and pilot territories at the heart of the oceanic ecological transition.