Our resources in English

What is a Citizens Convention?

The Citizens Convention is a participatory procedure aiming at informing people about political decision processes on research and innovation issues. It combines three phases: a prior training (during which a drawn by lot group of 15 citizens are studying), an active intervention (during which these citizens are questioning) and a collective positioning (during which citizens are expressing an advice). A Citizens Convention offers an appropriate setting for general concerns without any geographical restriction. The only limitation is the level of maturation of the dealt topic, which must be high enough.

This articles was written by Claudia Neubauer (FSC) and Matthieu Calame (FPH) in 2013. It was published in the 5th GUNi Report Higher Education in the World: Knowledge, Engagement and Higher Education: Contributing to Social Change, which has been published in February 2014 by Palgrave Macmillan.

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This key note was held by Dr. Claudia Neubauer, former director of Fondation Sciences Citoyennes, at the EISRI meeting (European Intersectoral Summit on Research and Innovation), Trinity College Dublin – 25-26 February 2013

The article on  Opening Up Societal Futures through EU Research and Innovation Agendas was written by Les Levidow (Open University, Milton Keynes) and Claudia Neubauer (Fondation Sciences Citoyennes, Paris). It was published in EASST Revue, Volume 31 (3) European Association for the Study of Science and Technology, September 2012.

FSC and other NGOs have been fighting for more than a year for a fairer and greener program for Horizon 2020, the research and innovation framework program of the European Commission.

See here the  Open Letter to the European Commission concerning the Common Strategic Framework for EU Research and Innovation Funding (2014-2020), sent by more than 100 organizations of researchers and from civil society : Open Letter on the Common Strategic Framework for EU Research and Innovation Funding

The STEPS Centre from the University of Sussex published this Manifesto  in 2010.

The Manifesto states at its beginning: « We live in a time of unprecedented advances in science and technology. The world is ever more globalised and interconnected. Yet poverty is deepening, the environment is in crises and progress towards the Millenuim development goals has stalled. »

This pamphlet is an output of the STACS (Science, Technology and Civil Society) project, funded by the European Commission Sixth Framework Programme (Science and Society-19-044597).

The pamphlet

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Preface: Fieldwork

Consider the cauliflower. The cauliflowers we eat now tend to be big, white and fluffy. They have been bred this way over the last 30 years, taking the place of the various Italian varieties that were once bred on farms. Europe has largely forgotten the other possible shapes, colours – green, yellow, pink and purple – and flavours of cauliflowers. In the fields and village markets of Brittany, a group of farmers, activists and scientists are trying to help us remember.

In June 2008, four NGOs – ETC Group from Canada, Bede (Biodiversité – échange et diffusion d’expériences) and Fondation Sciences Citoyennes from France and the What Next ? Institute from Sweden invited international NGOs to participate to a common strategic meeting on emerging technologies – BANG.

Report of the Expert Group on Science and Governance to the Science, Economy and Society Directorate, Directorate-General for Research, European Commission, 2007

This report is the product of an expert working group acting under mandate from the European Commission Directorate General for Research (DG RTD), on the topic of European science and governance.

Ulrike Felt (rapporteur) Brian Wynne (chairman) Members of the Expert group: Michel Callon, Maria Eduarda Gonçalves, Sheila Jasanoff, Maria Jepsen, Pierre-Benoît Joly, Zdenek Konopasek, Stefan May, Claudia Neubauer, Arie Rip, Karen Siune, Andy Stirling, Mariachiara Tallacchini

European Science Social Forum Network

The European Science Social Forum Network was a platform of non-profit associations and NGOs as well as individual persons that worked to get a model of scientific and technological progress engaged with a solidary, sustainable and fair society.

During the third European Social Forum held from the 15th to the 17th October 2004 in London, a number of NGOs and associations working on the field of science and society (i.e., commercial control of science, science and militarism, human genetics, agriculture, science and citisenship, etc) came together. The opportunity was used to stablish an informal network that would help us to coordinate campaigns and organize common actions, as well as to share information, documents, ideas, human resources, etc.

Abstract :  In 2008, the French salt industry lost a high-profile libel case brought by its agent the Comité des Salines de France against Pierre Meneton, a medical research worker. In 2002, and in 2004, France’s Food Safety Agency and National Academy of Medicine recommended that the population’s salt intake be reduced in line with worldwide dietary guidelines that had been evolving for more than 50 years.2,3 The Comité subsequently seemed to focus much of its argument against this recommendation towards Pierre Meneton, of the National Institute of Health and Medical Research, who was trying to implement national recommendations for dietary salt intake.

Scientific knowledge plays a determining role in the societal development provoking profound social, political, economic and cultural transformations. Traditionally scientific knowledge is seen as being neutral and independent but in fact it is contested and negotiated knowledge that is more and more influenced by pure economic factors and for which the economic and organisational resources are unequally distributed in the society.

Sciences Citoyennes – Citizen Sciences – is a non for profit organisation, which was created in 2002 by a group of researchers from various fields of humanities and natural sciences, by students and citizens.

Our background and our objectives

Our main issue is to critically question the role of science and technology in the construction of a society and to put science into democracy so that it serves the common good.

An advisory board including 29 people leads the association for a citizen sciences foundation.  5 staff members are implementing different projects initiated by this board.

To contact the Fondation Sciences Citoyennes:

The Fondation Sciences Citoyennes benefits (or benefited) from the following financial support (agreement, grants, responses to project calls…):

Our network

The Fondation Sciences Citoyennes belongs to several networks or collectives :

Citizen Sciences Foundation :  An NGO dedicated to the redistribution of the capacity for expertise and research towards citizen-movements