Our resources in English

As part of the citizen mobilizations of COP21 (United Nations Climate Change Conference) in 2015. Sciences Citoyennes decided to seize the matter of geo- engineering. Since then, we have participated to spreading acculturation on those controversial subjects.

SC chose to multiply formats and diffusion canals in order to make this information more accessible to everyone.

The videos of the conference in English are online!

The 3rd TeRRIFICA Reflective Workshop and Conference “Citizens’ Conventions, Taking Democracy Seriously” was held in Paris on October 14th and 15th 2019. The event was hosted at the Economic Social and Environmental Council (CESE) and the Fondation Charles Léopold Mayer.

Sciences Citoyennes organized both activities within the framework of the H2020 TeRRIFICA project, whereby eight European institutions work together to foster competence for climate change adaptation and mitigation in different European regions with a specific focus on Responsible Research and Innovation.

630 organisations de la société civile, dont Sciences Citoyennes, ont signé cette lettre ouverte alarmant les gouvernements sur une vague de plaintes COVID-19 dans des « tribunaux d’entreprise ». La lettre a été envoyée au Premier Ministre français Edouard Philippe. Retrouvez également le communiqué de presse expliquant l’initiative. 

À l’endroit des gouvernements:

Aujourd’hui, nous vous invitons, par la présente lettre, à prendre l’initiative pour assurer que les pays du monde ne soient confrontés à une vague de poursuites de règlements des différends entre investisseurs et États (RDIE) en raison des mesures prises pour lutter contre la pandémie COVID-19 et la crise économique qui en découle.

Partout dans le monde, certains gouvernements prennent des mesures pour sauver des vies, endiguer la pandémie, protéger les emplois,lutter contre les catastrophes économiques et veiller à ce que les besoins fondamentaux des populations soient couverts. L’ampleur de ces mesures est sans précédent dans les temps modernes et la nécessité de ces actions est évidente. Cependant, la portée très étendue du mécanisme de RDIE pourrait exposer ces mesures gouvernementales cruciales à des plaintes avec demande d’indemnisation à hauteur de plusieurs millions de dollars de la part des investisseurs étrangers. Le nombre de ces plaintes pourrait également être sans précédent et imposer des charges financières considérables aux gouvernements qui  croulent déjà sous le fardeau des crises sanitaires et économiques dévastatrices.

Le projet Horizon Terre, porté par les associations Sciences Citoyennes, Ingénieurs sans Frontières et le collectif Atécopol, depuis septembre 2019, vise à créer des scénarios de recherche alternatifs à ceux d’Horizon Europe (le programme cadre de recherche de l’Union Européenne) dans l’objectif de créer des synergies entre les collectifs de chercheurs et d’étudiants et in fine, de faire du plaidoyer au niveau européen et national pour contribuer à faire infléchir les politiques d’orientation de la recherche selon les axes définis par les membres du projet.

Les membres du projet vont animer un premier un évènement public de consultation sous la forme d’un atelier durant la Vienna Degrowth Conference. Cet atelier en anglais aura lieu en ligne le samedi 30 mai de 15h15 à 16h45. Animé par des chercheurs (sciences sociales et sciences expérimentales) et des experts associatifs, il s’adresse à une trentaine de participants.

Une réponse écrite par Jérôme Santolini, chercheur en Biologie, administrateur de Sciences Citoyennes, membre de « Cantine Sans Plastique France » et coauteur du livre « Pas de plastique dans nos assiettes – des perturbateurs endocriniens à la cantine » 

Il y a quelques jours, les député.es Claire Pitollat et Laurianne Rossi présentaient en grande pompe le rapport de leur mission d’information parlementaire sur les perturbateurs endocriniens présents dans les contenants en plastique. En écho aux annonces officielles et médiatiques (vidéos, articles…), le rapport souligne avec emphase l’urgence de la situation, l’ampleur de la crise sanitaire.

La conférence Conventions de Citoyens, prenons la démocratie au sérieux s’est tenue le 14 octobre 2019 au Conseil économique social et environnemental (CESE), dans le cadre du projet européen sur la co-création d’action contre le changement climatique, TeRRIFICA – Territorial Responsible Research and Innovation Fostering Innovative Climate Action.

Les Assemblées citoyennes en Irlande, l’annonce par Emmanuel Macron d’une Convention citoyenne pour la transition écologique, les revendications d’organisations environnementales pour une Assemblée citoyenne face à l’urgence climatique et écologique, les promesses de démocratie par le digital… Les revendications pour que l’avis des citoyens soit au cœur des décisions politiques sont nombreuses. Mais quelle procédure de démocratie participative mettre en place ? Selon quelles conditions une telle procédure peut-elle être réellement démocratique et prendre en compte l’avis éclairé des citoyens ?

Sciences Citoyennes est co-signataire de cette lettre ouverte aux parlementaires européens

Dear Member of the European Parliament,

on Wednesday 12 December, you will make a decisive vote on the proposal for a European Defence Fund to dedicate €13 billion for research and development projects in military technologies during the next multi-financial framework.

44 non-profit organisations across Europe have recently alerted about the risks the current proposal entails, regarding the diversion of funds from civilian priorities and the over-influence of the arms industry, as well as the possible contribution to the development of killer-robots and the future exports of EU-funded goods.

Europe’s next budget for research-funding could reach €120-billion for the coming seven years. The European Parliament will vote in 2019 on its allocation in the next Research Framework Programme (FP9). Once again, most of that money will be granted to multinational companies, unless…

Sciences Citoyennes and Global Health Advocates, supported by a coalition of European non-governmental organisations (NGOs), have succeeded in convincing of the need for revitalisation of European democracy. The goal can only be achieved through the political engagement of citizens.

Article proposed and written by an advisory board member of Sciences Citoyennes, Christian Vélot^1,2,3,4* , about democracy in science and public engagement, illustrated by a concrete example of participatory research. This is an open-access article, originally published here : http://journal.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/fpubh.2016.00096/full.

As a result of a collective work, here is our Manifesto for a Responsible Scientific Research. Fondation Sciences Citoyennes purpose is to encourage debates concerning the scientific research aims and the means to implement individual and collective accountability in this field.

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.

After a successful 1st TeRRIFICA Reflective Workshop, TeRRIFICA will hold the 2nd TeRRIFICA Reflective Workshop at the National Assembly of the Republic of Serbia on July 10th and 11th.

This workshop is part of the ‘Science Meets Parliaments’ event organized for the first time in Serbia by the Center for the Promotion of Science in collaboration with the Ministry of Education, Science and Technological Development, and under the patronage of the Joint Research Centrе(JRC) of the European Committee.

The first meeting of the European project TeRRIFICA was held in Bonn (Germany) on the 4th and 5th February 2019. Eight European institutions start to work together to foster competence for climate change adaptation in different European regions with a specific focus on Responsible Research and Innovation. The project embeds the United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and its Sustainable Development Goals, a landmark achievement that provides a shared global vision towards sustainable development.

Article proposed and written by an advisory board member of Sciences Citoyennes, Christian Vélot^1,2,3,4* , about democracy in science and public engagement, illustrated by a concrete example of participatory research. This is an open-access article, originally published here : http://journal.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/fpubh.2016.00096/full.

Fondation Sciences Citoyennes wants science to be closer to the real concerns of citizens. In Paris, Tania Rabesandratana spoke with the organisation’s director Claudia Neubauer about her fight for unbiased, participatory research.

Science in Society was Framework 7’s funding programme dedicated to reflection and debate on science and technology in our society. It had a budget of €330 million for 2007-13, but the programme has been axed in the proposal for Horizon 2020, the follow-up to Framework 7 for 2014-20. Fondation Sciences Citoyennes, a French not-for-profit association, is among those who are fighting to reverse the programme’s removal. The organisation, founded in Paris in 2002 by a group of researchers, has urged the European Commission to create a comparable funding stream for Horizon 2020 with a €1-billion budget, or 1.25 per cent of the proposed €80bn total budget.

Re-imagining Research Relationships – Co-creating Knowledge in a Democratic Society

This conference will provide an opportunity for policy makers, academics and civil society organisations to consider current practice and future opportunities in the field of research partnerships.

The 5th Living Knowledge Conference will set its focus on different themes to get more insight in processes, and develop specific policy recommendations that resonate with public concerns and articulated research needs and built on the experience and know-how of the previous LK conferences in Leuven, Seville, Paris and Belfast. It will be an opportunity to bring together some of the key thinkers and practitioners in the area of community based research, university/community partnerships and Science Shops and aims at providing options and opportunities for collaborations and ensuring that this area of work is prioritised on policy agendas both nationally and internationally.

The conference will also be a platform to exchange and discuss findings and results of the first half of the PERARES project. PERARES (Public Engagement with Research and Research Engagement with Society) is a project which has been awarded financial support by the European Commission as coordination action in the 7th Framework Programme for broarder engagement on science-related questions and structuring public engagement in research.

The project « Co-construction of knowledge and of decisions in research: the example of participatory plant breeding in agri-environment », was directed by the  Fondation Sciences Citoyennes, in partnership with the Réseau Semences Paysannes (Peasant seeds network). The project was funded by REPERE program called Network of Exchange and Projects for Research and Expertise Governance. The French Ministry of Environment implemented it.

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

CitizensScientists_Pamphlet

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.

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.

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