The President of the Board of Directors of the Ecological Movement “Okvir života”, Dr. Ivana Radović, had the honor of being one of the panelists on the panel “Citizen Science in Policy, for Commons, as Activism” at the Ars Electronica 2025 art and science festival in Linz. The panel was moderated by Alexandra Albert, and Katrin Vohland from Austria and Sarah Williams from the United States also participated as panelists. The panel shared experiences regarding the challenges that citizen science faces – from the challenges of the relationship between citizen scientists and scientists from institutions, through the degree of democracy that allows citizens to participate in decision-making processes, to the quality of data and trust in the quality of data by decision-makers. The challenges of project sustainability were also discussed – how projects can survive in the long term, or at least sufficiently to finalize the decision-making process. After the panel, the audience had the opportunity to ask questions, on the basis of which a lively and very interesting discussion developed, especially when it comes to the experience of the panelists in activism and work with local communities.
About panelists (source: Ars Electronica):
Ivana Radović is the Board President of the Ecological movement “Frame of Life” in Serbia. In 2019, she founded the local initiative Community Seed Bank within “Frame of Life” and has lead the program for the past six years. In 2023, she coordinated the citizen science project Citizens for SDG 15.1, funded by IMPETUS. She is currently working on a project assessing ecosystem services using a citizen science approach. Ivana also works as a scientist at the Faculty of Agriculture, University of Belgrade, Serbia.
Sarah Williams is an Associate Professor of Technology and Urban Planning at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), where she is also Director of the Civic Data Design Lab and the Leventhal Center for Advanced Urbanism. Williams combines her training in computation and design to create communication strategies that expose urban policy issues to broad audiences and create civic change. She calls the process Data Action, the name of her recent book published by MIT Press.
Dr. Katrin Vohland is Director General of the Naturhistorisches Museum Wien (NHM Vienna), Austria. Her main research interest is in the interface between science and different public audiences, including policy. She develops Open Science strategically for the collections, the museum, and beyond, including Citizen Science where she is active in employing integrative and reflective approaches.
Author of the text: I.R.
Photo: MD #arselectronica #arselectronica25 ; Photo showing Katrin Vohland, Ivana Radović, Sarah Williams, Alexandra Albert
Photo source: Ars Electronica 2025
