Dear Members of Eusea,
It has been quite a busy time since our last meeting at the Eusea annual conference in Tartu in May 2016. But I am quite happy that we had so many fruitful discussions and good decisions in the board since then. Annette Klinkert is with us as our new director since September, and as you can all see she and her team have already set up a new website and are continuously updating our social media channels. Please support our activities and send all the needed information to her or upload and share photos, videos and experiences. We try to work hard on improved communication, as this was one of the main outcomes of our strategy session in Tartu – encouraging more communication from the board to the members and vice versa, and also amongst the members themselves.
Another outcome of the conference was the demand to connect our association more closely with other networks in Europe. In our first board meeting in Berlin 6-7 October we therefore met representatives from EUPRIO and ECSA (European Citizen Science Association). We had a quite constructive discussion and discovered many commonalities in our networks. The next steps will be to sign a memorandum of understanding to take the steps for common activities such as trainings or workshops.
Furthermore, we have appointed two project officers for the NUCLEUS and the PERFORM project. With Andrea Troncoso (NUCLEUS) and Leonardo Alfonsi (PERFORM) we have found two very skilled and experienced people for those positions. We were very happy that we had a tough competition for these positions – having a real and difficult choice. Andrea already attended the NUCLEUS conference in Lyon together with myself and the board members Aleksandra Drecun and Enrico Balli. Within the project Eusea will be responsible for organizing and monitoring the 20 mobile “NUCLEI” which will showcase the RRI approach in many different places all over Europe.
Beyond these activities, it is already time for us to prepare the next annual meeting in Leuven. Together with Iris Rademakers and Lothe Ramakers from KU Leuven we are already discussing possible keynotes and sessions. Being close to Brussels we do expect some stakeholders from the European Commission to join our meeting. Please join our conference preparation – the call for proposals is open now!
So it´s all set up for an interesting and inspiring meeting in Leuven 29-30 May 2017!
