Newsletter #

Dear Reader,

Welcome to the seventh issue of the Scent newsletter. Summer has arrived once more and we are excited to share with you all of our updates on the Scent project since the last edition.

Since our last newsletter we have conducted three additional pilot campaigns of the Scent Toolbox in the Danube Delta, Romania and the Kifisos river basin in Athens, Greece. Over the coming weeks and months, we will be organising our final campaigns. Please scroll down to read more about our recent pilots, as well as for information on how to get involved in our upcoming campaigns.

We are pleased to announce that the Scent Showcase will take place in Athens, 20 – 21 June 2019. It will serve as an opportunity for you to experience the Scent Toolbox for yourself with a hands-on exhibition and field visit to the Kifisos river basin. We will also be holding two additional pilot campaigns of the Scent Toolbox apps on the Danube Delta in Romania from 24 – 26 May and 31 May – 2 June, in the run-up to World Environmental Day on 5 June 2019. Our final campaign in the Kifisos river basin is scheduled for 22 – 23 June 2019. We look forward to seeing you at one of our campaigns!

This edition of the Scent newsletter includes results from our recent pilot campaigns in both Romania and Greece which were carried out between February and May 2019. In addition, we have updates on the Scent Education Programme which has already been rolled out as a successful pilot scheme to students in both Romania and Greece. The Scent Education Programme is another element in how Scent is encouraging the development of citizen science and environmental awareness among members of the public.

The Scent newsletter delivers regular updates on project progress, key developments, relevant events and ways to get involved, straight to your inbox. Remember to check out our website, follow us on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram, subscribe to our YouTube channel and connect with us on our LinkedIn page.

Scent is a three-year project funded by the European Commission under Horizon 2020, the European Union’s Framework Programme for Research and Innovation.

We hope you enjoy reading this newsletter and remember to join the Scent movement!

The Scent team

The Scent consortium cordially invites you to its Scent Showcase, that will take place in Athens, Greece on 20 – 21 June 2019. This is your chance to experience the latest smart technology on the cutting edge of environmental monitoring, the Scent Toolbox!

On 20 June, join experts and policymakers from around the world to discuss the impact citizens can have on environmental policy with the aid of smart technologies. You can discover the Scent Toolbox and its fun applications, including Scent Explore, Scent Measure, Scent Collaborate and Scent Campaign Manager during our interactive exhibition.

On 21 June, join us for our special Scent citizen science campaign in the Kifisos river basin outside Athens where volunteers can explore the local ecosystem and put the Scent Toolbox to the test.

Please find here the official invitation text. A final agenda will be published soon but registrations are now open. Visit the Scent Showcase website for more information and be sure to register here.

We are looking for eager volunteers to participate in our upcoming pilot campaigns on the Danube Delta from 24 – 26 May and 31 May – 2 June, with one more pilot campaign due to take place in Athens 22 – 23 June 2019.

As always, these pilots are guaranteed to be a fun, engaging and interactive opportunity for budding citizen scientists to get hands-on with our Scent Explore and Scent Measure gaming apps.

Registration for these campaigns will launch soon, in the meantime visit our website for more information.

Please scroll down to read reports of our recent pilot campaigns.

Scent’s third pilot campaign on the Kifisos river took place in Attica 13 – 14 February 2019 and proved to be an enjoyable experience for all in attendance.

Participants used our Scent Explore augmented reality gaming app to explore the river basin, gaining reward points by finding hidden Scent creatures and observing urban obstacles at different points of the river along the way.

Scent also organised a workshop to present the new tools and applications of the Scent Toolbox to local authorities in the region. The crowd-sourced data collected through Scent’s apps will be invaluable to local authorities in the years to come when developing new flood models and more accurate land-use/cover maps.

The Scent Project returned to Athens from 11 – 14 April for the fourth of our pilot campaigns where in addition to our Scent Explore app, volunteer citizen scientists used the Scent Measure app to report on soil moisture and air temperature.

Scent Measure is triggered by the Scent Explore app in areas designated as important by researchers, prompting users of the Scent Toolbox to place a small portable sensor into the soil, where results are measured and displayed to the user via their smartphones and tablets.

The latest Scent pilot campaign took place 2 – 5 May on the Danube Delta in Romania. Volunteers which included local university students and IT professionals made base camp at Partizani village and ventured for each of the four days to different sites along the Danube Delta.

A friendly competition using our Scent Explore app arose among volunteers who competed for points and who also collected river data by running small boats along the channels of the Danube Delta.

Since the Scent Education Programme pilot campaigns began in December 2018, they have proven to be an enormous success in introducing 11-12 year old school students to the importance of environmental monitoring.

The primary focus of the Scent Education Programme is to educate young people about the role that they can play in protecting the environment, developing their capacity as citizen scientists and their knowledge of local, national and international environmental issues.

The Programme equips students with the necessary skills to observe, monitor and take action in their own environments and the feedback thus far has been undeniably positive from both students and teachers alike.

The Scent Education Programme is compatible with current curricula and can be implemented seamlessly in schools, with teachers who participated in our pilots reporting that the content was engaging for their students, easy to organise and age appropriate.

Please feel free to access the Scent Education Programme materials here.

Are you interested in finding out more about the different aspects of Scent and the results and achievements?

You can now access project deliverables through the Scent website. You will be able to download full-text versions of public deliverables and executive summaries of confidential deliverables here:
https://scent-project.eu/project-deliverables

Scent Showcase
Scent Showcase
20 – 21 June 2019
Athens, Greece

ECSEE
European Conference on Sustainability, Energy & the Environment
9 – 10 July 2019
Brighton, UK

Horizon 2020 projects on citizen science

Interested in H2020 projects on citizens’ observatories? Have a look at what our fellow H2020 citizens’ observatories projects GROW, LandSense and GT2.0 are up to.

GROW Observatory