(Oct. 18, 2024) Award for Research Involving Citizens

Dennis Kirschsieper, Prof. Dr. Claudia Müller, and Tanja Aal from the Collaborative Research Center “Media of Cooperation” have developed a support platform in collaboration with citizens in Switzerland—and they have now been honored for this achievement.
(Photo: Katrin Staudt | KaWa Photography)

Our department staff members Tanja Aal and Dennis Kirschsieper from the Collaborative Research Center “Media of Cooperation” at the University of Siegen have been honored for a joint research project with citizens. The team of researchers led by socio-informatician Tanja Aal took second place in the “Wissen der Vielen – Research Prize for Citizen Science.”

Together with citizens in Switzerland, researchers from the University of Siegen developed a support platform for older adults. To this end, the team first conducted interviews with older adults in a rural community near Zurich, as well as with caregivers, to identify their needs and requirements. Based on the results, the team then developed a prototype community platform designed to make it easy to find and offer help. Older adults were actively involved as co-researchers throughout the entire process and were integrated on an equal footing. The team has now been honored for this form of “citizen science” (collaborative research with citizens): The researchers led by Siegen-based socio-informatics expert Tanja Aal took second place in the “Wissen der Vielen – Research Prize for Citizen Science” and received prize money of 10,000 euros.

“Of course, we are very pleased about this recognition of our work. Actively involving citizens in research is a priority for us. After all, technologies like our help platform only work in practice if they are accepted by future users and precisely tailored to their needs,” says Tanja Aal. In qualitative social research, citizen science is “very close to the people” and thus also places special demands on researchers: “Time and again, processes must be negotiated jointly, which requires sensitivity and a high degree of self-reflection. At the same time, however, this type of research is also very social and enriching.”

The development of the assistance platform for older adults took place as part of a subproject within the Collaborative Research Center “Media of Cooperation” at the University of Siegen, led by Prof. Dr. Claudia Müller. Together with Dennis Kirschsieper, Prof. Müller and Tanja Aal are investigating cooperative and practice-based design approaches for socio-technical infrastructures in aging societies. The platform, which originated in the Swiss citizen science project, has since been further developed in terms of content in Germany and is set to enter the testing phase as a real-world platform soon.
The “Wissen der Vielen – Research Prize for Citizen Science” was awarded at the “Forum Citizen Science” conference in Hamburg. The winners were previously selected by a jury of interdisciplinary professors. First place went to biologist Julia von Gönner from Friedrich Schiller University in Jena for a citizen science project on the water quality of streams. Third place went to historian Prof. Dr. Boris Dreyer from FAU Erlangen-Nuremberg for a book project on an ancient Roman boat from the 1st century.

Background:
The “Wissen der Vielen – Research Prize for Citizen Science,” first announced in 2023, honors researchers for outstanding scientific achievements in the application of citizen science. The prize is endowed with 20,000 euros for first place, 10,000 euros for second place, and 5,000 euros for third place. The prize money enables the winners to further expand their activities in the field of citizen science. The prize is awarded by the organization “Wissenschaft im Dialog” and the Museum für Naturkunde Berlin—and is funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research. The prize will be offered again in 2025.