Eglė Butkevičienė
Candidate for the Board of Directors
“I am motivated to help ECSA by taking an active role in advancing citizen science as a proper and passionate participatory research methodology for research and knowledge generation.
Potential contributions. My approach to support ECSA is by focusing on advancing citizen science in the countries that have less experience in and awareness about citizen science. Differences in societal engagement in citizen science still exist across different regions in Europe, with higher engagement levels in Western Europe compared to Eastern and Central European countries. In Eastern Europe citizen science is still contested, controversial, invisible and hidden practice. Special attention is needed for younger researchers through mentorship, spaces and opportunities for new international connections. To better support younger generations, my idea is to better leverage existing and future professional networks from Board members. I will also bring expertise to the Board on advocacy work for citizen science through policy and expert networks. My experience in citizen science projects on the international and national levels and specific knowledge of the context of Eastern Europe, will help advancing citizen science in Eastern Europe and beyond.
Qualifications. I am serving as a member of European University Association (EUA) Expert Group on Open Science (EGOS), where I lead a subgroup on citizen and participatory science, aiming to promote citizen science among EUA member universities across all Europe. Representing Lithuanian University Rectors’ Conference, I also serve as a contact point in Coalition for Advancing Research Assessment (CoARA), taking an active role in WG on Reforming Academic Career Assessment. I am a founding member of the Citizen Science Association in Lithuania, promoting citizen science on the national level. Through participation in variety of Horizon 2020 and Horizon Europe projects such as TIME4CS, YouCount, CATALISI, ProBleu, national projects such as CS4Welfare and RECONECT, both tightly related to the topic of citizen social science, involvement in Advisory Boards of European projects INCENTIVE, SOCIO-BEE, ECS, research articles, book chapters, and a role of co-editor of book series “Democratic Dilemmas and Policy Responsiveness”, I try to make transformational changes towards strengthening citizen science perspective in the widest sense.”
