Project Information for Participants – Acceptance of participation
PULCHRA – Science in the City: Building Participatory Urban Learning Community
We invite you to be part of a project about Cities as urban ecosystems. This is funded European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 824466 and coordinated by the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens (www.uoa.gr)
The PULCHRA team consists of 12 organisations from 10 countries. Along with you and other entities or groups interested in the topic, the PULCHRA team wants to explore the open schooling concept in the theme “Cities as urban ecosystems” and in view of creating new partnerships in local communities to foster science education for all citizens. Schools, in cooperation with other stakeholders will become agent of community well-being, taken the theme to be explored encompasses the natural environment, the built environment and the socio-economic environment in cities.
We want to bring new scientific knowledge for the city as an urban ecosystem and facilitating participation of citizens of all ages in scientific discovery, build trust in the method of science through the own experience of participation, establish concepts to link the natural environment, the built environment and the socio-economic environment in order to form a learning, exploring and activation network, which allows to experience and understand the urban ecosystem as a living organism and develop knowledgeable, innovative and participatory communities able to cope with and actively contribute to addressing current and anticipated problems and challenges at the city scale.
In the PULCHRA project, participants will be given the opportunity to build a participatory urban learning community, which particularly invites the urban youth, helps forming stewardship through establishing a sense for ownership and ability to contribute to liveable neighborhoods, reduces urban societal disparities by building points of access for science discovery and participation close to the residential areas.
With your support, we want to create City Science Teams with the participation of teachers and students, parents, professionals from the business community, scientists, academicians, local administrators, citizens, etc. Together we will develop the City Challenges, including information and activities to get more people involved through City Reporters. Building on these City Challenges, the project team will run science workshops.
Although PULCHRA is not a research project, the activities organized and run as part of the project will involve the collection of personal data related to participants and therefore PULCHRA Partners will adhere to data protection principles in compliance with national and EU regulations.
By your agreement to register to the PULCHRA City Challenges Platform, we will request your contribution/participation to the City Science teams, City Reporters, City Challenge workshop and City Challenge Platform. To this end we will need some personal data for communication purposes.
All Partners responsible for the collection of personal data have provided written confirmation from their Institutional Data Protection Officer that they will adhere to European and national ethical standards and guidelines.
There are no right or wrong answers to any activity, discussion or interview we run and there is no test. Your participation is about sharing your personal views and knowledge on the urban environment.
It is your decision whether to take part or not. If you decide to take part, you are still free to withdraw at any time during the process, without any obligation to give a reason.
You should only participate if you would like to; choosing not to take part will not disadvantage you in any way. Before you decide whether you want to take part, it is important to read the project information carefully and discuss it with others if you wish. Please ask us if there is anything that is not clear or if you would like more information about the project.
By registering to the PULCHRA City Challenges Platform you agree that:
- You have read and understood the information about the project
- You have been given the opportunity to ask questions about the project and your participation.
- You voluntarily agree to participate in the project.
- You understand you can withdraw at any time without giving reasons and that you will not be penalised for withdrawing nor will you be questioned on why you have withdrawn.
- The procedures regarding confidentiality have been clearly explained (e.g. use of names, pseudonyms, anonymisation of data, etc.) to you.
- Terms of consent for interviews, audio, video or other forms of data collection have been explained and provided to you
- The use of the data in research, publications, sharing and archiving has been explained to you.
- You understand that other researchers will have access to this data only if they agree to preserve the confidentiality of the data and if they agree to the terms you have specified in this form.
- You agree to be audio and/or video recorded and/or photographed. You understand that you can withdraw this agreement at any time without explanation.
If you have any questions or need of further information, please don’t hesitate to contact:
Project Coordinator: Constantinos Cartalis
National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Greece
Faculty of Physics, Division of Environmental Physics and Meteorology
Zografou Campus Building PHYS-V, GR 15784 ATHENS GREECE
Contact details: ckartali@phys.uoa.gr, Tel.+302107276774
