NovelEco, a unique research project focused on studying and gathering information about ecological spaces, is looking for citizen volunteers to take part in the co-creation of an online instrument. The project, which is funded by the European Research Council and led by ADAPT Principal Investigator Professor Marcus Collier at Trinity College Dublin, will measure societal attitudes to urban wild spaces (novel ecosystems) by working with citizens to generate data about them.
Speaking about the project Professor Collier said: “NovelEco aims to engage citizens in co-creating an online instrument to enable ecological collection and study the resulting impact of such an experience on the citizen volunteers. The research also aims to understand whether experiences such as these can alter the perspective of citizens towards nature. Furthermore, the project aims to study the role of such interactions, if any, in renaturing cities and even bringing biodiversity back to urban spaces.”
Research around ecology and its impact on human lives has been around for decades. However, as technology begins to govern the human world, is there a way research could study the impact they each have on the other, through a multi-disciplinary lens? Project NovelEco is a step in that direction. It is a significant stride in fuelling such curiosities to be able to find answers that can help rewild our cities and our lives in better, more meaningful ways.
Want to participate as a citizen volunteer in this study? Contact the NovelEco project team here.
For more information about the project visit their website.
About Professor Marcus Collier
Marcus is fascinated by the human-nature interface and specialises in social-ecological systems thinking. His many research interests include: land use and land-use change, resilience thinking and societal transitioning, collaborative management and planning, urban and rural governance.
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