ENHANCE supports and drives change by connecting people from all walks of life. Together, working collaboratively, people are empowered and energised, realising they can change their communities, countries and the world so that our planet and all its inhabitants can flourish and thrive.
Information
Empowering higher education through citizen science and innovative future-oriented learning strategies.
What do we do?
Why do we need change?
Globalisation has driven technological and scientific advances so rapidly that they are now determining our futures. In some situations, they are detrimental, resulting in the current environment and climate crisis. We are in the middle of a paradigmatic shift, our chosen future direction may either save humanity or lead us to self-destruction. The need for people to take action to save all forms of life on this planet has never been greater.
Many people feel a sense of powerlessness, resulting in a disconnect from politics and feeling that nothing changes no matter who is in power. Reasons for this include the enormity of the issue, people feeling a sense of helplessness, and a general lack of belief that one person can make a difference. This manifests itself in apathy, with no effort made to change.
Changing the narrative
ENHANCE shines a light on alternative ways of being by using Futures Workshops to create new solutions to the problems of the 21st Century, from small changes within communities to national and international issues. Futures Workshops provide a space for shared dialogue and stimulate the imagination to break the mindset instilled in so many that there is no alternative.
ENHANCE brings hope and positivity. Engaging with the ENHANCE network ignites the power every person has inside of themselves to make a difference. We break down the enormity of the issues we are experiencing in the 21st Century so that people can contribute to areas they are interested in and make a difference.
We invite you to join us on our journey to create a better community for everyone.
Objectives of ENHANCE
1
Building local communities’ capacity to meet local needs through implementing local Futures Workshops facilitated by trained researchers.
2
Creating awareness of people and researchers’ roles and power in supporting the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals.
3
Creating a network of people, researchers, policymakers and organisations interested in promoting Futures-oriented Citizen Science and Citizen Social Science projects.
4
Supporting researchers ability to embed inclusion, equity and empowerment into research design and implementation through the provision of training and resource support.
History of ENHANCE
ENHANCE began as an Erasmus + funded project in 2024. It was developed by a team of Citizen Social Science researchers spread throughout Europe who prioritise the need for authentic participation of Citizens/ people in Citizen Science and Citizen Social Science research. The steady growth of Citizen Science and Citizen Social Science highlights the essential role researchers can play in encouraging and supporting people’s direct participation in research projects that support empowerment and action. However, reports from Citizen Science and Citizen Social Science projects highlighted challenges researchers were experiencing with participation, including the level of active participation, diversity and inclusion.
With the support of funding gained from the European Consortium of Innovative Universities (ECIU), the researchers formed a partnership, ‘Establishing a Community on Empowering, Inclusive and Equitable Citizen Science within the ECIU’ (ECIE), to find solutions that would help address these challenges. The ECIE project found that implementing a participatory method that addresses power imbalances and supports the sharing of various perspectives requires skills and competencies seldom taught in research modules. Researchers struggled to apply inclusion, empowerment, and equity to their research designs. Findings also indicated a lack of metrics to evaluate researchers’ efforts. The group also found institutional support to be a key element in supporting authentic participation in Citizen Science and Citizen Social Science research.
Findings from the ECIE project were used to support a smaller project, RESILIENT, led by the same team of researchers. This project aimed to develop a framework to support effective participatory research to support and strengthen communities’ resilience.
The projects identified an effective participatory method, Futures Workshops (link here). It gives researchers the tools and knowledge to support a diverse range of people in developing a shared understanding and respect for each other in building a shared future. The researchers also found the strength in making connections to support empowerment. These findings created ENHANCE – ‘Empowering higher education through citizen science and innovative future-oriented learning strategies’.
This project is funded by the European Union under the ERASMUS+ programme (Project number 2023-1-IE02-KA220-HED-000166514 – Cooperation partnerships in higher education).