INCREASE – Intelligent Collections of Food Legumes Genetic Resources for European Agrofood Systems

Registration for 2nd Round of Citizen Science Experiment now open!

INCREASE enters the 2nd round of its Citizen Science Experiment - calling on all citizens to participate in cultivating different varieties of the common bean. From today, interested citizens can register for the next round of the experiment through the dedicated “INCREASE CSA” App.

After the great interest in the first round of the experiment in 2021 with 3,450 citizens participating from across Europe, the bean growing season 2022 promises to be another success for agrobiodiversity. The Citizen Science Experiment (CSE) is open to anyone who wants to support science with the aim to create an impact on the environment and secure the world as we know it for our and the next generations. Anyone with a smartphone and a field, garden, terrace or balcony, and the required enthusiasm to grow different bean varieties is invited to join.

As part of the Citizen Science Experiment, each participant will receive seeds of diverse old common bean varieties to grow and take care of while documenting their development through uploading photos and scoring traits in the “INCREASE CSA” App. This enables the INCREASE team to evaluate the characteristics of these old varieties and eventually enhance agrobiodiversity in Europe.

The CSE is embedded into the European research project INCREASE which involves 28 international partners with the important goal to valorise agrobiodiversity and promote food legumes consumption and cultivation in Europe. The experiment is guided by the European Commission principles “open science, open innovation and open to the world” and INCREASE takes advantage of digital technologies to make science and innovation more collaborative and global.

The “INCREASE CSA” App is free to download from all digital platforms and available in different languages. Citizens can exclusively register their participation via the App and use it to document all observations during the growing period.

More information on the project and the experiment can be accessed on the INCREASE website and through the CSE explanatory videos. Further updates and news are available via the INCREASE social media channels:

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pulses.increase
Twitter: https://twitter.com/pulses_increase
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/pulsesincrease/
YouTube: https://bit.ly/3qTe6HK