Call for Abstracts: Workshop on ‘Participatory and Citizen Science Genomics’ at PAG33

As in previous years, INCREASE organises a Workshop on Participatory and Citizen Science Genomics at the Plant and Animal Genome 33 (PAG 33-2026) International conference held from January 9-14, 2026 in San Diego, California. The Workshop will take place on Friday, January 9, 2026, 10:30 AM - 12:40 PM (local time). You are invited to attend this Workshop and submit abstracts for oral presentations.

Participatory approaches and citizen science are more and more commonly used to address multiple scientific questions and, at the same time, exploit the potential of directly involving stakeholders and citizens. This enhances research dissemination and favors a more effective innovation pipeline multiplying the societal impact of scientific research. Indeed, worldwide scientists are increasingly engaged with open science, open innovation, and open-to-the-world principles. A main aspect of the success of citizen science is also the opportunity of taking advantage of cutting-edge digital technologies, to make science and innovation more collaborative and global. Open Science and Participatory research represent innovative ways to perform scientific research and processes based on cooperative work and new approaches to disseminate and share knowledge using digital technologies and new collaborative tools. Participatory and Citizen Science Initiatives in the Research Area are incredibly increasing in the last five years and many projects in plant and animal sciences are nowadays exploiting the potential of exploring participatory and citizen science, particularly in biodiversity conservation and crop improvement. This workshop will give the opportunity to keynote scientists and projects to illustrate the Participatory and Citizen Science experiments they are putting in place and highlight the genomics contributions in agriculture, for plants and animal conservation, and for agroecological sustainability.

The Workshop will take place on Friday, January 9th, with a provision for 6 invited speakers. Invited presentations will be selected from the submitted abstracts.
Please send your abstract and details using this form, no later than November 10, 2025.
Please make sure to include affiliations of all authors and email address of the corresponding author/speaker.
You will be notified by November 22, 2025 whether your abstract has been selected for an oral presentation at the workshop. Thereafter, the selected presenters will need to submit their abstract to the PAG website. Authors whose abstracts are not selected for oral presentations are highly encouraged to present a poster at the conference.

For information and questions regarding the Participatory and Citizen Science Genomics workshop, please contact Roberto Papa (and/or Elisa Bellucci) or write to PAG.citizenscience@gmail.com.

Organizer: Roberto Papa - r.papa@univpm.it
Department of Agricultural, Food and Environmental Sciences, Università Politecnica delle Marche Ancona, Italy

Co-organizer: Elisa Bellucci - e.bellucci@univpm.it
Department of Agricultural, Food and Environmental Sciences, Università Politecnica delle Marche Ancona, Italy