Citizen Science and the Decentralised Conservation of Agrobiodiversity - From Experiment to Structural Innovation in Europe
Date:
20 April 2026
Free to Attend
20 April 2026
Free to Attend
Location:
IMMEUBLE SCHUMAN 14,
ROND POINT SCHUMAN
1049 Bruxelles, Belgium
IMMEUBLE SCHUMAN 14,
ROND POINT SCHUMAN
1049 Bruxelles, Belgium
*Please use the FORM to register to the event in the morning, to express your interest in visiting the Meise Botanic Garden in the afternoon and to participate to the Social Dinner.
The event will bring together researchers, policymakers and stakeholders on 20 April 2026 in Brussels to explore how citizen science can transform the governance and conservation of plant genetic resources. The agenda is structured to move from strategic framing and a high-level plenary on environmental knowledge production, to concrete evidence from the INCREASE citizen science experiment, highlighting its design, scale and policy relevance. Through stakeholder perspectives and a dedicated policy panel, the event will further examine how decentralised conservation can be scaled within European research and innovation frameworks, culminating in key messages and forward-looking conclusions for EU agriculture.
The meeting will also include a session “INCREASE Stakeholder consortium and CitizenVoices: Europe in Practice“ and feature a policy panel titled ‘Scaling decentralised conservation: what should EU R&I enable?’. In the afternoon a tour and visit to the Meise Botanical Garden is planned to take place, guided by Filip Vandelook of the Meise Botanical Garden team.
Agenda
| Timing | Agenda | Speaker |
|---|---|---|
| 09:00 – 09:20 | Registration and coffee | |
| 09:20 – 09:35 | Opening & Strategic Framing: From project to model - decentralised conservation as a structural pillar of European genetic resource governance | Roberto Papa - INCREASE Coordinator, Università Politecnica delle Marche |
| 09:35 – 10:15 | Plenary Lecture: Citizen Science and the Transformation of Environmental Governance - who has the right to produce environmental knowledge? | Muki Haklay - University College London/Muséum National d’histoire naturelle |
| 10:15 – 10:25 | Perspectives on EU R&I in agriculture and Conclusions | Agata Gulisano - Research Program Officer Plant Breeding and Genetic Resources at the European Commission |
| 10:25 – 11:25 | Decentralized conservation, the proof of concept: INCREASE Citizen Science Experiment | |
| 10:25 – 10:45 | The INCREASE Citizen Science Experiment: Design, scale-up and participation across Europe | Kerstin Neumann - Leibniz Institute of Plant Genetics and Crop Plant Research |
| 10:45 – 10:55 | The International Treaty and the INCREASE Citizen Science Experiment | Marco Marsella - International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for the Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN |
| 10:55 – 11:05 | AI in the INCREASE Citizen Science Experiment | Adriano Mancini - Università Politecnica delle Marche |
| 11:05 – 11:25 | From citizens’ data to scientific and policy impact: Evidence, validation, and systemic implications | Alice Pieri - Università Politecnica delle Marche |
| 11:25 – 11:45 | Coffee Break | |
| 11:45 – 12:30 | INCREASE Stakeholder consortium and Citizen Voices: Europe in Practice | Filip Vandelook - Meise Botanic Garden |
| 12:30 – 13:10 | Policy Panel: Scaling decentralised conservation: what could EU R&I enable? | |
| 13:10 – 13:20 | Role of Genebanks in ex-situ decentralized conservation | Anna Backhaus - Leibniz Institute of Plant Genetics and Crop Plant Research |
| 13:20 – 13:30 | From INCREASE to EU R&I in agriculture – Key Messages | Roberto Papa - Università Politecnica delle Marche |
| 13:30 | End of the meeting – Light lunch |
Afternoon: Visit at the Meise Botanical Garden
TRANSPORT to Meise Botanic Garden (from Schuman area):
with public transport (it could take between 1h and 1,5h): there are regular trains from the Brussels Schuman station until Brussels North station (about 10 minutes); then from the Brussels North station there is a bus (de Lijn R50) every 15 or 30 minutes that stops in front of the Botanic Garden (the bus takes about 25 minutes).
with a taxi (it could take about 30 minutes) it would cost about 50€ (or a shared Uber).
The tour and visit to the collections are organised by Meise Botanic Garden team from 16:00 until 18:00.
Proposed Social Dinner, after Meise Botanical Garden visit
near Heizel station - La petite Fourchette https://www.lapetitefourchette.be
Download the Agenda and get more Information
