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22 April 2020 marks the 50th anniversary of Earth Day. In recognition of this milestone Earth Day Network, the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars and the US Department of State are launching Earth Challenge 2020 as the world’s largest coordinated citizen science campaign.
Earth Challenge 2020 will engage millions of global citizens and will aggregate and collect more than one billion data points in areas including air quality, water quality, biodiversity, pollution and human health.
Citizen science volunteers around the world will collect and share Earth science data on an unprecedented scale, to provide new insight on the state of our environment and drive meaningful action.
Citizen scientists of all ages and concerned global citizens are invited to participate in defining the critical research questions that will guide Earth Challenge 2020.
The process is open to the public and everyone is encouraged to participate.
Earth Challenge 2020 is recruiting research questions via a simple web form here. The site includes instructions for submitting research questions as well as sample questions.
Questions can also be submitted via Twitter (@Earth_Challenge) by using the hashtag #EC2020.
Questions should centre around what is important to you and your community, such as ‘How much plastic is in my water? #EC2020 @Earth_Challenge #citsci’; ‘Are invasive species being effectively managed? #EC2020 @Earth_Challenge’ or ‘How does air quality impact the health of my community? #EC2020 @Earth_Challenge’.
Research questions must be submitted before 22 November 2018. A panel will choose the final research questions that will guide Earth Challenge 2020. Selections will be made based on criteria including level of global interest, geographic diversity, global impact, partnerships and feasibility. The final research questions will be announced in early 2019.
The timeline for Earth Challenge 2020 spans 18 months. In 2019, hackathons will be hosted around the world to help create the technologies that will underpin Earth Challenge 2020 and existing citizen science projects are being encouraged to join in.
In April 2020, a new mobile app and global data collection campaign will launch, with the aim of collecting one billion data points by Earth Day that year.
With the support of valued partners and global citizens, Earth Challenge 2020 has the potential to be the largest coordinated citizen science project ever attempted on Earth.
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