H2020 BigPicnic Project: Big Picnic: Big Questions: Engaging the Public with Responsible Food Safety Research and Innovation
- Type Project
- Status Filled
- Execution 2016 -2019
- Assigned Budget 3.428.767,5 €
- Scope Europeo
- Main source of financing H2020
- Project website Proyecto BigPicnic
Ensuring the availability and access to sufficient, safe, and nutritious food is a key priority affecting all EU citizens, which is why Horizon 2020 has identified food security as one of the main challenges to be addressed. BGCI, an international networking organization, will work with botanical gardens, informal science centers with extensive experience in food and food plant research, and other key organizations to implement the Big Picnic project. Through co-creation and public debate, this project fosters public understanding of food security issues and enables adults and young people from across Europe and Africa to discuss and express their views on Responsible Research and Innovation (RRI) in this field with their peers, scientists, and policymakers.
The project involves the development of low-cost, co-created food safety outreach exhibitions using the metaphor of a picnic basket. The exhibition will include information, activities, and participatory events aimed at a broad target audience (adults, schoolchildren, and families). Drawing on public engagement and data collected from these initial, locally held exhibitions, the project will organize science cafés in publicly accessible and informal areas, as well as botanical gardens, to gather public opinion on RRI and food safety. The final phase of the project will consolidate the results of public engagement to produce two key publications: a report articulating public opinion and recommendations for RRI in food safety, and a co-creation toolkit that will strengthen engagement capacity in other EU scientific institutions.
Several RRI case studies will be provided to support the EU RRI Toolkit currently under development. The project evaluation is expected to demonstrate learning and organizational change among partner institutions. Partner institutions will continue to disseminate training and promote RRI for future public engagement.
Food security is one of the greatest challenges facing society today. In 2014, 55 million people in Europe could not afford a regular, quality meal every two days (Eurostat, 2015). The majority of food production and consumption in Europe is currently based on a few crops, grown by a small number of families. People therefore rely heavily on a handful of crops, all of which are susceptible to disease and climate change, and which require constantly evolving technology and research to maintain crop improvement and quality in the face of massive population growth. Much of the conservation and research conducted by botanic gardens is related to food security, from seed banking to nutrigenomics research (the study of the relationship between nutrition and genetics).
Therefore, each BigPicnic partner botanical garden brought its own expertise to the project. Furthermore, botanical gardens have experience connecting people with plants, empowering their visitors to take responsibility for their own food choices. BigPicnic aimed to organize an international debate, discover how people from different countries and social groups understand and interpret food security, exchange ideas and solutions, and gather public opinion to foster Responsible Research and Innovation (RRI) for the future of our food.
The objectives of BigPicnic were:
- Improve understanding and implementation of RRI by providing best practice case studies for the RRI Toolkit.
- Increase engagement on local and global food security issues through outreach presentations and science cafés among diverse audiences.
- Co-create accessible and innovative mechanisms with diverse audiences to facilitate interaction and bridge the gap between the public, policymakers, and researchers.
- Use the findings of the EU-funded INQUIRE, PLACES and VOICES projects.
- To develop the capacity of botanic gardens across Europe to develop and deliver co-creation approaches with their local and regional audiences.
- Develop botanical gardens as centers that promote dialogue between the public, researchers, and policymakers.
- Jointly develop tools to measure the engagement of consortium partners and co-creation team members with RRI and the benefits of the participatory co-creation approach adopted in the project.
Ensuring the availability and access to sufficient, safe, and nutritious food is a key priority affecting all EU citizens, and Horizon 2020 has therefore identified food security as one of the key challenges to be addressed. BGCI, an international network organization, will work with botanical gardens, experienced informal science centers with expertise in food and food plants research, and other key organizations to implement the Big Picnic project.
This project, through a co-creation approach and public debate, builds public understanding of food security issues and enables adults and young people from across Europe and Africa to discuss and articulate their views on Responsible Research and Innovation (RRI) in this field with their peers, scientists, and policymakers.
The project involves co-created, low-cost food safety outreach exhibitions, using the metaphor of a picnic basket. The exhibition will include information, activities, and participatory events that appeal to a wide range of audiences (adults, schoolchildren, and families). Drawing on audience engagement and data collected from these initial locally delivered exhibitions, the project will organize science cafés in informal and publicly accessible engagement areas, as well as in botanical gardens, again capturing public views on RRI and food safety. The final phase of the project will consolidate the findings from the public engagement to produce two key publications: a report articulating public opinion and recommendations for RRI on food safety, and a co-creation toolkit that will build capacity for engagement in other scientific institutions across the EU.
A series of RRI case studies will be provided to support the EU RRI toolkit currently under construction. The project evaluation is expected to demonstrate organizational learning and changes among partner institutions. Partners will continue to disseminate RRI training and promotion for future public engagement.
Key project outcomes include:
- A set of 7 policy reports produced and disseminated to X people/organizations.
- Production of open-access online toolkits on co-creation (Co-creation Navigator) and science cafes (Science Cafe Toolkit)
- 103 exhibitions were held, reaching 180,000 participants.
- 102 scientific cafés were held for 6,052 participants.
- A total of 4,500 European and Ugandan citizens were involved in team research evaluation activities.
- At least 266,676 people reached through outreach activities at conferences, workshops, and events.
- Over 320,000 people reached online through social media, websites, videos, podcasts, newsletters, and blogs.
- At least 12 different hard-to-reach groups were involved in the project's co-creation and exhibition activities.
- 17 different target groups reached through the implementation of scientific cafés.
- 15 botanical garden partners trained in new and innovative participatory approaches (co-creation and team research)
- An additional 923 people (outside the project) will be trained in participatory approaches, leading to more than 90,000 people being engaged through these techniques over the next two years.
The project has developed and implemented BigPicnic exhibitions using 15 co-creation teams in 13 countries. BigPicnic's impact is visible at the organizational, regional, and international levels. One of BigPicnic's key impacts relates to botanic garden professionals and their organizations. This is achieved through a series of practical actions where professionals participate in practitioner-led co-creation and evaluation practices with the aim of adopting RRI procedures and approaches.
So far, all partners have received TBI training that has enabled them to take control of their own evaluation questions and research; reflect on the evaluation process and findings; and implement changes in activities that benefit their audiences and in internal processes and work practices. Partners have already noticed significant impacts at the organizational level. All partners organized co-creation events in their own organizations. They involved not only the public but also internal staff. They brought together people from different professions and hierarchical levels in their organizations. All partners value these co-creation activities as highly rewarding, not only for designing, implementing, and evaluating their activities, but also for broadening their individual and organizational horizons. Many BigPicnic exhibitions and dissemination activities, developed through co-creation, have been presented throughout Europe, in venues frequented by botanical garden visitors or the local public, such as regional festivals and food fairs.
Thus, the BigPicnic concept has already become visible at the local and regional levels. Partners report frequent questions and ideas raised by visitors, highlighting that the public actively participates in BigPicnic exhibitions, workshops, and other outreach activities. BigPicnic partners have provided evidence of the creation of a large number of engaging activities that are likely to spark at least some situational interest, and other activities that have led participants to become directly involved with the project. Brochures, posters, informal meetings, and so on have reached a wide range of stakeholder groups, including politicians and key stakeholders, as well as pupils, students, parents, teachers, researchers, and so on.
All partners have demonstrated that food is a topic of interest to everyone, regardless of socioeconomic background or personal interests and motivations. This approach is therefore effective in sparking public interest in RRI. At the second partners' meeting, held at the Royal Botanic Gardens Edinburgh, all botanic gardens presented innovative examples of how they encourage citizen participation in a friendly, non-threatening, yet authentic context and environment, and how they have successfully engaged participants in in-depth discussions about regional and local food security issues and possible solutions. The Big Picnic Consortium has grown into a large community of practice and established a unique network of expertise across the EU and in one African country.
- BOTANIC GARDENS CONSERVATION INTERNATIONAL LBG (BGCI)
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