NEW ABC Science Shop, looking forward to building knowledge together with civil society
On 24 May 2024, the official launch of the NEW ABC Science Shop took place in Forlì, Italy, chaired by the project coordinator Rachele Antonini. NEW ABC has launched this Science Shop, an initiative aimed at collaborating with civil society to build knowledge together. This co-construction of knowledge allows organisations and people to access research results and data that would otherwise not be available to them.
Visit the NEW ABC Science Shop
During the NEW ABC Science Shop’s launch event, Rachele Antonini offered the framework in which NEW ABC is established and outlined the project approach. Norbert Steinhaus, coordinator of Living Knowledge, the international network of science shops, also took part in this event, where he presented the idea behind the Science Shop initiative as well as the network of Science Shops that has been created in Europe and internationally. Finally, experiences, stories, good practices etc. regarding their work and collaboration with children with a migrant background were shared by ten representatives from different organisations in a round table: Elisabetta Borgia, Marina Di Berardo and Susanna Occorsio, from the Ministry of Culture; Anna Starnini, Director of the Integral Institute 4 of Forlì; Silvia Taviani, Policy&Law Programme Coordinator at Save The Children; Francesca Briccolani, Silvia Casadei and Giulia Gurioli, teachers of the Primary School ‘A. Traversari’ Primary School in Portico di Romagna (FC), CI Valle del Montone, and the research fellow Alice Galli.
The fundamental concept underlying the Science Shop is that questions from civil society organisations and other stakeholders are rephrased to scientific research topics, which are then approached by researchers. Therefore, Science Shops take the role of a contact point or mediation point between society and science.
In the case of NEW ABC, it provides independent participatory research support in response to concerns expressed by civil society, initiating co-participated research aimed at exploring specific issues or finding solutions to specific societal problems. Selected requests will be translated into well-defined research questions, which will be supervised by researchers experienced in the competencies and expertise required.
