Saskia Stevens wins the CHARM-EU Open Science Recognition Award

Researcher and Assistant Professor Saskia Stevens receives the first CHARM-EU Open Science Recognition Award. “This is not just an award for me, but for our entire Constructing the Limes team”, Stevens says. “I see it as a wonderful recognition for all the work we do as an interdisciplinary group and the ways we collaborate with our community partners.”

Citizen science projects

Stevens receives the award for her promising citizen science project Constructing the Limes and her outstanding achievement in promoting open science attitude, CHARM-EU writes.

The project tackles the issue of borders and cross-border interactions by examining the Lower German Limes, the border of the Roman Empire, and UNESCO World Heritage. Stevens’s team seeks to bring the new knowledge in dialogue with contemporary public debates about borders and migration. “The project collaboratively generates and disseminates cutting-edge academic insights to a broad community through citizen science projects, media outreach, and partnerships with professional and grassroots heritage organizations”, CHARM-EU states.

The recent Heel Heerlen Graaft project was also commended. “Through a unique project in collaboration with the local city council, Heerlen’s inhabitants could delve into their city’s ancient history while reconnecting with their Roman heritage. Residents were invited to actively engage by either joining the archaeological excavations or offering their gardens for research purposes. The project witnessed the enthusiastic participation of 150 residents, collaborating with archaeologists, as they unearthed Roman remnants in their own backyards and public spaces throughout the city.”

Open Science Recognition Award

As part of CHARM-EU’s mission to promote and mainstream comprehensive open science practices, it has established the Open Science Recognition Award. With this award, CHARM-EU wishes to recognise the contributions of individuals engaged in research or teaching in their partner universities who have demonstrated a strong commitment to open science.

Members of the jury (open science experts coming from the different partner universities of CHARM-EU) have also agreed that the selection of the winner was quite difficult due to the numerous promising applications that were sometimes quite different in nature. They also recognised the proposal of Marij Swinkels (assistant professor at Utrecht University’s School of Governance), as an original outstanding Public Engagement project involving art.

This is an award for our entire Constructing the Limes team.

As for the award of the present call, Saskia Stevens will have the opportunity to visit one of the partner universities of CHARM-EU for a study trip in order to consult with local open science experts on strategies and practices for promoting open science.

CHARM-EU

CHARM-EU is a European university alliance, co-funded by the European Union Erasmus+ programme. The universities involved work together to design and create a new university model to become a world example of good practice to increase the quality, international competitiveness, and attractiveness of the European Higher Education landscape.

Besides Utrecht University, University of Barcelona, Trinity College Dublin, the University of Montpellier,  Eötvös Loránd University Budapest, Åbo Akademi University, Julius-Maximilians-University Würzburg, Ruhr West University of Applied Sciences, and the University of Bergen are part of the CHARM-EU alliance.