Among the 27 honorary mentions of the European Union’s Citizen Science Prize 2025 is the HealthFerm project that was funded under the Horizon Europe cluster 6 call topic HORIZON-CL6-2021-FARM2FORK-01-14 Microbes for healthy and sustainable food and diets. KU Leuven is coordinator of the HealthFerm project and VUB was one of the partners that contributed to the citizen science project.  

The jury statement: “This project started with co-created workshops where citizens helped design surveys, home experiments, and data collection methods relating to sampling sourdough. The project has also successfully expanded across Europe. The jury appreciated how this project is offering new ways to explore knowledge gaps relating to plant-based fermented foods. The active participation of home bakers and their contribution with their local knowledge across Europe represents an interesting approach to this important issue.”

Find out more about the Healthferm project, the citizens science insights through the blog and involved researchers here.

What is the European Union Prize for Citizen Science? 

The European Union Prize for Citizen Science invites submissions from a diverse range of initiatives that demonstrate outstanding examples of both citizens engaging with science and research, and scientists and researchers engaging with society. An initiative could consist of a project, a series of projects, an activity, or series of activities. 

The Prize consists of a Grand Prize of €60,000, as well as two additional prizes to projects that best demonstrate how citizen science can be used to promote Diversity and Collaboration and Digital Communities, both of which will be awarded €20,000, and 27 projects will receive honorary mentions and will be showcased alongside the three prize winners.

The submission deadline for the European Union Prize for Citizen Science 2025 Open call was 10 March 2025. Find out all about the European Union Prize for Citizen Science 2025 winners and honorary mentions here.