Science For Change

Science for Change (SFC) is a European social enterprise dedicated to democratizing research and innovation by addressing complex societal, environmental, and health challenges through participatory methodologies, citizen science (CS), Living Lab (LL) approaches, co-design, and collaborative research. Our work is grounded in a multi-actor approach that brings together citizens, researchers, public authorities, civil society organizations, industry, and other relevant stakeholders, following a quadruple helix model and promoting transdisciplinary collaboration.

SFC works across a wide range of topics and sectors, reflecting the interconnected nature of today’s societal challenges. Our projects address areas including social innovation, environmental sustainability, circular bioeconomy, health and wellbeing, science communication, public policy, and art and culture. Across these fields, we design participatory processes that enable different forms of knowledge, expertise, and lived experience to contribute meaningfully to research and innovation.

A key strength of SFC is its experience in creating and facilitating spaces for co-design and collaborative research. We work with our own community of engaged citizens and stakeholders, while also building new communities around specific projects and challenges. This enables us to connect research with real societal needs, generate relevant evidence, and strengthen the capacity of citizens and organizations to participate in research and decision-making processes.

SFC operates through two main lines of activity. The first focuses on services, including consultancy and training on citizen science, Living Labs, participatory methodologies, stakeholder engagement, co-design, communication, and impact. The second, and largest part of our activity, is our participation in European projects, particularly Horizon Europe projects, where we contribute to the design, implementation, evaluation, communication, and impact of participatory research and innovation processes.

As an impact-centred company, SFC places particular emphasis on understanding and demonstrating the changes generated by research and innovation projects. We are actively working on the use of citizen science not only as a participatory research methodology, but also as a tool to measure and assess project impact. By involving citizens and stakeholders in identifying, generating, and interpreting evidence of change, we aim to develop more participatory, meaningful, and context-sensitive approaches to impact assessment.