The platform iesaisties.lv receives Honorable Mention in the European Union Prize for Citizen Science

On 5 September 2024, the Institute of Literature, Folklore and Art of the University of Latvia (ILFA) received an Honorable Mention in the European Union Prize for Citizen Science for its citizen science platform for the humanities and arts, iesaisties.lv.

The award ceremony took place in Linz, Austria, as part of the Ars Electronica Festival of art, science, and technology. ILFA’s leading researcher and iesaisties.lv project manager, Sanita Reinsone, attended the event together with project activities coordinator and researcher, Ginta Pērle-Sīle. Over the ten years since its creation, the platform has involved numerous ILFA researchers and assistants, programmers, and artists. Iesaisties.lv brings together a range of citizen science initiatives that have engaged thousands of participants—helping to digitise and process cultural heritage, research and share valuable knowledge, contribute personal experiences, record poetry, and interpret traditional music. Several initiatives have been carried out in cooperation with other organisations.

The European Union Prize for Citizen Science, organised with the support of the European Commission, is the most significant international recognition for citizen science projects. Its aim is to honour, support, and promote outstanding projects that involve the public in research, innovation, and scientific creativity—empowering individual participation and strengthening the citizen science community. This year, 288 projects from 49 countries were submitted, of which three received the main prize and 27 were awarded an Honorable Mention, including ILFA’s iesaisties.lv.

The development of the iesaisties.lv platform was carried out within the ERDF-funded project “Strengthening the Knowledge Society: An Interdisciplinary Approach to Public Engagement in the Creation of Digital Cultural Heritage” (2017–2019), No. 1.1.1.1/16/A/040. The platform has since been further developed within the National Research Programme “Digital Humanities” project “Development of an Open and FAIR-Compliant Digital Humanities Ecosystem in Latvia” (No. VPP-IZM-DH-2022/1-0002).