Citizenship revolutionizes research: five million euros for new projects!
Citizenship revolutionizes research: five million euros for new projects!
In a pioneering step to promote citizen participation in science, the state government of Lower Austria has now presented a funding package of five million euros. At a press conference in St. Pölten, governor Stephan Pernkopf, together with leading scientists, announced several new citizen science projects that aim to integrate lay people into the research process. "We support 14 projects that include around five million euros in order to work together with the citizens on solutions for pressing social issues," said Pernkopf. Five of these projects have already started, including an innovation project to adapt forests to the consequences of climate change in the Waldviertel, presented by Martin Gerzabek from the University of Natural Resources
As part of this initiative, the project "Young Citizen Scientists Against Disinformation" by Bettina Pospisil is also launched, which deals with the investigation of young people on the challenges of fake news in social media. Bernhard Engelmann from the St. Pölten University of Applied Sciences presented the “Access” project, which uses the latest technologies to collect data for knee osteoarthritis patients, thereby striving for a broader cooperation between therapists and patients. "This research becomes a hands -on movement and changes the way we think science," continues Pernkopf.
a controversial scientific inheritance
In Parallel to these news, the legacy of Eduard Pernkopf, an anatomy -studied professor and rector of the University of Vienna, is discussed, which is famous for his anatomical atlas. Although his work is artistic and scientific masterpiece, there are great ethical concerns because he and his employees used human corpses of political prisoners for their studies during National Socialism. This raises essential questions about the use of the Pernkopf Atlas in training, which repeatedly appear in the medical community. Scientists discuss whether it is ethically justifiable in view of the origin of the corpses presented in the Atlas.Critics argue that every use of the atlas makes users complicit in the crime of the Nazi regime, while supporters emphasize that the atlas still offers unsurpassed information and information content. These debates about moral responsibility compared to that time not only illustrate the complexity of medical history, but also the urgent need for a critical examination of the past.
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| Ort | St. Pölten, Österreich |
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