PhD student receives research award for the citizen science project FLOW

Julia von Gönner was awarded the "Knowledge of the Many" research prize for citizen science on 9 October. The award recognises her contribution to promoting citizen science in Germany in the project "FLOW: Exploring watercourses - creating knowledge together",External link which is being carried out in collaboration with the Bund für Umwelt und Naturschutz Deutschland (BUND) and numerous committed citizens' groups throughout Germany, and in particular her publication "Citizen science shows that small agricultural streams in Germany are in a poor ecological status". According to the award committee, the project's innovative approach and the involvement of various interest groups contributed significantly to the expansion of knowledge about watercourses. Project coordinator Julia von Gönner and the FLOW team will receive prize money of 20,000 euros.

Researching the condition of small streams throughout Germany

Julia von Gönner is a doctoral student at the Helmholtz-Centre for Environmental Research (UFZ), the Friedrich Schiller University Jena and the German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv). She expressed her enthusiasm: "The award is a great recognition of our work in the FLOW project, in which we are researching the condition of small streams together with BUND, environmental mobiles, fishing clubs, schools and numerous committed groups throughout Germany and can thus achieve a lot together for water research and water protection."

Prof. Dr Aletta Bonn, Head of the Biodiversity and People research group at the UFZ, University of Jena and iDiv, added: "With the FLOW Citizen Science project, we are creating a solid scientific basis for developing and implementing transformative solutions for living, healthy watercourses together with committed people in our society."

The results obtained in the FLOW project have not only received a great deal of media attention, but have also inspired the ARD join-in campaign #UnsereFlüsse. To date, over 2,700 data sets have been submitted.

The FLOW project was also selected by the Federal Agency for Nature Conservation (BfN) as one of the top 10 projects in the UN Decade competition for the restoration of ecosystems.

The award ceremony took place on 9 October 2024 as part of the "Forum Citizen Science" symposium in Hamburg. The Citizen Science Research Prize was awarded for the second time this year as part of the mit:forschen! project by Wissenschaft im Dialog and the Museum für Naturkunde Berlin. The Federal Ministry of Education and Research funds the award. The aim of the award is to strengthen the recognition of citizen science in science and to promote the active participation of citizens in research.

About FLOW: A citizen science project to research and improve the condition of small streams

Under the coordination of Julia von Gönner together with Lilian Neuer (BUND), Jonas Gröning (UFZ), Kathi Klauer (LaNU, Umweltmobile) and the scientific leadership of Prof. Dr Aletta Bonn and Prof. Dr Matthias Liess (UFZ), the FLOW project has mobilised over 900 citizens since 2021. They have assessed and documented the ecological status of their streams at more than 130 locations. The results show that over 60 % of small streams in agricultural areas do not achieve "good ecological status".