The theme for EPSC 2017 is "widening participation" and we propose a session on engaging different sectors of society with planetary science and reaching out to new audiences. This session is open to outreach providers, science journalists, professional educators, policy makers and planetary scientists and addresses questions such as: what do planetary science and exploration mean to society? Does outreach have any real effect in building public support for planetary science at a policy level? How effective are communication channels between scientists and different groups in society? Which areas of society are unrepresented or neglected in current outreach efforts? What contribution can new tools, such as Virtual Reality, make in engaging new or different audiences?
The traditional method of outreach to formal, informal, science and non-science audiences has undergone a fundamental change with recent advances in technology, social media and crowd-sourced data, giving way to citizen science with many applications. With increasing “Big Data” projects, active partnerships between professional, amateur and data scientist communities are necessary. Innovative design, sustainability and evaluation of these projects is as important as the citizen science they generate. Topics that will be addressed may include: methodology, applications of citizen science to supporting scientific missions and coordinated professional-amateur observing campaigns, transformative approaches to science education, and the future of citizen science.
This session is also devoted to the Innovation Through Science Networking – activities by the NA1 EuroPlanet 2020 RI project. We address research activities that integrate and link the providers of planetary science infrastructures and data systems with the users, as well as activities that contribute to broad international planetary science and technology cooperation. This includes, e.g. promoting innovative measurement techniques in forthcoming planetary science/mission, integrating scientists from the Inclusiveness States into EPN2020 as well as supporting the inclusion of amateur communities in European planetary science campaigns. We will promote Open Access as a method and tool to disseminate data and research results.