Memorandum of Understanding for the implementation of the COST Action "Building on scientific literacy in evolution towards scientifically responsible Europeans" (EuroScitizen) CA17127
Creators: name: Aanen, Duur K.
name: Allan, Eric
name: Ashby, Ben
name: Ayhan, Nazli
name: Beniermann, Anna
name: Bettencourt Dias, Mónica
name: Bininda-Emonds, Olaf
name: Brandt, Miriam
name: Cavadas, Bento
name: Cvetković, Dragana
name: Dillon, Justin
name: Dostál, Petr
name: Drobniak, Szymon
name: Dufour, Héloïse
name: Fonseca, Maria João
name: Georgiou, Martha
name: Gerhold, Pille
name: Gonzalez, Josefa
name: Groeneveld, Bart
name: Guillo, Dominique
name: Hudakova, Kristina
name: Jahme, Carole
name: Jenkins, Tania
name: Jenkins, Kristin
name: Kapsala, Nausica
name: Korfiatis, Konstantinos
name: Kostov, Alexandre
name: Mavrikaki, Evangelia
name: Mead, Louise
name: Naciri, Yamama
name: Nemeth, Zoltan
name: Nicoleta, Geamana
name: Nogueira, Teresa
name: Ozgo, Malgorzata
name: Pajot, Bertrand
name: Pap, Peter
name: Pinxten, Rianne
name: Pleios, George
name: Ponce, Rita
name: Radovčić, Davorka
name: Realdon, Giulia
name: Rodrigues, Luis Azevedo
name: Roellig, Kathleen
name: Sá-Pinto, Alexandra
name: Segal, Sagiv
name: Stermin, Alexandru Nicolae
name: Torkar, Gregor
name: Torres Miranda, Roberto
name: van Kasteren, Joost
name: Warwick, Alexa
name: Yahyaoğlu, Özgül
name: Yarden, Anat
name: Zajitschek, Susanne
name: Zandveld, Jelle
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2018
Subjects: science literacy
evolution
science education
outreach
responsible science

description: Memorandum of Understanding for the implementation of the COST Action “Building on scientific literacy in evolution towards scientifically responsible Europeans” (EuroScitizen) CA17127 As citizens, we are confronted with a deluge of information and misinformation from the internet and the mass media. Scientific literacy, i.e. the ability to critically evaluate, apply and understand scientific knowledge and how it is produced, is therefore vital for responsible citizenship. It is a prerequisite for generating a knowledge-based society and for allowing citizens to make informed decisions. One of the most important fields of science is evolution, the foundation of modern biology. Evolutionary biology has great societal relevance and its findings have far-reaching implications for how we respond to climate change, drug resistance, issues of food security and controversies in modern medicine. However, it is frequently misunderstood or even rejected outright. This makes scientific literacy in evolution an ideal model to research approaches to improve the state of European scientific literacy. This Action will, for the first time, leverage the strengths of diverse stakeholders (evolutionary biologists, education researchers, educators, museum professionals and the media) to generate and analyse approaches used to improve public scientific literacy. Bridging differences in culture and education systems including participants from a wide range of countries and backgrounds is a source of innovation in itself. The expected result is to identify targeted strategies to raise levels of scientific literacy in Europe, thereby maximising Europe’s innovation potential. The Action will contribute to a culture of responsible, research and innovation (RRI) and will result in a more scientifically literate European citizenship, instrumental to implementing Europe 2020’s smart, sustainable and inclusive goals.