European Marine Citizen Science Week begins as PHAROS Living Labs join Europe-wide biodiversity drive

• September 14, 2026

Today marks the first day of European Marine Citizen Science Week, a Europe-wide initiative led by Uppsala University and the EU-funded BioEcoOcean project.

Running from 14 to 20 September 2026, the week encourages citizens, organisations and local communities across Europe to observe and document marine and coastal biodiversity.

PHAROS Living Labs have been included as a supportive community of the event. For PHAROS, participation represents an opportunity to connect citizen science activities taking place in its Living Labs with a broader European effort, and to give greater visibility to the biodiversity observations generated by local communities.

MINKA will be the official Citizen Observatory used to collect observations during the week. It is already used within PHAROS to support biodiversity observation and community participation in several Living Labs, including Gran Canaria, Lanzarote, the Danube Delta and Ireland.

MINKA can be accessed free of charge through its website and mobile application: https://minka-sdg.org/

This connection between local activities and a Europe-wide initiative reflects one of the key ambitions of PHAROS: strengthening collaboration between coastal communities while creating opportunities for their local knowledge and observations to contribute to broader biodiversity monitoring efforts.

More information about the European Marine Citizen Science Week is available at:
https://bioecoocean.org/european-marine-citizen-science-week

With this collaboration, PHAROS Living Labs are connecting with a wider European effort and strengthening collaboration for future editions of the European Marine Citizen Science Week.