PHAROS Living Labs join the European Marine Citizen Science Week

• September 2, 2026

From 14 to 20 September 2026, coastal communities across Europe will take part in the European Marine Citizen Science Week, an initiative coordinated by the EU-funded BioEcoOcean project to encourage citizens, organisations and local communities to observe and document marine and coastal biodiversity.

For PHAROS, the initiative 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.

More information about the European Marine Citizen Science Week.

Connecting PHAROS communities through MINKA

MINKA will be the official Citizen Observatory used to collect observations during the European Marine Citizen Science Week.

MINKA is already being 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 for free 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.

With this collaboration, PHAROS Living Labs connect with a wider European effort and strengthen collaboration in future editions of the European Marine Citizen Science Week.