Citizen Science Association

CitSci2019 Project Slam! Call for proposals


The 2019 Local Host and Conference Committees invite you to submit proposals for the Project Slam!

Think back to your childhood…  Which commercials made you NEED that toy or that cheeseburger so badly you begged your parents to get it for you? As citizen science project leaders, you know how important a good sales pitch is for recruiting participants and building buzz about your project. Get ready to sell your project at the CSA 2019 Project Slam!

The Project Slam will take place at the opening reception on March 13 at the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences, and will focus on new projects, ones that have started up in the last three years and were not featured at the 2017 Project Slam. Talks will be short – just three minutes and three slides max – so be ready to make your best project sales pitch to your fellow attendees. We’re taking votes on the best talk, so convince everyone your talk is the best and you just might walk away as a Project Slam winner!

You may be asking yourself: What do you win? We’re recording all of the talks and you’ll receive a video of your talk after the conference is over whether you win or not. Slam winners will not only have bragging rights as one of the top projects at CSA 2019, but winner videos will also be shared on the CSA website and SciStarter.

Propose your best sales pitch today and become a part of the 2019 CSA Project Slam!

How to apply:

  • Submissions will be accepted in English only through the online form at https://citsci2019.exordo.com/submissions/new.
  • Applications are due by midnight October 19, 2018. Late submissions will not be considered.
  • There are only 12 spaces available, so test your pitching skills in the abstract.
  • You can do a Project Slam in addition to a Talk or Poster.

Review Criteria

All proposals will be reviewed and ranked by the CSA Conference program committee. The CSA Conference program chair may accept or decline your proposal.

All abstracts will be evaluated based on the degree to which it:

  • Present an original project or new component to a well know project, what makes the project innovative and exciting for people to join?
  • Offer a clear rationale, intellectual-grounding, and outcome/payoff for the presentation (i.e., “so what”)
  • Is clear and well written. Abstract should be free from spelling and grammatical errors. Where appropriate, background, methods, results, and conclusions should be clear. For all abstracts the topic and take home message should be obvious.
  • Appeals to a wide array of people in attendance at the conference (including its broad accessibility and clarity). Represents a voice, or voices not typically heard from in mainstream CS (Public Agency, NGOs, Community-Based Organization, Participant, Health Organization, etc).
  • Addresses Ethics, Equity and Diversity, Privacy, Authorship, and other social questions with respect to citizen science. Addresses social impacts through education, behavioral change, contribution to understanding of some phenomena.

 To submit: Visit https://citsci2019.exordo.com/submissions/new by 19 October.