EU Commissioner Carlos Moedas gave a speech at the Sis-RRI conference in Rome yesterday evening, in which he mentioned at length the Ecsite-led VOICES citizen consultation. He tweeted a picture with Ecsite Executive Director Catherine Franche and Pr. Jacqueline Broerse from the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, stating: "glad to have met representatives from the VOICES project tonight".

Last summer the European Commission launched a consultation to inform the 2016-2017 “Science with and for Society” Programme (part of the Horizon 2020 funding framework). You will remember that Ecsite called for contributions from science engagement organizations – the resulting statements were submitted about two weeks ago. We are now waiting to hear from the Commission when results will be made public.

You could be setting up your booth at the Trento Fiere conference centre in 8 months… It will be buzzing with participants during the Ecsite Annual Conference (11-13 June). See you in Italy! All you need to know here.

EU-funded project Socientize allowed a wide consultation with citizen science stakeholders. A white paper aiming to “support policy makers on European, national and regional level when setting up future strategies of civic engagement in the excellence in science” has just been published. An engaging document that defines the characteristics of citizen science and maps challenges and possible actions at macro, meso and micro level.