Citizen science and health promotion

Living Lab for Health: Innovating Health Promotion Trough Citizen Science

Participatory programs that engage students in improving community health

Living Lab for Health of our partner IrsiCaixa runs citizen science programs that engage students in promoting health and preventing disease. By exploring real challenges in their communities, students carry out participatory research and create their own health campaigns. In this process, they become co-researchers and agents of change, helping to improve community well-being through collaborative and scalable initiatives for upper primary, secondary, upper secondary, and vocational education.

Why are these programmes innovative?

Since health problems are complex, participatory and systemic intervention models are needed that go beyond traditional health education, which has limited impact.

The model proposes comprehensive, personalized, and collaborative programs in which students identify health challenges and drive tailored actions with the support of the educational and health communities. Implementation is decentralized, scalable, and oriented toward transformative innovation based on the continuous improvement of school and community environments.

How are they implemented?

These programmes have different phases:

Teacher training: Practical workshop to learn about the programs and understand how to apply the teaching guide.
Classroom implementation: The process involves identifying a challenge, analyzing health-related factors through citizen science, and developing and evaluating educational actions with the school community.
Teacher follow-up meeting: Support space and Q&A with the LWNVIVAT educational and scientific team.
Final congress: Meeting of participating schools where students give presentations and interact with the scientific community.
Evaluation: On the acquisition of knowledge, scientific and civic competencies, and the implementation process.