LABORATORIO DI SCIENZE DELLA CITTADINANZA

Their core work

LSC is a Rome-based research centre specializing in the societal dimensions of science and technology — citizen engagement, responsible research practices, ethics, and public participation. Their work focuses on bridging the gap between scientific institutions and civil society, helping research organizations embed principles like open access, gender equality, and democratic governance into their operations. Across their H2020 portfolio, they contribute expertise on how citizens interact with technology in contexts ranging from community policing to disaster management to biosciences reform.

What they specialise in

How they've shifted over time

LSC's early H2020 work (2015-2017) was spread across security applications and materials — projects like CITYCoP, CARISMAND, and MATCH where they contributed societal engagement expertise to technically-driven consortia. Their later and longest project, STARBIOS 2 (2016-2020), signals a clear consolidation around responsible research governance, scientific citizenship, and institutional transformation in biosciences. The shift suggests a move from contributing citizen perspectives to diverse technical projects toward deeper specialization in how research institutions themselves should change.

LSC is moving toward institutional transformation and research governance, making them a strong fit for future projects requiring RRI expertise, ethics advisory, or societal impact assessment components.

How they like to work

LSC operates exclusively as a consortium participant — they have never coordinated a project, which is typical for smaller research centres contributing specialized social-science expertise to larger technical consortia. With 64 unique partners across just 4 projects, they work in large, diverse consortia rather than small focused teams. This breadth-oriented networking style means they bring strong cross-sectoral connections and are accustomed to working with very different types of organizations.

Despite only 4 projects, LSC has collaborated with 64 distinct partners across 23 countries, indicating participation in large pan-European consortia with significant geographic diversity. Their network spans well beyond Southern Europe into a truly continental reach.

What sets them apart

LSC occupies a distinctive niche as a dedicated "citizenship sciences" lab — they don't do the technical R&D, but rather the critical societal integration work that EU projects increasingly require. Their name literally translates to "Laboratory of Citizenship Sciences," and their portfolio confirms this: they are the team you bring in when your project needs genuine citizen engagement, ethical oversight, or institutional reform expertise rather than a checkbox exercise. For consortia needing to meet EU requirements on responsible innovation, public engagement, or open science, LSC offers real methodological depth rather than surface compliance.

Highlights from their portfolio

• STARBIOS 2
  Their largest project (EUR 324,750) and longest engagement (2016-2020), representing their deepest commitment to responsible biosciences and institutional transformation.
• CITYCoP
  Demonstrates their ability to apply citizen engagement methods to security technology — an unusual and valuable combination of social science with law enforcement innovation.
• CARISMAND
  Brought cultural and citizen perspectives to disaster risk management, showing their capacity to address how people actually perceive and respond to crises.