The "Humane PapilloWAS?" project took part in this year's Citizen Science Award: the awards for the best research contributions in the project were presented to 3 school classes from all over Austria at the Young Science Congress on 24 October in Vienna.
The Citizen Science Award is organised annually by Austria's education agency OeAD and research projects from all over Austria can apply for it. Every year from 1 April to 31 July, citizens of all ages and population groups have the opportunity to experience science at first hand and come into direct contact with researchers by participating in the Citizen Science Award projects. This year, eight citizen science projects were on offer to participate in. The “Humane PapilloWAS?” project from the Biomedical Sciences degree programme at Salzburg University of Applied Sciences was also part of the event.
The project is researching the communication options for raising awareness of human papillomaviruses. Only just under half of Austrians know what human papillomaviruses (HPV) are and only a third associate these viruses with cancer. Yet nine out of ten people become infected with HPV in the course of their lives. The project aims to find out how information on HPV needs to be prepared so that it reaches the target groups and is therefore working together with parents, teachers and pupils. Information methods and channels that are most suitable for the respective target groups were put into practice in spring 2024 as part of an awareness campaign. At the Citizen Science Award, all interested parties were invited to find out more about HPV and then create a one-minute short video for social media, as this is a favourite way for young people in particular to obtain information on a particular topic. Two online workshops were organised in spring for all interested citizen scientists and information material was sent out.
By the end of July, the project team led by Magdalena Meikl and Geja Oostingh had received 54 short videos from 17 schools and 22 school classes. An astonishing number that surprised everyone. In a very entertaining 4-hour jury session with experts from marketing, elearning and pupils aged between 15 and 16, the 3 winning videos were finally selected.
The Citizen Science Awards were presented on 24 October as part of the Young Science Congress at the KPH Vienna/Krems. In the morning, there were several workshops for the school classes, including a workshop on ‘Let's talk about HPV’ held by researchers from the Salzburg University of Applied Sciences for OMS Pfeilgasse. Afterwards, the pupils from 23 schools were able to solve research questions at various stations on the Science Parcours and engage in dialogue with the researchers.
The highlight of the day was the presentation of the Citizen Science Awards in the afternoon by representatives of the OeAD and the Ministry of Education. The project leaders briefly presented the project on stage and then the winners were announced, who received prize money of €1000, €750 and €500 respectively. The winners of the Citizen Science Awards in the ‘Humane PapilloWAS?’ project are:
1st place: HBLA Künstlerische Gestaltung Linz, 4B
2nd place: BRG Keplerstraße, Graz, 6A
3rd place: HAK Eferding, 2AK
We would like to congratulate the winning classes, it was a great pleasure to present them with the Citizen Science Awards! They have made an important contribution to raising awareness about HPV - the videos will soon go viral on the FH Salzburg social media channels.
