Participatory Research Map – L(a)unch Recap

When scientists and societal actors engage collaboratively in research, the resulting knowledge integrates multiple perspectives of experience. The Participatory Research Map (PRM) illustrates how Open Science is put into practice through participatory research approaches. It presents an overview of research projects across the Berlin University Alliance (BUA). Featuring projects from Technische Universität Berlin, Freie Universität Berlin, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, and Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin, the PRM highlights the diversity of participatory research approaches in Berlin.

On 02 December 2025, the PRM was launched as an interactive instrument for self-guided exploration. The launch concludes two years of joint collaborative work that included exploration, conceptualization, and development by the projects BUA Open Science Magnifiers and the TD-Lab, the Laboratory for Transdisciplinary Research. Their motivation was to collaboratively investigate a set of shared questions:

• What does Open Engagement as one of the Open Science pillars mean?
• Which terms for Open Engagement - specifically Citizen and Participatory science - are used across Berlin research landscape?
• Which Open Science practices do projects use when researching with society?
• How “open” is this kind of research?

The PRM is not only an interactive map that shows where and how researchers and societal actors collaborate, increasing visibility of the projects and responsible teams. It is also an instrument designed to support data analysis of how Open Science and participatory research are crossing, and these approaches are implemented across Berlin.

The launch opened a conversation about the potential of such an online instrument for research, networking, and gaining insight into the broader landscape of participatory research in Berlin. After a short introduction of the two responsible projects, their motivations, and the collaborative development of the PRM, four guests from the BUA partner universities presented brief inputs on their respective projects, emphasizing their motivation to participate in the PRM:

• Dr. Tobias Otte (FU Berlin) introduced the large collaborative project Climate and Water under Change (CliWaC), which investigates water-climate interactions in Brandenburg through a broad participatory consortium. Otte emphasized the essential contributions of practitioners, who brought relevant research questions into the project and enriched it with their perspectives. His motivation to contribute to the PRM was to share the many learnings from engagement within CliWaC.
• Prof. Dr. Dominik Seelow (Charité) presented the project SAMS-Pat: Standardized Symptom Description by Patients, which aims to improve diagnostics for rare diseases by working closely with patients, their families, and doctors. “Patients are the experts”, he stressed, and joint research is “key to breaking down data silos and making patient expertise accessible”. Seelow also called for more equity in research processes and hopes that increased visibility for participatory research can support this shift.
• Prof. Dr. Tobias Krüger (HU Berlin) shared insights from his work at the Integrative Research Institute on Transformations of Human-Environment Systems (IRI THESys) in the project Water security for whom? - Social and material perspectives on inequality around multipurpose reservoirs in Colombia, where he has long-standing experience with participatory research and Open Science. Participation in the PRM matters to him for several reasons: “It’s an advertisement for the many different practices that fall under the umbrella of Open Science.” He also hopes to connect with others whose approaches align or complement his own. Krüger sees room for development in how participatory research is valued; its benefits still need to be repeatedly articulated, and he wishes for greater recognition of this work in the future.
• Dr. Anna Baatz (ZTG, TU Berlin) presented a projects situated at the intersection of sustainable development and social learning processes: Understanding and fostering the impacts of social innovations in sustainable urban development (SozImpact). Baatz is eager to learn from others and sees the PRM as an opportunity to build new connections. She considers it a promising instrument for identifying potential collaborations for research proposals and can imagine future features, such as searching by methods or gaining insights into how others approach similar questions – for example in the field of Citizen Science.

During theQ&A session, participants suggested making the PRM useful for funding institutions to enable deeper analyses of how Open Science and participatory research intersect in practice. The project team will build on this suggestion as it enters the next phase of data analysis in the coming year.

Are you interested in exploring the Participatory Research Map? Check out the Map under https://quest-participatory-research-map.charite.de/ or enter your project here: https://quest-participatory-research.charite.de/index.php/656726?lang=en.

We appreciate your participation and feedback about the Map to shape its usefulness!