4YFN - Interview with Science for change

Barcelona Health Hub will shine again at 4YFN 2024, the startup business platform at the Mobile World Congress. The BHH Stand will take the center stage at the Digital Health Area, where you can connect with influential leaders, visionary investors, and the brightest minds in the entrepreneurial ecosystem.

One of the companies you can meet at 4YFN is BHH member Science for Change (SFC). It’s an innovative company, expert in collaborative research, evidence-informed policies and quality science communication. It addresses social, environmental and health challenges through citizen science, participatory strategies and co-creation.

Sofía Bucca, Business and Administration Director of Science for Change, is happy to share about their expectations for this next edition of 4YFN.

• Sofía, thank you for joining the BHH Stand at the upcoming edition of 4YFN. Can you please introduce yourself and tell us about Science for Change?

I’m in charge of Business Development at SFC, including the search and management of public funds for the research projects we carry out in the company. We promote collaborative research to tackle societal challenges, including citizens as a part of the research itself. SFC was born to exploit D-NOSES H2020 project’s results, where we got to design, test and validate our citizen science methodologies to monitor odour pollution. Since then and during the past 5 years, we’ve participated in more than 15 big European Projects and collaborated with more than 100 organizations all around Europe and other continents, being now 22 people working in Health, Sustainability, Circular Economy, Science Communication, IT co-design and development, Environmental Monitoring, among others.

• Can you elaborate about what’s new at Science for Change these days?

Since our main activity is related to co-design strategies and citizen science methodologies applied to research projects, and these are highly replicable and inclusive, we have now a very nice services and products portfolio. The aim is to offer services and products that have a real impact in society, by multiplying and transferring all the knowledge acquired these past years. We are launching and updating four mobile apps (OdourCollect, SoundCollect, Dilemma R and Hoop Trainers) and a Co-Design Toolkit made of hexagonal pieces that is going to rock every participatory workshop, fostering engagement and innovation!

• This is your first time at the BHH Stand in the Digital Health Area of 4YFN. Could you share why you decided to join Barcelona Health Hub this year?

Although it’s our first experience at the BHH Stand we’ve attended the previous 4Y4N editions and had excellent results from the networking it offers. Actually, we got to know BHH there, so we truly believe it’s going to be a great visibility and networking platform. Also, as we have projects and services in the health area, we thought that it would be great to share stand with other companies that work in this area. In our case, we are specialized in putting the patient in the centre of the research, this means involving them as co-researchers so that their experience guides the results of the research. Including the patient’s experience is key in the evaluation of health quality is a key element to improve the planning of health policies, and we think this fact is an added value we can share at the BHH stand.

• What are you excited about at the upcoming 4YFN conference? What can we expect from your stand?

Taking into account that we got to sign 2 contracts just as attendees last year, we are pretty confident that this year is going to be great to show our work and get to know other start-ups and stakeholders willing to make changes together. It can be an opportunity to make synergies and share with the attendees our co-design and citizen science methodologies applied to health and to the research field.

• Is there anything else you want to share with us?

Do you want to know more about co-design strategies and citizen science? Come and visit us and let's apply these methodologies to make an impact in society, aligned with their necessities, thanks to their active involvement!

If you’re interested in meeting Science for Change, don’t hesitate to visit the BHH Stand in Hall 8 during the whole week from February 26th-29th. Mark your agenda for the upcoming edition of 4YFN and meet Science for Change. Barcelona Health Hub is already looking forward to meeting you!

More information here.