Five new Seed Grant projects to promote participatory research

The project investigates how diverse populations experience urban soundscapes. Using a mobile sensing app, citizens record ambient audio snippets alongside GPS coordinates and subjective ratings, capturing the lived experience of urban noise. The project specifically includes individuals with tinnitus or neurodiverse conditions (e.g., ADHD, autism) – groups disproportionately affected by noise yet excluded from conventional urban planning. The goal is to identify what characterizes specific noise hotspots and positive acoustic relief areas in urban environments. And to determine how subjective assessments of urban soundscapes differ from established objective noise metrics (e.g., traffic noise models). To this end, a public platform will be created to provide access to an interactive noise map, scientific findings, psychoeducational coping strategies for citizens, and data to support more inclusive urban planning.

The Ethnographic Museum at the University of Zurich is currently undergoing a renaming process, developed collaboratively and presented in the exhibition Neubenennen (09.26–10.27). Through engagement with community partners, it has become clear that stakeholders are less concerned with the museum's title than with how objects in the collection are named and described. These designations are often inaccurate, outdated, or shaped by colonial and Eurocentric frameworks. In response, the project develops a Citizen Science approach to the naming of museum objects. It brings together a diverse network of partners – including community partners, Indigenous collaborators, and artists. Through workshops, artistic interventions, and digital prototyping, participants examine existing object names and develop more accurate and inclusive alternatives. The project produces revised metadata for the museum’s collection, to be published online. It advances participatory research in the humanities and contributes to debates on representation, cultural authority, and restitution.

People with severe and enduring anorexia nervosa may experience repeated cycles of coercive treatment with limited benefit and substantial suffering. In response to these situations, end-of-life care has been discussed and, in rare and controversial cases, provided. Importantly, these decisions are currently made in the absence of transparent guidance informed by experiential knowledge and the voices of those most affected have been largely absent from existing policy and professional debates. This project addresses this gap by co-producing guidance through a Delphi study that centres experiential knowledge. People with lived experience of anorexia nervosa and their support persons will collaboratively articulate values, priorities, and considerations relevant to an end-of-life care pathway. The results will inform institutional decision-making at the University Hospital Zurich and contribute to broader professional reflection in mental healthcare. Ultimately, the project aims to contribute to more transparent, consistent, and ethically robust care pathways which support people with anorexia nervosa in living well until the end.

To the project

Agricultural landscapes are shaped by interactions between land use, farm management, and adjacent ecosystems. Yet biodiversity monitoring mainly focuses on terrestrial systems, while aquatic habitats and farm-scale processes remain insufficiently covered. This project develops and pilots a co-created participatory monitoring framework for aquatic biodiversity in agricultural landscapes. The project will jointly design a feasible and scientifically robust approach to assess the ecological status of small streams and drainage ditches. Farmers contribute practical expertise, help identify feasible indicators, and provide access to sites. Citizens provide monitoring capacity and societal perspectives, while scientists ensure methodological quality and data integration. The project will generate meaningful and comparable data on how management practices and landscape context influence aquatic biodiversity and water quality. In the longer term, the approach can complement Swiss monitoring schemes by providing practice-relevant insights and strengthening collaboration between agriculture, society, and science.

While bodies of water are ubiquitous in Zurich and serve as spaces for recreation, infrastructure, and ecology – and are becoming increasingly important in the context of climate change – the multifaceted relationships between people and water in everyday life have not been sufficiently researched. In this project, residents of various Zurich neighborhoods document and reflect on their experiences, practices, and perspectives on water and evaluate them collectively. In cooperation with Zürcher Gemeinschaftszentren, local research groups are being formed to collect data on human-water relationships using artistic-ethnographic methods. Participants develop their own research questions, conduct interviews in public spaces, and interpret the results together. The project combines scientific research, artistic practice, and social engagement. It generates new insights into urban water cultures in Zurich and strengthens social cohesion and ecological awareness.