When science meets society: a multi-stakeholder dialogue
When science meets society: a multi-stakeholder dialogue
What's the fuel that drives researchers? Natural curiosity is certainly one thing, but the desire to find answers to societal challenges, big or small, is in many cases equally important. And what better way to learn about these needs than to collaborate with the different stakeholders that constitute a society – such as citizens, patients, farmers, governments, and industries? That's exactly the philosophy behind the various stakeholder engagement and involvement projects that VIB has run over the past decade.
In 2012, Raquel da Cunha, a PhD student at the VIB-KU Leuven Center for Brain & Disease Research, got inspired by the report of a "Meet the researchers" night about Alzheimer's disease (published in Nature). She saw opportunities for a similar topic in her research domain: Parkinson's disease. This marked the start of VIB's "Patients meet scientists" in 2013, where citizens and (young) researchers discuss specific disease-related topics, visit the labs, and learn about each other's challenges. Other editions would follow – on asthma, dystonia and primary immune deficiency diseases (PID), for instance. To increase the dialogue with PID patients, a Reverse Science Café was set up. During such discussion events, the experts listen to the participants’ opinions and concerns on where researchers and other experts could help out besides research or care giving. This led to new projects, like a documentary on PID for children to be used in schools to spread awareness about the burden of the disease.
The innovators
The gut flora project to showcase the success of citizen participation
As group leader at the VIB-KU Leuven Center for Microbiology, Jeroen Raes has always been trying to better understand the relationship between the gut microbiome and human health. In 2011, he planted the seed for a major citizen science project: the Flemish Gut Flora Project.
"We wanted to investigate the links between the billions of gut bacteria, health, and lifestyle using the stool of a group of test subjects," explains Raes. "A Belgian TV show called "De Laatste Show" heard about our research and invited me to explain more about it on national television, where we did a call for participants. Whereas we hoped to attract a few hundred, thousands of citizens were willing to take part. At first, we weren't prepared at all for such a massive response but with the help of the whole lab, we organized our way of working – using online surveys and automatic mailings and developing dedicated sample kits.
"Getting things organized isn't the only challenge we faced. Since we wanted to keep collecting stool samples, we had to keep the citizens engaged. We started a newsletter and set up a Facebook page to share results on a regular basis. If you ask people for something, you have to give something back too. Our participants are very happy to hear they are contributing to something that makes a difference. That's why this project is still a success, even after ten years."
Large-scale studies such as this are not only complex, but also expensive. Raes: "Over the years, we gathered support from the Flemish government, the FWO, VIB, VUB, the EU, the Rega institute and KU Leuven. Thanks to their help, this became the flagship project of our lab. We follow up with our participants to see how their health is evolving and to what extent their gut flora can predict that evolution. The cooperation of the Flemish citizens has led to important discoveries and papers about the variability of our gut flora, what drives it and how it’s linked to inflammation and disease."
Publications
A map of the healthy Flemish gut microbiota, and the factors that drive it
(Falony et al Science 2016)
A reference for clinical studies in – among others – Inflammatory Bowel Disease
(Vieira-Silva et al. Nature Microbiology 2019)
Discovery of the interplay between the gut microbiota and mental health and depression
(Valles-Colomer et al. Nature Microbiology 2019)
Identifying how our genome drives our microbiome
(Hughes et al Nature Microbiology 2020)
When science meets art
Ive De Smet, group leader at the VIB-UGent Center for Plant Systems Biology, came up with the idea to combine his love for science and plants with the passion of his friend and art historian David Vergauwen. Together, they studied historical paintings to see how plants had evolved. These observations allowed them to trace the genetic changes in plant-based food products. The results of their interdisciplinary studies were published in Science and Current Biology.
In 2020, five VIB Grand Challenges scientists met with two artists, Sandra Lorenzi and Kuang-Yi Ku, in an 'artist in residence project' in collaboration with Bozar and Gluon to raise awareness and foster creative and critical reflections on societal challenges via artwork in an interaction between researchers and artists during a 1.5 year-collaboration.
Taking on grand societal challenges
In 2018, VIB's Grand Challenges Program saw the light. The main goal of this translational research program is increasing the societal impact of VIB research by teaming up with external experts, but also with patients and citizens. The Pointillism project in cancer research and the clinical trials set up to fight COVID-19 are only two examples of how patient participation can stimulate scientific progress.
Another citizen science project that is still ongoing is Soy in 1000 Gardens. In early 2021, more than a thousand Flemish citizens, including farmers, were asked to grow and analyze soybeans in their own gardens or fields, and to respond to surveys to report their progress. In summer, the plants were collected to investigate whether growth-enhancing bacteria were present in the participants’ soil. Based on the data, guidelines and applications to boost the yield of soy cultivation in a sustainable way will be developed. This brings us back to the microbiome, extensively studied by Jeroen Raes, illustrating that bacteria can be helpful for both humans and plants.
