Big Picnic brings together the public, scientists, policy-makers and industry to help tackle the global challenge of food security.
Botanic gardens, with help from other Partners, will co-create a range of exhibitions and participatory events with people from all walks of life, to generate dialogue and build greater understanding of food security. Our collaborative approach aims to give a voice to adults and young people, communicating their views to policy-makers, sharing ideas, encouraging debate on the future of our food and achieving Responsible Research and Innovation (RRI).
- How do we ensure our growing population has access to sufficient safe and nutritious food?
- Will we have fertile enough land to grow food in the future?
- Is it possible to adapt food production to climate change?
Big Picnic has seven objectives:
- Increase engagement with local and global food security issues through outreach exhibitions and science cafes among diverse audiences.
- Co-create, with diverse audiences, accessible and novel mechanisms to facilitate interaction and bridge the gap between the public, policy makers and researcher.
- Develop botanic gardens as centers that promote dialogue between public, researchers and policy makers
- Improve the understanding and realization of Responsible Research and Innovation through the provision of best practice case studies for an RRI toolkit.
- Utilize the findings of other EU funded projects: INQUIRE, PLACES and VOICES.
- Build the capacity of botanic gardens across Europe to develop and deliver co-creation approaches with their local and regional audiences
- Co-develop tools for measuring the engagement of partners and co-creation teams with RRI and the benefits of the co-creation participatory approach adopted in the project.
The Big Picnic team involves nineteen Partner organisations, including botanic gardens, universities, a science shop, an institute for art, science and technology, and an international NGO’s Co-ordinated by Botanic Gardens Conservation International (BGCI), Big Picnic Partners span twelve countries across Europe and one in Uganda.
The Partners will use a range of traveling exhibitions, activities, science cafes and participatory events, co-created with local people, to generate dialogue and build greater understanding of food security issues.This collaborative approach aims to give a voice to adults and young people on Responsible Research and Innovation, communicating their views to policy-makers, sharing ideas, and encouraging debate on the future of our food.