It is called "BRIDGES - Building Reflexivity and response-ability Involving Different narratives of knowledGE and Science" and is coordinated by the Institute for the electromagnetic survey of the environment (Irea) of the Cnr of Milan under the scientific responsibility of Dr. Alba L'Astorina, the research project financed by the Cariplo Foundation on funds destined for Social Research on Science, Technology and Society.

The project employs transdisciplinary and participatory research methods to understand and strengthen the relationship between science, society and ecological systems in the Italian context. To do this, it uses soil fertility as a case study, a topic of local and global interest, declared by the United Nations General Assembly as one of the three emergencies of the planet, together with climate change and the loss of biodiversity. Soil fertility is also a complex and controversial issue, because its management and protection imply a series of new relationships and visions between science, society, ecosystems and human and non-human actors.

The project, which starts on April 15, 2021 and lasts two years, includes a part of a social survey, in the Italian context, which will involve thousands of young researchers from the CNR and other scientific networks, on the dominant narratives on the science-society relationship around issues controversial. Starting from some emerging discourses, a series of meetings and seminars will be organized, in urban and rural environments, and some Citizen Science activities, in which some of the researchers involved will experiment, together with networks of citizens, a type of participatory and hybrid research. , to discuss and produce collectively constructed soil fertility indicators. They will be supported, in this path, by educators, artists, soil microbiology specialists, farmers.

The objectives that BRIDGES sets itself refer to:

• investigate, map and enrich the narratives that define and frame the Italian disciplinary scientific research;
• to experiment a pilot process of co-production of transdisciplinary research practices on soil fertility, through a series of meetings and seminars, in an urban and rural environment, and some citizen science activities;
• develop a reflective attitude and a sense of responsibility in citizens and researchers, making them aware of being a fertile resource for Italy.

The project consists of 6 WPs. IRPPS participates in WP1 for the realization of a survey among young Italian researchers.