Maldita Ciencia wins a FECYT scholarship to promote critical thinking and increase innovation in citizen participation in the fight against scientific misinformation

The proposal “Damn Science: innovation, citizenship and superpowers” ​​has been one of those selected along with 231 science dissemination and communication projects. In this call, 126 organizations of all types were presented, from universities to companies and from foundations to public research centers, which will launch their projects to improve the scientific-technical education of society at all levels. The project will be carried out between July 2022 and June 2023. The grade obtained in the evaluation was 79 points out of 100 , obtaining 59.5% of the project’s financing through this aid. The remaining 40.5% will be contributed by Maldita.es .

The Maldita Ciencia project will produce journalistic materials following a rigorous methodology and produce content on the Maldita.es Twitch and TikTok channel to reach the youngest people, normally far away from science. Scientific consultations will be published on these same channels in which citizens will raise their doubts about myths and hoaxes related to science. In addition, the project proposes to add innovative technology to its chatbots against disinformation that will allow measuring the effectiveness of citizens’ access to verified information.

Transversally, the “Superpoderosas” program will be launched, which will increase the presence of female scientists as sources of information and in products in new formats such as: podcast, live broadcasts on Twitch and also in the media literacy content taught by Maldita Ciencia. The objective is for girls and adolescents to have more female references and that this encourages them to study STEM degrees.

Furthermore, within these superpowers, Maldita Ciencia will establish alliances with different scientific and medical societies, universities and research centers to deny scientific hoaxes and for its members to register in the Maldita.es community and be able to lend their superpowers as experts and experts.

Using the direct relationship with users, this project proposes adding a survey at the bottom of the denials on the website to measure their effectiveness, the knowledge obtained and a possible change in attitude towards misinformation. And in this way, Maldita.es can obtain results on the impact that access to verified scientific information has on the population .

With these activities, the project hopes to train citizens in the process of generating scientific knowledge. Also educate them in media literacy around scientific-technological content with the promotion of skills and knowledge necessary to detect false or erroneous information, limit its dissemination and identify reliable information as useful knowledge for argumentation and decision-making. It also hopes to encourage dialogue with citizens and active listening to their opinions on issues that involve controversy or about which there is misinformation and, finally, train and warn the public against the techniques that are often used in the production of scientific and disinformation. its dissemination, and discredit said information effectively when its impact is relevant.