User:Clara3c/Rosa Arias Álvarez

Rosa Arias Álvarez (L'Hospitalet de Llobregat, 9 de may de 1978) is a chemical engineer with master's degree in Energy. Rosa is the founder and CEO of Science for Change and the creator of the OdourCollect app.

Graduated in Chemical Engineering at the University of Barcelona and Master in Energy with distinction from the Herriot-Watt University of Edinburgh she is an expert in odour pollution and citizen science.

In 2019, he created the start-up Science for Change, which promotes the active participation of citizens in science to develop services and products. It does so with a gender-inclusive approach, both in terms of its goals and the company itself, where the workforce is mostly made up of women.At Science for Change, they address social, environmental and health challenges through citizen science, participatory and co-creation strategies.

Arias developed OdourCollect, a free citizen science app, which allows the construction of collaborative odour maps from the open data provided by citizens and determines if there is an odour pollution problem and an intervention is necessary to control it. The app also allows you to point out areas of good smells and identify their source.

Since 2020 he has been a member of the Board of Directors of the European Citizen Science Association (ECSA, from the English European Citizen Science Association).

She has been a scientific advisor in the "Science in Parliament" program at the Congress of Deputies in Madrid; an independent citizens' initiative that aims to bring scientific knowledge closer to the legislative power so that it can make decisions with the appropriate information. She has also coordinated the Spanish center of the HYPATIA project to attract girls to careers in science, technology, engineering and mathematics ( STEM ).

In March 2022, she was selected as one of the Top 100 Women in Social Enterprises by the European network Euclid Network. Rosa Arias has worked on and coordinated European and national projects such as:


 * D-NOSES, in collaboration with the citizen science foundation Ibercivis, which involved the participation of over 5,000 citizens, 100 industries, 200 policymakers, and 500 academics, both men and women, in monitoring global odour pollution.
 * NEWSERA, which focuses on innovative communication strategies aimed at stakeholders of the quadruple helix with 39 citizen science projects.
 * TRANSFORM, where the Catalan cluster led by Science for Change, in collaboration with the Department of Economic Strategy of the Generaliitat de Catalunya and the OpenSystems research group at the University of Barcelona, introduced the principles of Responsible Research and Innovation (RRI) into public policy practice and Catalonia's smart specialization strategy. They developed two pilots: one on women's health, aiming to involve women with endometriosis in decision-making to improve their care and reduce diagnosis time (which currently stands at around eight years) . As a result, they cocreated a policy brief aimed at political decision-makers and health personnel, it presents the recommendations co-created by women for the improvement of health services in relation to endometriosis. The other on waste management and sustainability in the Municipality of Mollet del Vallès, to enhance the municipality's selective waste collection system.
 * COALESCE, for which Rosa Arias is the scientific coordinator, will consolidate, develop, and integrate the knowledge generated and connections in scientific communication to build the European Competence Centre for Science Communication.
 * ToT Programme on Evidence for Policy del Joint Research Centre (JRC), from the European Comission.

She has also participated in two European Union framework programs: H2020 and Horizon Europe, which promote and support research and innovation (R&I).

Rosa Arias has participated as an expert in the Mutual Learning Exercise on Citizen Science Initiatives - Policies and Practice (MLE) of the European Commission. She contributed to the development of one of the key topics: best practices and impacts of citizen science.de la Comisión Europea.

Odours and Citizen Science
Arias proposed a citizen science methodology in 2018 to monitor odour pollution, which was validated within the framework of the D-NOSES project in 10 case studies across Europe, Chile, and Uganda. Barcelona served as the pioneering pilot. Over 600 observations of odour from waste and wastewater were collected with the participation of more than 80 residents in the Forum area, and their plausibility was evaluated. Additionally, the D-NOSES project aimed to raise awareness of odour pollution and include it on public agendas, as it is a topic that is poorly regulated or unregulated in most European countries, despite being the second most common environmental complaint after noise. A multi-level governance model was established, and policy documents were produced, including a policy brief, the Green Book on Odour Pollution , and the Strategic Roadmap for Odour Pollution Governance. The results were presented at an event in the European Parliament, "Revisiting Odour Pollution in Europe," to advocate for the recognition of ambient odours as pollutants and the establishment of a common European regulatory framework. As a result of the importance of controlling odour pollution through citizen science, an amendment proposed by the European Committee of the Regions (CoR) was included in the Zero Pollution Action Plan of the Green Deal. The amendment was unanimously approved on January 27, 2022, establishing the basis for the adoption of citizen science methodologies to control odour pollution at the European level.

At the national level, efforts were made to create a working group for the standardization of the methodology developed in D-NOSES at a technical level in 2019, promoted by the association AMIGO, a partner of D-NOSES. A group of over 15 experts, including consultants in odour pollution, citizen science experts, emitting activities, environmental authorities, and representatives of the public, was formed to prepare the technical document. In 2023, in collaboration with UNE (Spanish Association for Standardization), a draft standard PNE 77270 titled "Construction of Collaborative Odour Maps through Citizen Science" has been published. This will enable the official adoption of the new methodology by environmental authorities or emitting activities and promote future regulations to protect affected communities. Additionally, this is the first technical standard with the term "citizen science" in its title, which will contribute to the recognition of the practice and increase confidence in the validity of data generated by citizens.

Awards
With the creation of the free OdourCollect app, she won the Prismas Casa de las Ciencias Award for Science Communication in A Coruña in the category of best unique project in 2021.

She also received a grant in 2021 from the Generalitat de Catalunya for technology-based companies led by women. This initiative is part of the DonaTIC Plan, which promotes the empowerment of women and female leadership in the information technology sector in Catalonia.

In May 2022, she received the eWoman Equality Award, granted by El Periódico and Prensa Ibérica. In June, she won the second edition of the CaixaBank Award for Professional Women Entrepreneurs, in the Barcelona Territorial Directorate, which recognizes the business excellence of self-employed professionals throughout Spain, both for their current business success and the overall trajectory of their careers.