April, known as Citizen Science Month, offers many exciting projects for volunteers to join. The closest upcoming events include the City Nature Challenge (mapping urban nature) taking place directly in Brno, and the Missing Maps Mapathon (adding to maps based on satellite imagery), which will be held at the Masaryk University Campus in Bohunice.
From April 24 to 27, 2026, the global project City Nature Challenge will take place. What began as a friendly competition between San Francisco and Los Angeles to see which city’s citizen scientists could document more evidence of living nature has, since 2018, grown into a worldwide event involving hundreds of cities across all continents.
In the Czech Republic, residents and visitors of Brno, Praha, České Budějovice, okolí Uherského Hradiště, Veselsko (including the cadastral areas of Veselí nad Moravou, Vnorovy, Strážnice, Uherský Ostroh, and Ostrožská Nová Ves), Ostrava , and newly also Olomouc.
Another public event is the Missing Maps Mapathon at the Department of Botany and Zoology MU. Missing Maps is a collaborative project that uses satellite imagery and OpenStreetMap to create maps vital for humanitarian crises, disasters, and the delivery of essential aid.
Computers will be available for those do not have their own laptop. No prior experience is required; all tools are free and open-source. After a brief training session in the iD editor, you will work together with other volunteers to map areas where Doctors Without Borders (Médecins Sans Frontières) operate.
Requirements:
After the event, you can reward yourself with a visit to a pub. For more information, and on behalf of the organizers, Daniel Kašík (kasik@sci.muni.cz) looks forward to meeting you.
These events are just a small example of the many ways citizen scientists can get involved.
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Citizen Science is becoming an increasingly important part of the research landscape. It offers an innovative way to engage the public in scientific projects at every stage of the research process, from defining research questions and collecting and analysing data to communicating results and sharing knowledge.
We warmly invite everyone involved in research—not only at Masaryk University—to the next edition of the traditional Open Science Workshop, which will take place on 5 June 2026.
