A transdisciplinary educational platform helping communities collect evidence, manage conflicts, and drive change in polluted and vulnerable areas.
Across Europe and globally, many communities are exposed to environmental pollution and social impacts linked to industrial, extractive, and infrastructure projects. Contaminated air, polluted water, and degraded soils are not only environmental issues. They are public health concerns, social justice challenges, and human rights matters. Yet, communities affected by environmental harm often lack the technical, legal, and methodological tools needed to collect reliable data, interpret scientific evidence, translate findings into advocacy strategies and engage effectively with institutions, companies, and decision-makers. Over the past decade, community-based monitoring and citizen science initiatives have demonstrated that local communities can play a crucial role in documenting environmental and social impacts. However, knowledge remains fragmented and access to structured educational tools is limited. MARMOT was conceived to address this gap, consolidating field experience into an accessible, transdisciplinary educational platform that strengthens civic engagement and community-led action.
MARMOT – Monitoring and Acting for Human Rights, environMent, and sOcial impacT – is a three-year Erasmus+ Cooperation Partnership in Adult Education.
The project brings together universities, NGOs, legal experts, training providers, and digital developers from across Europe. Its main objective is to develop an accessible, co-designed educational platform that empowers communities affected by pollution and human rights abuses to independently monitor environmental and social impacts and use collected data to drive change.
The platform will be developed collaboratively with end users, tested in five national pilot sites, and supported by a dedicated facilitators’ training programme. Beyond the technical output, MARMOT aims to foster a European community of practice where knowledge, experiences, and strategies can be shared across borders.
The development of MARMOT starts with the experiences of people affected by environmental harm. Through interviews, questionnaires and participatory discussions, the consortium gathers information about the challenges communities face when documenting pollution, accessing data and engaging with institutions and companies.
This work explores practical barriers, including the cost of monitoring, access to technical expertise, difficulties interpreting results and the support needed to turn evidence into action.
Alongside this consultation, partners review existing citizen science initiatives and select educational materials on environmental monitoring, social and human rights impact assessment, and conflict management. The findings will guide the platform’s content and design, helping ensure that it responds to the needs of its intended users.
Based on the insights collected, the consortium will develop the MARMOT digital platform, including:
- educational modules on environmental and social impact monitoring;
- practical tools for data collection and interpretation;
- guidance on human rights frameworks and conflict management;
- structured materials for facilitators.
In parallel, a dedicated facilitators’ course will be delivered to ensure that local actors are equipped to support communities in using the platform effectively. A beta version of the platform will be released and tested before final adjustments are made based on user feedback.
The MARMOT platform will be tested in pilot contexts across five European countries: Italy, France, the Netherlands, Sweden and Ukraine. These contexts bring together different challenges associated with industrial pollution, mining, infrastructure development and conflict.
Participants will use the platform and provide feedback on the accessibility of its content, the usability of its tools and their usefulness for local initiatives. Their experience will inform revisions before the final release.
The Italian pilot: Taranto
We lead the Italian pilot in Taranto, focusing on the area affected by the former ILVA steelworks. Decades of industrial pollution have raised serious concerns about air, soil and marine contamination, public health and residents’ rights. Taranto also brings extensive experience in community-led investigations. Local residents and associations have gathered evidence, commissioned independent analyses and worked to make environmental information public. The pilot will build on this knowledge, involving local participants in testing resources for monitoring and interpreting environmental data. Their feedback will help us understand how the platform can support communities seeking reliable information and greater participation in decisions affecting their lives.
The final phase of the project focuses on dissemination and long-term sustainability. Through national and international events, workshops, and knowledge-sharing activities, MARMOT will promote peer learning between communities and practitioners, bottom-up civic engagement, stronger inclusion of citizens’ voices in policymaking processes. The goal is not only to deliver a platform but to establish a durable European network that continues to exchange knowledge and support community-led monitoring beyond the lifetime of the project.
March 2026 — MARMOT kicks off in Turin
At the end of March, Source International joined the MARMOT partners in Turin, Italy, for the project’s kick-off meeting. The gathering marked the beginning of our European collaboration on education and training in environmental justice and community-based monitoring.Through MARMOT, we will share our experience in participatory science and field methodologies, contributing to educational resources that help communities investigate environmental harm and defend their rights.The meeting opened a three-year journey: listening to communities, bringing together practical knowledge from different disciplines, and developing a platform whose tools will be tested and refined with the people who will use them.
October 2026 — Learning from Taranto
The second MARMOT consortium meeting brought Source International and our European partners to Taranto, connecting our joint work on the educational platform with the experience of one of the project’s pilot communities. Alongside the consortium sessions, we visited Tamburi, Masseria Carmine and the old town, and met local activists who shared their knowledge of the territory and their efforts to document industrial pollution.
These exchanges provided valuable context for developing resources that people can use in practice. Taranto’s experience highlights the work involved in gathering independent evidence, interpreting findings and bringing environmental concerns to public attention. We thank RadioVera, Luciano Manna and the local activists who welcomed us and generously shared their time and experience.
Funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the European Education and Culture Executive Agency (EACEA). Neither the European Union nor EACEA can be held responsible for them.
This project has received funding from the European Union’s Erasmus+ 2025 program under grant agreement No 2025-1-NL01-KA220-ADU-000359682
