Pauliina Rautio from the University of Oulu will head a project called CitiRats, which combines natural sciences and education in collaboration with young people. The goal of the project is to study and to develop attentiveness towards multispecies communities and ability to imagine multispecies futures.
CitiRats uses a three-tier approach where researchers, young people aged 13–15 and selected experts go through three progressive research stages using methods from natural sciences, human sciences and the arts. The project is expected to produce new knowledge of urban communities as shared between multiple species, as well as knowledge about how young people best come to learn about sustainable co-living.