Europlanet Prize for Public Engagement 2025 Awarded to RECA Educación 

The 2025 Europlanet Prize for Public Engagement has been awarded to Red de Estudiantes Colombianos en Astronomía (RECA) Educación, a Colombian non-profit network of volunteers that aims to bring science, astronomy and planetary science to schools and communities across Colombia. 

RECA Educación representatives Laura Ramirez Galeano and Natalia Oliveros received the prize, which comes with a cash award of €1000, and gave a lecture during the opening ceremony of the joint meeting of Europlanet Science Congress and the American Astronomical Society’s Division for Planetary Science (EPSC-DPS2025) in Helsinki.

Thibaut Roger, presenting the prize on behalf of Europlanet, said: “RECA is an inspirational organisation that carries out impactful work to engage communities and groups in remote and rural areas where access to science education can be extremely limited. Through the Europlanet Prize for Public Engagement, we are proud to recognise the importance of the volunteer work from RECA and its approach of combining rigorous science with culturally sensitive and inclusive teaching methods. They are a model for what astronomy outreach can achieve when driven by equity, passion and purpose.”  

The RECA association, founded in 2012, seeks to create and maintain strong links among Colombian astronomy students in the country and around the world. One of RECA’s main goals is to build a collaborative community of early-career and professional astronomers to strengthen the country’s scientific development and foster long-term academic growth. Since 2021, the educational node, RECA Educación, has spearheaded a public scientific outreach programme that deploys online communications to construct a bridge between professional scientists and school students across the country, including in the most rural communities. 

RECA Educación has developed multiple projects such as La Astronomía va a tu colegio (Astronomy Talks in Your School), Remote Observations in partnership with Shadow the Scientists, drawing contests, and BARCO (Bringing Astronomy to Rural Communities). The network currently reaches hundreds of schools in all 32 regions of Colombia, as well as participating in international collaborations to connect schools with scientists around the world.

The RECA team is composed primarily of young scientists and students, who are passionate about making science a right, not a privilege. Despite limited resources, they have developed creative and inclusive formats for delivering astronomy content, including storytelling sessions and hands-on experiments adapted for the home or classroom. 

On receiving the prize, Ramirez Galeano said: “We are truly honoured to receive the Europlanet Prize for Public Engagement 2025. It brings us great joy and motivation to know that our efforts to bring astronomy and planetary science to underserved and often overlooked communities are appreciated at such a level.”

As a next step, with the support of the Europlanet prize funding, RECA Educación aims to distribute to schools across Colombia copies of Salomé, a comic-based educational initiative that introduces children to exoplanets and the scientific method in an engaging, narrative-driven format. The team also plans to develop complementary workshops, and train teachers to use the Salomé comic as an accessible entry point to planetary science. 

Images

https://www.europlanet.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/RECA_EPSC-DPS2025_Prize_Presentation.jpeg

Full resolution image for download: https://www.flickr.com/photos/europlanetmedia/54793904351/sizes/o/

Video

The prize lecture by Laura Ramirez Galeano and Natalia Oliveros can be found here:

Contacts

Laura Ramirez Galeano
University of Geneva, Switzerland
RECA Educación 
reca.educacion@gmail.com

Natalia Oliveros Gomez
Johns Hopkins University, USA
RECA Educación
reca.educacion@gmail.com

EPSC-DPS2025 Press Office
press@europlanet.org

Notes for Editors

About RECA

We are a network that wants to unite and link Colombian astronomy students with professionals and aspiring astronomers.

• Mission: Teach astronomy in Colombia at all educational levels, with the support of RECA’s professional astronomers. All resources we offer are free of charge for the benefit of school students and teachers.
• Vision: To be a support for schools in their educational challenges of astronomy and a reference for the new generations of all the regions of Colombia. 

Find out more:

• Instagram: @_recastronomia
• Facebook: @RECAstronomia
• X: @RECAstronomia
• Web: www.astroreca.org/educacion

About the Europlanet Prize for Public Engagement

The Europlanet Prize for Public Engagement with Planetary Science, established in 2010, is awarded to individuals or groups who have developed innovative and socially impactful practices in planetary science communication and education.

Through the Prize, Europlanet aims to:

• Recognise achievements in engaging European citizens with planetary science, promoting inspiration, learning and social responsibility.
• Raise the profile of public engagement and education as valued activities within the scientific community. 

About the Joint Meeting of the Europlanet Science Congress and the Division of Planetary Sciences (EPSC-DPS) 

The Europlanet Science Congress (EPSC), established in 2006 as the European Planetary Science Congress, is the largest planetary science meeting in Europe. It covers the entire range of planetary sciences, with an extensive mix of talks, workshops and poster sessions, as well as providing a unique space for networking and exchanges of experiences.

EPSC joined forces for the first time with the American Astronomical Society’s Division for Planetary Sciences (DPS) for a joint meeting in Nantes, France, in 2011. This was followed by DPS-EPSC 2016 in Pasadena, EPSC-DPS 2019 in Geneva, and the return to the United States for the DPS-EPSC 2023 meeting in San Antonio. This year marks the third iteration of a joint European-based meeting. The intent of the joint meetings is not only to connect the European and North American planetary science communities, but also to consolidate two major meetings and motivate planetary scientists from all over the globe to attend. With over 1800 participants joining in person and online, EPSC-DPS2025 is the largest planetary science meeting held to date in Europe. https://www.epsc-dps2025.eu

Follow on social media (Bluesky, X and LinkedIn) with the hashtag #EPSC-DPS2025 for updates on the meeting.

About Europlanet

Europlanet (europlanet.org) is a non-profit association and membership organisation that provides the planetary science community with access to research infrastructure, services and training. The Europlanet Association Sans But Lucratif (AISBL), established in 2023, builds on the heritage of a series of projects funded by the European Commission between 2005 and 2024 (Grant Numbers 871149, 654208, 228319 and RICA-CT-2004-001637) to support the planetary science community in Europe and around the world. 

About the DPS

The Division for Planetary Sciences (DPS), founded in 1968, is the largest special-interest Division of the American Astronomical Society (AAS). Members of the DPS study the bodies of our own solar system, from planets and moons to comets and asteroids, and all other solar-system objects and processes. With the discovery that planets exist around other stars, the DPS has expanded its scope to include the study of extrasolar planetary systems as well. The American Astronomical Society (AAS), established in 1899, is the major organization of professional astronomers in North America. The mission of the AAS is to enhance and share humanity’s scientific understanding of the universe as a diverse and inclusive astronomical community, which it achieves through publishing, meeting organization, science advocacy, education and outreach, and training and professional development.