Europe is uniquely positioned to meet the challenges of the modern world, where the use of knowledge not only provides competitive advantages but is the basis for choosing the future we want - a future that ensures a good life in a sustainable environment. These choices must not be made by small elites, but by citizens, using shared knowledge and evidence. Europe can initiate a major paradigm shift to citizen participation in SET – or citizen science. Thus the people of Europe can once more lead in the transition to a knowledge-guided society.