Italian Committee for the Investigation of Claims of the Pseudosciences

The Italian Committee for the Investigation of Claims of the Pseudosciences (CICAP, www.cicap.org) is a non-profit educational organization devoted to the promotion of critical thinking and scientific method, to guaranteeing the correct information about science, and the critical inquiry of pseudosciences, scientific hoaxes and fake news.

The researchers of CICAP, coming from different disciplines and fields (and from many different institutions and universities), are permanently engaged in the analysis of a wide spectrum of claims and phenomena concerning very diverse fields: health (like the as the problem of no-vax) and medical controversies, cognitive biases, conspiracy theories (like as the climate change negationism), urban legends and historical falsifications, paranormal or supernatural theories like creationism, astrology, parapsychology. In addition, CICAP is also involved in the analysis of the reasons and dynamics facilitating the dissemination of fake news and how to intervene fruitfully against them, organizing lectures, seminars and conferences such as “CICAP-Fest 2017”, a three-day scientific festival composed of tens of conferences, seminars, lectures, laboratories both for the general public and for specific targets (journalists, students, etc.) held in different venues in the city of Cesena. CICAP is also actively involved in the discussion on how the institutions could act to prevent this problem.

CICAP activities are shared with the broad public through conferences and public lectures, radio and television appearances, social networks, through the publication of a quarterly magazine, Query, books and articles, and through the conservation of a library and the collection of an archive of articles, made available to the public. Additional material, both on CICAP own investigations as well as foreign skeptical and scientific material translated into Italian, is published on Query Online (www.queryonline.it, the online version of the printed magazine.

Social Impact:
Followers on Facebook: 76.000
Followers on Twitter: 109.000
Website Visitors: 90.000/month (including www.cicap.org and www.queryonline.it)
Members: 1546
Active Members: more than 100
Active Local/Regional Groups: 14
Public Events (Conferences, Seminars, etc.): around 200/year
Published Articles (paper and online magazine): around 300/year

CICAP is an influential voice in the public debate on fake news and pseudoscience and is
regularly consulted on these topics by institutions and mass media alike. For instance, it is
a member of a Quango on fake news promoted by the Parliament, and it collaborates with
the Italian Ministry of Industry, University and Research (MIUR) on education and
prevention of fake news.
The main area where CICAP can support the EU policy is therefore the EU campaign
against fake news (euvsdisinfo.eu). More specifically, as detailed below, CICAP also
supports the policies of the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control
(https://ecdc.europa.eu/), of the European Climate Action Programme
(https://ec.europa.eu/clima/policies/eccp_en), of the European Union Evidence Based
Medicine Unity (http://ebm-unity.pc.unicatt.it/ebm/index.html), and Resolution 1580 of the
Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe concerning the dangers of creationism in
education (http://assembly.coe.int/nw/xml/XRef/X2H-Xref-
ViewHTML.asp?FileID=11751&lang=en)

CICAP acts as a mediator between institutions and citizens, contributing to explain to the
broad public the national and EU policies (for example: in the field of health, CICAP has
organized meetings and conferences on the benefits of vaccination as well as campaigns
against non evidence based treatments), spreading the recommendations of WHO and
EU; on environmental issues, explaining the phenomenon of global warming and the
danger of overlooking its effects and therefore boosting support for the Kyoto protocol.

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No lobbyists with EP accreditations

None declared

Mr Massimo Polidoro (Executive Director)

Mr Sergio Della Sala (President)

III - Non-governmental organisations

Non-governmental organisations, platforms and networks and similar