ETAIN presents the 5G Scientist App at ISEE 2026 in Munich
From left: Martin Röösli, Lea Belácková, Magdalini Stefanopoulou, Anke Huss, Stefan Dongus
From 30 August to 2 September, the ETAIN consortium joined more than 1,500 researchers, practitioners and policymakers in Munich for the 2026 Annual Conference of the International Society for Environmental Epidemiology (ISEE), the field's flagship international gathering.
Stefan Dongus presented the poster "The ETAIN 5G Scientist App: A citizen science tool for mapping and understanding radiofrequency electromagnetic fields exposure across Europe" (PV41-05), co-authored with researchers from Swiss TPH, the University of Basel, Utrecht University, Fields at Work, Games for Health, Ideas for Change and the City University of New York.
The poster walked the ISEE audience through how the app turns an ordinary smartphone into a scientific instrument. Onboarding takes one to two minutes: from there, the app estimates each user's RF-EMF exposure from their own network signal strength, calculates a personal dose throughout the day, and lets them compare it with average values across Europe.
Since its public release in 2024, the app has collected more than 20 million measurements from users across Europe. That data feeds exposure maps, updated weekly at a resolution of 25x25 square meters. A game-style scoring system — which rewards measurements taken in under-mapped areas — is helping close coverage gaps while keeping contributors engaged.
ISEE is one of the few venues where ETAIN's methodology, not just its outreach, gets scrutinised by peers: the epidemiologists and exposure scientists who will ultimately judge whether citizen-generated data holds up as a research tool. Presenting there keeps the project's citizen science approach anchored to that standard.
[See the full poster here] · Explore the exposure maps · Download the ETAIN 5G Scientist App
Related: Determining the relationship between mobile phone network signal strength and RF-EMF exposure, Open Research Europe, 2025.
