Our collaboration with the internationally leading Neanderthal Museum in Mettmann near Düsseldorf, the primal scene where the first recognised Neanderthal bones were found in 1856, offered unique opportunities for collaborative research. Together, we organised a citizen panel of “paleo-experts” (25 members of various ages and backgrounds) to discuss our research questions and preliminary results. We organised six meetings starting from September 2023 onwards. On this page you can find the program of the meetings and a document explaining how our project benefited from the deliberations with our panel members. Notably, the panel members advised us to produce a documentary about our project and we did. Currently, we are working on the NWO-funded documentary project entitled Neanderthals and Us: from competition to co-existence and exchange. In addition, the Neanderthal Museum developed a new exhibition on Neanderthal existence with a focus on shifting views on gender roles, and with input and inspiration from our panel and our project.