Horizon Europe, Research & innovation reshaping democracies.
Date: 2023-06-06
Institutions: Directorate-General for Research and Innovation
Subjects: European citizenship, artificial intelligence, call for proposals, democracy, education, governance, innovation, mass media, research and development, social media

RESEARCH & INNOVATION

RESHAPING 
DEMOCRACIES

Projects from the 2022 call for proposals

CLUSTER 2 

“Culture, Creativity & 
inclusive society”

Research and 
Innovation 

Horizon Europe: Research & innovation reshaping democracies

European Commission
Directorate-General for Research and Innovation
Directorate D — People
Unit D4 — Democracy & European values

Contact  
Email  

Julie Baleriaux
Julie.baleriaux@ec.europa.eu
RTD-DEMOCRACY-AND-EU-VALUES@ec.europa.eu
RTD-PUBLICATIONS@ec.europa.eu

European Commission
B-1049 Brussels

Manuscript completed in May 2023.

1st edition.

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EUROPEAN COMMISSION

Horizon Europe 

Research & innovation 
RESHAPING DEMOCRACIES

2023

Directorate-General for Research and Innovation
Horizon Europe

 
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DEMOCRACY
DEMOCRACY

TABLE OF CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................................................ 6

TOPIC 2022-01-01
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE, BIG DATA AND DEMOCRACY ...8
KT4D (101094302): Knowledge Technologies for Democracy ...................................... 10

ITHACA (101094364): Artificial intelligence to enhance civic participation ........... 12

 AI4GOV  (101094905):  Trusted  AI  for  Transparent  Public  Governance  fostering 
Democratic Values ................................................................................................................................... 14

TOPIC 2022-01-02
THE FUTURE OF DEMOCRACY AND CIVIC PARTICIPATION ...........16
 INCITE-DEM  (101094258):  Inclusive  Citizenship  in  a  world  in  Transformation: 
Co-Designing for Democracy .............................................................................................................. 18

ORBIS (101094765): Augmenting participation, co-creation, trust and transparency 
in Deliberative Democracy at all scales ....................................................................................... 20

DUST (101094869): Democratising Just Sustainability Transitions ........................... 22

RESPONSIVE (101095200): Increasing responsiveness to citizen voice in social 
services across Europe........................................................................................................................... 24

TOPIC 2022-03
THE IMPACT OF INEQUALITIES ON DEMOCRACY ...............26
INVOLVE (101094560): For trustful, participatory and inclusive public policies..............28

FAIRVILLE (101094991): Facing Inequalities and democratic challenges through 
Co-production in Cities ........................................................................................................................... 30

G-EPIC (101095000): Gender Empowerment through Politics In Classrooms .............. 32

HORIZON EUROPE | Research & innovation reshaping democracies | 20224

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TOPIC 2022-04
EDUCATION FOR DEMOCRACY .................................................................34
AECED  (101094052):  Transforming  Education  for  Democracy  through  Aesthetic  and 
Embodied Learning, Responsive Pedagogies and Democracy-as-becoming ............................... 36

CRITICAL  CHANGELAB  (101094217):  Democracy  meets  arts:  critical  change  labs  for 
building democratic cultures through creative and narrative practices .....................................38

DEMOCRAT (101095106): Education for Responsible Democratic Citizenship ..............................40

TOPIC 2022-01-05
EVOLUTION  OF  POLITICAL  EXTREMISM  AND  ITS  INFLUENCE  ON 
CONTEMPORARY SOCIAL AND POLITICAL DIALOGUE ....................................42
OppAttune (101095170): Countering Oppositional Political Extremism through Attuned 
Dialogue: Track, Attune, Limit ............................................................................................................................44

SMIDGE (101095290): Social Media narratives: addressing extremism in middle age .............46

ARENAS (101094731): Analysis of and Responses to Extremist Narratives ............................ 48

TOPIC 2022-01-06
MEDIA FOR DEMOCRACY – DEMOCRATIC MEDIA .........................50
ReMeD (101094742): RESILIENT MEDIA FOR DEMOCRACY IN THE DIGITAL AGE ...............52

DIACOMET (101094816): Fostering capacity building for civic resilience and participation: 
Dialogic communication ethics and accountability ................................................................................54

TOPIC 2022-01-07
POLITICS AND THE IMPACT OF ONLINE SOCIAL NETWORKS 
AND NEW MEDIA ...................................................................................58
 SOLARIS  (101094665):  Strengthening  democratic  engagement  through  value-
based generative adversarIal networks ....................................................................................... 60

 SoMe4Dem  (101094752):  Social  media  for  democracy  –  understanding  the 
causal mechanisms of digital citizenship ................................................................................... 62

TWON (101095095): Twin of Online Social Networks........................................................ 64

TOPIC 2022-01-08
REPRESENTATIVE DEMOCRACY IN FLUX .................................66
ActEU (101094190): Towards a new era of representative democracy - Activating 
European citizens’ trust in times of crises and polarization ............................................. 68

 REDIRECT (101095142): The Representative DIsconnect: diagnosis and strategies 
for Rectification .......................................................................................................................................... 70

TRUDEM (101095237): Trust in European Democracies .................................................. 72

TOPIC 2022-01-09
GLOBAL  GOVERNANCE  FOR  A  WORLD  IN  TRANSITION: 
NORMS, INSTITUTIONS, ACTORS .................................................74
REMIT (101094228): Reignite Multilateralism via Technology...................................... 76

MeDeMAP (101094984): Mapping Media for Future Democracies ............................................56

NAVIGATOR (101094394): The EU Navigating Multilateral Cooperation ............... 78

TOPIC 2022-02-01
NETWORK FOR INNOVATIVE SOLUTIONS FOR THE FUTURE 
OF DEMOCRACY .....................................................................................80

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INTRODUCTION

The trust in democratic processes around the world is decreasing as the world is 
facing multiple challenges causing political and economic instability. The inflation 
and an impending recession, together with the ongoing threat of climate change, 
the COVID-19 pandemic and the Russian invasion of Ukraine have contributed to 
a decline in democracy around the world. The number of people who believe that 
democracy is the answer to these issues is declining1. 

Therefore, research on the past and present challenges and tensions in 
democracy can help to better understand and strengthen democracy, its 
resilience and stability. It will foster democracy’s further development with a 
view to enhancing representation, participation, openness, pluralism, tolerance, 
the effectiveness of public policy, non-discrimination, civic engagement, the 
protection of fundamental rights and the rule of law. These reflect the European 
Union’s values as defined in Article 2 of the EU Treaty2.

This booklet gives an overview of the projects that were selected for funding 
under the Horizon Europe 2022 call “Reshaping democracies” (HORIZON-CL2-
2022-DEMOCRACY-01 and 02).3

For more information about Horizon-funded projects on democracy and 
governance, you can visit the R&I funding for democracy & governance website.

For any further information, please contact:
RTD-DEMOCRACY-AND-EU-VALUES@EC.EUROPA.EU

1.  Global State of Democracy Report 2022: Forging Social Contracts in a Time of Discontent | The Global 

State of Democracy. (n.d.-b). https://idea.int/democracytracker/gsod-report-2022

2.  Consolidated version of the Treaty on European Union, Title 1 “Common Provisions”, Article 2: “The Union 
is founded on the values of respect for human dignity, freedom, democracy, equality, the rule of law 
and respect for human rights, including the rights of persons belonging to minorities. These values are 
common to the Member States in a society in which pluralism, non-discrimination, tolerance, justice, 
solidarity and equality between women and men prevail”.

3.  Please note that some projects are still in granting phase and are thus not listed here. In addition, at the 
time of publication, not all projects have set up their own website: therefore, only those live online at the 
time of writing have been linked to this brochure.

HORIZON EUROPE | Research & innovation reshaping democracies | 20228

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Topic 2022-01-01

ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE, 
BIG DATA AND DEMOCRACY

The projects selected under this call are expected to give guidance 
on how to protect fundamental rights and European values from 
possible threats stemming from unregulated use of artificial 
intelligence (AI) and big data applications, explore the potential 
of AI and big data to reinforce fundamental rights and European 
values, as well as to design innovative uses of AI and big data to 
enhance citizen engagement and democracy.

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KT4D 

KNOWLEDGE TECHNOLOGIES 
FOR DEMOCRACY

AI and big data are fundamentally interwoven into our 
societies, culture and indeed into our expectations and 
conceptions of democratic governance and exchange. They 
can also, however, contribute to an environment for citizens 
that is distinctly anti-democratic. 

KT4D will harness the benefits of an understanding of these 
as knowledge technologies to foster more inclusive civic 
participation in democracy. To achieve this, we will develop 
and validate tools, guidelines and a Digital Democracy Lab 
demonstrators platform. 

These results will be validated across three user needs 
scenarios: 

Project n°: 
101094302

Start date: 
01/02/2023
Duration: 
36 months

Keywords: 
knowledge 
technologies, 
participatory 
democracy, 
participatory AI, 
critical digital literacy

1.  building capacity for citizens and citizen-facing Civil Society Organisations (CSOs); 

2.  creating regulatory tools and services for Policy and CSOs; 

3.  improving awareness of how to design ethically and mindfully for democracy 

principles in academic and industrial software development.

Our work is underpinned by the understanding that to fully address the social 
and fundamental rights costs of AI and big data, we need more than just 
technological fixes, we need more than just technological fixes, we need to 
address the underlying cultural influences and barriers. Most importantly, we 
understand the threats to democracy of AI and big data not only through the 
nature of what they do, but via the cultural disruptions they create with power 
dynamics they shift, their tendency toward opacity, and the speed at which 
they change. KT4D’s ambitious and disruptive results will drive transformation 
in how democracy and civic participation are facilitated in the face of rapidly 
changing knowledge technologies, enabling actors across society to capitalise 
on the many benefits these technologies can bring in terms of community 
empowerment, social integration, individual agency, and trust in both institutions 
and technological instruments, while confidently mitigating potential 
ethical, legal and cultural risks. 

  https://kt4democracy.eu/

 Cordis: https://cordis.europa.eu/project/id/101094302

Consortium:

The Provost, Fellows, Foundation Scholars & 
the other members of Board, of the College 
of the Holy & Undivided Trinity of Queen 
Elizabeth near Dublin | IE
Beyond the Horizon International Strategic 
Studies Group | BE
Demos Research Institute Oy | FI
Fundacion Cibervoluntarios | ES
Hybrid Core | BE

ICT Legal Consulting - Studio Legale 
Associato Balboni, Bolognini & Partners | IT
Instytut Rozwoju Miast i Regionow | PL
Strane Innovation | FR
The Democratic Society AISBL | BE
Trust-IT srl | IT
COMMpla srl | IT
The University of Warwick | UK

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ITHACA 

ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE TO 
ENHANCE CIVIC PARTICIPATION

The project aims to better understand the complexities 
and controversies for applying AI into the field of civic 
participation and stimulate new and responsible practices of 
research and innovation that anchor AI technologies design 
in human rights, values and principles, and moral and 
ethical reflection.

The vision is to contribute to the maximisation of the 
possible positive impact of AI on the functioning of 
democratic institutions and processes by developing and 
testing of a human centric Artificially Intelligent and Ethics 
by Design online discussion platform for civic participation 
in local governance, which incorporates human and social 
interpretations into the design process to ensure that AI 

decision-making processes are explainable, transparent and fair. ITHACA will 
pay particular attention to the needs and voices of citizens from vulnerable 
groups, with a view to ensuring that human rights impacts stemming from 
the design, development and ongoing deployment of algorithmic systems are 
comprehensively monitored, debated and addressed.

Through its pilot activities in two different EU countries, ITHACA plans to assess 
the ability of AI to enhance citizens participation in the local governance while 
preventing or minimizing possible adverse effects stemming from unregulated 
use of AI and empowering citizens with knowledge about the AI model involved. 
ITHACA will also provide scalable tools for the identification of security risks and 
threats and for conformity with the Fairness principle and Privacy principle in 
AI-based systems and big data for civic engagement applications. Based on its 
implementation experiences, the project will define a data governance framework 
with relevant ethical principles and practices to be implemented in the design, 
development, deployment process for AI civic engagement platforms as well as 
policy recommendations on philosophical, legal and ethical values that 
should be embedded in the development of such platforms.

 Cordis: https://cordis.europa.eu/project/id/101094364

Project n°: 
101094364

Start date: 
01/01/2023
Duration: 
36 months

Keywords: 
fundamental rights, 
European values, 
philosophical, legal and 
ethical values,  
data governance, 
citizen engagement

Consortium:

Konnektable Technologies Ltd. | IE
Agenţia Metropolitană pentru Dezvoltare 
Durabilă Braşov | RO
ETHNIKO KENTRO EREVNAS KAI 
TECHNOLOGIKIS ANAPTYXIS | EL

Mesto Martin | SK

MNLT Innovations IKE | EL

Panepistimio Patron | EL

PEDAL Consulting SRO | SK

Raising the Floor | BE

Software Imagination & Vision SRL | RO
Stamadianos Kai Synetairoi Dikigoriki 
Etaireia | EL

Universitaet Graz | AT

HORIZON EUROPE | Research & innovation reshaping democracies | 202214

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AI4GOV

TRUSTED AI FOR TRANSPARENT 
PUBLIC GOVERNANCE FOSTERING 
DEMOCRATIC VALUES

AI4Gov is a joint effort of policy makers, public institutions / 
organizations, legal, Social Science and Humanities 
and Big Data/AI experts to unveil the potentials of 
Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Big Data technologies for 
developing evidence-based innovations, policies, and policy 
recommendations to harness the public sphere, political 
power, and economic power for democratic purposes.

The project will also uphold fundamental rights and values 
standards of individuals when using AI and Big Data 
technologies. Hence, it aims to contribute to the promising 
research landscape that seeks to address ethical, trust, 
discrimination, and bias issues by providing an in-depth 
analysis and solutions addressing the challenges that 

Project n°: 
101094905

Start date: 
01/01/2023
Duration: 
36 months

Keywords: 
AI Regulation,  
AI Act, Democratic AI, 
Explainable AI,  
Machine Learning,  
AI Fairness,  
Bias Mitigation,  
Trusted AI,  
Responsible AI,  
Ethical AI

various stakeholders in modern democracies are faced with when attempts are 
made to mitigate the negative implications of Big Data and AI. In this direction, 
the project will introduce solutions and frameworks towards a two-fold sense, 
to facilitate policymakers on the development of automated, educated and 
evidence-based decisions and to increase the trust of citizens in the democratic 
processes and institutions. 

Moreover, the project will leverage the capabilities of state-of-the-art tools 
for providing un-bias, discrimination-free, fair, and trusted AI. These tools will 
be validated in terms of their ability to provide technical and/or organisational 
measures, causal models for bias and discrimination, and standardized 
methodologies for achieving fairness in AI. 

 https://ai4gov-project.eu/ 

Cordis: https://cordis.europa.eu/project/id/10109490

Consortium:

Maggioli SpA | IT

Ministry of Tourism | EL

Aristotelio Panepistimio Thessalonikis | EL

Siemens SRL | RO

Comune di Genova | IT

Ubitech Limited | CY

Dimos Varis - Voulas - Vouliagmenis | EL

University of Piraeus Research Centre | EL

IBM Israel Science and Technology Ltd | IL

ViLabs (CY) Ltd | CY

Institut “Jožef Stefan” | SI

White Label Consultancy ApS | DK

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Topic 2022-01-02

THE FUTURE OF 
DEMOCRACY AND CIVIC 
PARTICIPATION

The projects are expected to improve the articulation between 
deliberative processes and representative institutions in liberal 
democracies, including through experimental approaches.

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INCITE-DEM

INCLUSIVE CITIZENSHIP IN A 
WORLD IN TRANSFORMATION: 
CO-DESIGNING FOR DEMOCRACY

The project aims to enhance inclusive participation and 
civic engagement while expanding democratic innovation 
and dynamic feedback mechanisms between citizens and 
institutional actors in representative democracies.

Currently, “wicked problems” relating to ecological crises 
but also media developments and digital divides create 
unprecedented pressures on democracies. Next to related 
socio-economic challenges, we are witnessing a decline in 
political trust and the formation of new societal cleavages. 

INCITE-DEM will offer a unique contribution to the future 
of democracy in Europe by harnessing historical and 
quantitative and qualitative social science research, agent-
based modelling, design thinking, and advanced analytical 

methods for the purpose of expanding inclusive participation and engagement 
and fuelling democratic innovation. 

Furthermore, we will implement Democracy Labs (DLabs) in six countries, where 
citizens, representatives of democratic innovation initiatives, policymakers, 
and other stakeholders come together to co-create imaginaries of inclusive 
democratic innovations. The new solutions and democratic futures envisioned 
are the objects of design fiction products. All innovations co-created in the 
DLabs are then validated through a choice experiment survey with citizens and 
interactive fora with policymakers, to check their feasibility and the potential for 
implementation. 

Lastly, a set of policy roadmaps for a sustainable, inclusive, and 
innovative democracy in a world facing deep societal, technological and 
ecological transformations are produced and presented to a broad range 
of stakeholders at multiple levels of governance in Europe.

Cordis: https://cordis.europa.eu/project/id/101094258

Project n°: 
101094258

Start date: 
01/03/2023
Duration: 
36 months

Keywords: 
inclusivity, digitalisation, 
sustainability, historical 
review, democratic 
innovations, case studies,  
democracy labs, 
design fiction, choice 
experiment, interactive 
fora, policy pathways

Consortium:

FCiências.ID - Associação para a Investigação 
e Desenvolvimento de Ciências | PT
Asociación Eco-union | ES
Focus - društvo za sonaraven razvoj | SI
Helsingin yliopisto | FI
Instituto de Ciências Sociais | PT
Kyoto Club | IT

Norges teknisk-naturvitenskapelige 
universitet | NO
Rijksuniversiteit Groningen | NL
Tallinn University | EE
Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität Münster 
| DE

HORIZON EUROPE | Research & innovation reshaping democracies | 202220

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ORBIS

It delivers: 

ORBIS provides new ways to understand and facilitate the emergence of new 
participatory democracy models, together with the mechanisms to scale them up 
and consolidate them at institutional level. 

AUGMENTING PARTICIPATION, 
CO-CREATION, TRUST AND 
TRANSPARENCY IN DELIBERATIVE 
DEMOCRACY AT ALL SCALES

The project addresses the disconnects between ambitious 
ideas and collective actions at a large socio-technical 
scale. It responds to the profound lack of dialogue between 
citizenship and policy making institutions by providing a 
theoretically sound and highly pragmatic socio-technical 
solution to enable the transition to a more inclusive, 
transparent and trustful Deliberative Democracy in Europe. 
The project shapes and supports new democratic models 
that are developed through deliberative democracy 
processes; it follows a socio-constructive approach in which 
deliberative democracy is not a theory which prescribes new 
democratic practices and models, but rather the process 
through which we can collectively imagine and realize them.

Project n°: 
101094765

Start date: 
01/02/2023
Duration: 
36 months

Keywords: 
large-scale 
deliberation, 
socio-technical 
approach, 
open innovation, 
argumentation 
mining, 
conflict mediation, 
knowledge graphs, 
decision-making

1.  a sound methodology for deliberative participation and co-creation at scale;

2.  novel AI-enhanced tools for deliberative participation across diverse settings; 

3.  a novel socio-technical approach that augments the articulation between 

deliberative processes and representative institutions in liberal democracies; 

4.  new evidence-based democratic models that emerge from the application of 

citizen deliberation processes; 

5.  demonstrated measurable impact of such innovations in real-world settings.

The project builds on cutting-edge AI tools and technologies to develop a 
sustainable digital solution, and bridges theories and technological solutions 
from the fields of political and social science, social innovation, Artificial 
Intelligence, argumentation and digital democracy. The achievement of 
the project’s goal is validated through six use cases addressing 
contemporary issues at different scales and settings, experimenting 
with different civic participation and deliberation models, and involving 
diverse types of stakeholders.

Cordis: https://cordis.europa.eu/project/id/101094765

Consortium:

Politecnico di Milano | IT
ATHINAIKI AGORA DIMOKRATIAS KAI 
POLITISMOU ASTIKI MI KERDOSKOPIKI 
ETAIREIA | EL
Centre for European Policy studies | BE
Centre national de la recherche scientifique 
(CNRS) | FR
Copernicani | IT
Center for Social Innovation (CSI) LTD | CY

D.TSAKALIDIS-G.DOMALIS OE | EL
PERIFEREIA DYTIKI ELLADA | EL
Re-Imagine Europa | BE
Rob de Matt | IT
UniSystems Luxembourg Sàrl | LU
Université Côte d’Azur | FR
The Open University | UK
Universita della Svizzera italiana | CH

HORIZON EUROPE | Research & innovation reshaping democracies | 202222

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DUSTDUST

DEMOCRATISING JUST 
SUSTAINABILITY TRANSITIONS

The project will develop and operationalise novel participatory 
instruments for proactive and strategic citizen engagement in 
sustainability transitions. It will combine design-led territorial 
tools with digital tools for citizen deliberation at scale. 

The project addresses a defining societal and democratic 
challenge for Europe, which is to hear the voices of least 
engaged communities, especially in structurally weak regions 
dependent on energy-intensive industries, which will be most 
affected by transitions towards a more sustainable future. 
Building on the concept of ‘active subsidiarity’, the project 
will employ an innovative mix of research methods, and 
experimental citizen participation, to understand 

the determinants of participation in decision-making on sustainability transitions at 
different levels of government, and to develop effective policy recommendations for 
inclusive engagement of civil society.

Cordis: https://cordis.europa.eu/project/id/101094869

Project n°: 
101094869

Start date: 
01/02/2023
Duration: 
36 months

Keywords: 
Sustainability transition, 
deliberative governance, 
place-based policy, 
spatial planning, active 
subsidiarity, least 
engaged communities, 
e-democracy, futures 
literacy, foresight, 
regional design

Consortium:

Technische Universiteit Delft | NL
Agentsiya za Regionalno Ikonomichesko 
Razvitie | BG
Brandenburgische Technische Universität 
Cottbus-Senftenberg | DE
Center for the Study of Democracy | BG
Hela Sverige ska leva Norrbotten | SE
Nordregio | SE

Porozumienie Związków Zawodowych Kadra 
| PL
Stichting ISOCARP Institute Center of Urban 
Excellence | NL
Stiftung Wohlfahrtspflege Brandenburg  | DE
Uniwersytet Ekonomiczny w Katowicach | PL
Universität Zürich | CH
University of Strathclyde | UK

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RESPONSIVE

INCREASING RESPONSIVENESS 
TO CITIZEN VOICE IN SOCIAL 
SERVICES ACROSS EUROPE

The project aims to enhance the responsiveness of Europe’s 
social services to input from diverse citizens. It wants to 
increase the impact of citizen’s voice on the approaches, 
organisation and delivery of three types of social service: 
disability and mental health, child protection and services for 
youth at risk.

The project will help social services and EU policy structures 
to better understand, utilise and innovate with the knowledge, 
experiences and ideas of citizens through six core objectives:

1.  Analyse the normative, legal, policy and practice contexts 
at local, national and EU level shaping how social services 
respond to the perspectives of diverse citizens

Project n°: 
101095200

Start date: 
01/03/2023
Duration: 
36 months

Keywords: 
Social services,  
dialogue,  
interaction

2.  Assess the range, inclusivity, operation and impact of official channels of 
citizen input in social services (advisory groups, consultations, complaints, 
evaluation mechanisms)

3.  Analyse the range, goals, content and approaches of public actions by citizens 
to change social services (protests, campaigns, social media, social enterprise, 
artistic production)

4.  Identify the factors shaping changes by social services in response to the 

input of diverse citizens who use social services

5.  Co-design and test tailored innovations for citizens, civil society groups, social 
services and policymakers to significantly expand the utilisation of different 
sources of citizen knowledge by social services at different levels

6.  Promote uptake of innovations through dissemination of project results

This qualitative research project will be conducted in Austria, Denmark, France, 
Poland, Portugal and Romania by an interdisciplinary and multisectoral consortium 
of six research organisations, three civil society organisations, two social services 
departments and an international network of social work practitioners.

Cordis: https://cordis.europa.eu/project/id/101095200

Consortium:

Universität Innsbruck | AT
Aalborg Universitet | DK
A.RETIS : Association, Recherche, 
Education, Territoires, Interventions, 
Sociabilites | FR
Asociatia Centrul de formare și evaluare în 
asistența socială | RO
Le département des Yvelines | FR
Instituto Superior de Ciências Sociais e 
Políticas | PT

International Federation of Social Workers 
European Region e.V. | DE
Municipio da Amadora | PT
Stowarzyszenie Centrum Wspierania 
Aktywności Lokalnej CAL | PL
Tiroler Interessenverband für psychosoziale 
Inklusion | AT
Université Paris Nanterre | FR
Uniwersytet Warszawski | PL

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27

Topic 2022-03

THE IMPACT OF 
INEQUALITIES ON 
DEMOCRACY

Proposals are expected take stock of long-term trends in and types 
of inequalities, to identify the sources of these inequalities and the 
way they intersect. Proposals should model the relation between 
inequalities and levels of political trust in European societies and 
the emergence of protest movements and populist discourses, 
including in their national, transnational and spatial dimensions. 

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29

INVOLVE

FOR TRUSTFUL, PARTICIPATORY 
AND INCLUSIVE PUBLIC POLICIES

Across Europe there is evidence of the existing distrust 
in political institutions and the increased stratification of 
political involvement across Europe, with more vulnerable 
citizens having less access and influence in the decision-
making process. The COVID 19 pandemic has exposed and 
reinforced these trends. These shifts pose a great challenge 
to the democratic welfare state.   

INVOLVE’s main objective is to help design scalable and 
generalizable strategies to reduce social, economic, and 
political inequalities. The project builds on systematic 
quantitative research into the trends, causes and complex 
relationships between democracy and inequalities. The 
project also focuses on how public and social services 
engage with vulnerable groups of citizens, especially in 

the age of digitalization. It will involve vulnerable groups in 8 European countries 
as co-researchers to complement and refine the results. In a series of concrete 
pilots of action-research, their aspirational capacity and their power of voice are 
strengthened to bring about concrete change in public services and social policies.   

INVOLVE will not only involve vulnerable citizens facing multiple inequalities, but 
also political and public decision-makers, NGOs representing vulnerable groups 
and experts to develop viable political strategies in order to achieve more trust-
based governance in public services, to contribute to the development of a more 
participatory and socially responsible society.   

The final stage of INVOLVE aims to contribute to democratic participation in 
social policies at local, national, transnational and European level through 
campaigns with viable policy recommendations. INVOLVE also aims to enrich 
future research with an encompassing and innovative perspective on 
inequality and democracy, based on an ‘alliance of knowledge’. 

 https://involve-democracy.eu/

Cordis: https://cordis.europa.eu/project/id/101094560

Project n°: 
101094560

Start date: 
01/01/2023
Duration: 
48 months

Keywords: 
Democracy, Inequalities, 
Political trust, Vulnerable 
groups, Public services, 
Social policies, Cross 
Talk, Receiver, doer, 
judge, Participatory 
Action Research, 
Intersectionality, Alliance 
of knowledge

Consortium:

Beweging | BE
Centrum Organizowania Związków 
Zawodowych | PL
Coordinamento Nazionale Comunità di 
Accoglienza | IT
École des hautes études en sciences sociales | FR
Focus Ireland Company Limited By 
Guarantee | IE
Groupe de recherche et de réalisations pour 

le développement rural | FR
Katholieke Universiteit Leuven | BE
National University of Ireland Maynooth | IE
REDE DLBC LISBOA - Associação para 
o Desenvolvimento Local de Base 
Comunitária de Lisboa | PT
Soziologische Forschungsinstitut Göttingen 
(SOFI) e.V. | DE
Université de Genève | CH

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31

FAIRVILLE

FACING INEQUALITIES 
AND DEMOCRATIC 
CHALLENGES THROUGH 
CO-PRODUCTION IN CITIES

If the link between inequalities and declining levels of trust 
in the political institutions of democracy in Europe has 
already been shown, the various ways in which both citizens 
and institutions are trying to face these inequalities and 
(re)build a sustainable common future remain somewhat 
under-documented. Indeed, this lacuna becomes even more 
pronounced when one considers those attempts that go 
beyond conventional forms of state-led participation. 

Responding to this gap, the aim of Fairville is to both 
document and propose pilot models of urban intervention 
that engage local academics, authorities, community based 

Project n°: 
101094991

Start date: 
01/01/2023
Duration: 
48 months

Keywords: 
Environmental 
inequalities, Risks-Housing 
and Planning inequalities, 
Urban Regeneration, 
Community-driven 
planning, Participatory 
democracy, Co-production, 
Urban Studies

organisations, residents and users in the collective improvement of deprived 
urban neighbourhoods via a deepening of resident and user participation in new 
and existing democratic processes. The idea that urban policies should not be 
made “for” populations but rather “with” them is a potentially profound engine 
of social transformation and empowerment. However, the realisation of such 
co-production processes is often marked by epistemic inequalities and unequal 
power relations. 

Cognisant of this issue, the Fairville pilot cases all place an emphasis on 
exploring the ways in which academic researchers, local communities and local 
authority representatives can work together to reduce the power and information 
asymmetries that exist between them. Clustered around three major themes - 
environmental inequalities, inequalities related to housing and urban planning 
and inequalities related to climate risks – and ranging from co-diagnosis to 
co-planning and intervention, the pilots will be carried out as action research 
and include the implementation of observation, capitalisation and co-evaluation 
mechanisms. The results of these pilot cases will be widely disseminated to 
the institutions and citizens concerned and we will work collectively to 
encourage policy transfer and outreach. 

 https://www.fairville-eu.org/

Cordis: https://cordis.europa.eu/project/id/101094991

Consortium:

Centre national de la recherche scientifique 
(CNRS) | FR
Commune d’Ixelles | BE
Perifereia Attikis | EL
Un Centre Ville pour Tous | FR
APPUII, Alternative Pour des Projets Urbains 
Ici et à l’International | FR
Asociatia Frontal | RO
conoscenza E Innovazione Societa’ A 
Responsabilita’ Limitata Semplificata | IT
Etats Généraux de l’Eau à Bruxelles | BE
ICLEI European Secretariat GmbH (ICLEI 

Europasekretariat GMBH) | DE
North South Consultants Exchange LLC | EG
Synetairismos Ergazomenon Commonspace - 
Architektoniki, Astikos Schediasmos, Chorikes 
Stratigikes Kai Symmetochikos Schediasmos | EL
Universität Regensburg | DE
Université d’Aix-Marseille | FR
Université libre de Bruxelles | BE
Urba Sénégal UrbaSEN | SN
Université Paris 8 (Vincennes Saint-Denis) | FR
University College London | UK
Just Space | UK

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33

G-EPIC

GENDER EMPOWERMENT THROUGH 
POLITICS IN CLASSROOMS

Ensuring the future of democracy requires empowering 
all social group to engage, yet the gender gap in political 
leadership, political ambition and political self-efficacy is the 
most persistent and most difficult to tackle across Western 
democracies. The situation when looking across the intersect 
of gender, social class and ethnicity becomes even more 
grave. These differences have been shown to begin in the 
school and classroom dynamics has been cited as the likely 
socialisation process that leads to these different outcomes. 

G-EPIC, a multinational consortium of universities and civil 
society organisations, has been brought together with the 
aim of fostering social innovation and testing interventions 
to reduce gender inequality in politics. The 7 partners in 6 
countries (Belgium, Czechia, Denmark, Germany, Spain and 

United Kingdom) will begin by establishing the state of play through classroom 
observations and reanalysis of existing quantitative data to understand how 
inequalities in attitudes and dispositions towards political engagement are 
learnt. G-EPIC will then create experiments in schools and pilot design-based 
interventions co-developed with civil-society, teachers and students. These 
experiments and interventions will be rigorously evaluated in comparisons with 
control groups and will lead to the development of the Gender Empowerment in 
Classroom intervention that will be disseminated and delivered in schools across 
Europe creating the possibility for real change and the reduction of the gender 
gap in political leadership. 

In addition, G-EPIC will also carry out a holistic evaluation of the national context 
and the local and European policy framework to design strategies, regulations 
and policies that are conducive to a more equitable gender political involvement, 
particularly of girls with a disadvantaged background. 

 https://www.g-epic.eu/

Cordis: https://cordis.europa.eu/project/id/101095000

Project n°: 
101095000

Start date: 
01/02/2023
Duration: 
36 months

Keywords: 
political inequality, 
disadvantaged 
groups, gender 
empowerment, 
school interventions, 
intersectionality

Consortium:

Vrije Universiteit Brussel | BE
Aarhus Universitet | DK
Justus-Liebig-Universität Gießen | DE
The Gender Five Plus | BE
Universidad Carlos III De Madrid | ES
Univerzita Karlova | CZ
Roehampton University LBG | UK

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Topic 2022-04

EDUCATION FOR DEMOCRACY

Proposals are expected to show how educational material 
and innovative pedagogical practices in different settings can 
mediate or inform current debates about European identity, as 
well as key issues such as sustainable development, migration, 
tolerance, polarisation etc. They should examine how education 
can be mobilised in terms of producing informed historical 
and cultural consciousness. Research should highlight the 
competences needed by students to boost their capacity to 
actively engage in democratic politics and hone their critical 
view of the world. 

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37

AECED

TRANSFORMING EDUCATION FOR 
DEMOCRACY THROUGH AESTHETIC 
AND EMBODIED LEARNING, 
RESPONSIVE PEDAGOGIES AND 
DEMOCRACY-AS-BECOMING

Democracy is a lived experience. To flourish, democracy 
needs healthy roots in people’s engaged feelings, 
awareness and sensibilities as embodied beings connected 
with each other and their localities, communities and 
the natural world. Democracy cannot be understood and 
enacted simply through cognitive learning or technical 
interactive skills. Yet, education for democracy gives 
little attention to nurturing those aesthetic, affective and 
embodied roots of democracy. This is because the learning 
theory on which most education for democracy is based 
omits a fundamental dimension of learning – that is, the 
aesthetic and embodied nature of learning. The ambition of 
this project is to remedy this omission.

The project will:

 •

 •

 •

 •

design an innovative, evidence-based aesthetic and embodied pedagogical 
framework which has an impact on the practice of education for democracy 
through associated guides to practice (toolkits) that support responsive, 
participatory pedagogies

test, through participatory action research, a prototype of the framework and 
guides in differing phases of education and national contexts

refine the framework and guides

disseminate and activate exploitation of the pedagogical framework and 
guides by ‘trailblazer users’

The project’s scientific impact will be achieved through ground-breaking, 
transdisciplinary research that shows how aesthetic and embodied learning and 
responsive pedagogies for democracy facilitate new ways of ‘seeing’ and exploring 
self and others, enabling truly democratic relations and nurturing predispositions 
and capabilities for active democratic citizenship and deepening democracy.

Societal impact will be achieved through new pedagogical approaches that 
engage learners’ and educators’ hearts as well as minds, increase capacity 
for democratic citizenship that connects and evolves locally, and strengthen 
affective predispositions for challenging social injustices, engaging with conflict 
and seeking mutual understanding.

Cordis: https://cordis.europa.eu/project/id/101094052

Project n°: 
101094052

Start date: 
01/04/2023
Duration: 
36 months

Keywords: 
pedagogical 
innovation, 
participation, 
transformative 
learning

Consortium:

Lapin yliopisto | FI
Philipps-Universität Marburg | DE
Rīgas Tehniskā universitāte | LV
Učiteljski fakultet Sveučilišta u Zagrebu | HR
Universidade Aberta | PT
The University of Hertfordshire Higher 
Education Corporation | UK

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39

CRITICAL CHANGELAB

DEMOCRACY MEETS ARTS: 
CRITICAL CHANGE LABS 
FOR BUILDING DEMOCRATIC 
CULTURES THROUGH CREATIVE 
AND NARRATIVE PRACTICES

The project aims to reinvigorate the relationship between 
youth and democracy and consequently the future of 
21st Century European democracy. This is achieved by 
spearheading the reach and impact of Critical ChangeLab 
Model of Democratic Pedagogy, fostering youth’s active 
democratic citizenship at a time when polarisation, deep 
political divisions and declining trust in democracy are 
spreading across Europe. 

The Critical ChangeLab Model for Democratic Pedagogy 
fosters learners’ transformative agency and strengthens 
democratic processes in education through collaborations 

across formal and non-formal education and local actors around global/local 
challenges relevant for youth.

The Model promotes creative and narrative practices to explore the historical 
roots of local and EU-wide challenges, understanding the value-systems and 
worldviews underlying distinct types of relations (human-human, human-nature, 
human-technology). At the Critical ChangeLabs, young people are introduced to 
approaches such as theatre of the oppressed, transmedia storytelling, as well 
as speculative and critical design to rethink European democracy and envision 
justice-oriented democracy futures. Throughout the lifespan of the project, 
Critical ChangeLab aims to examine the current state of democracy within 
education institutions identifying youth’s perspectives on everyday democracy; 
design a scalable and tailorable model of democratic pedagogy in formal and 
non-formal learning environments; co-create and implement the model with 
youth and stakeholders, evaluate the model generating recommendations 
for policy and practice, and develop strategies to sustain the model and its 
outcomes overtime. Through various research actions 
combining quantitative and qualitative approaches, 
Critical ChangeLab will generate a robust evidence base 
to support democratic curriculum development using 
participatory, and creative and critical approaches.

Cordis: https://cordis.europa.eu/project/id/101094217

Project n°: 
101094217

Start date: 
01/04/2023
Duration: 
36 months

Keywords: 
democratic pedagogy, 
civic pedagogy,  
critical literacy,  
youth participation, 
youth agency, 
democratic engagement, 
participatory action 
research

Consortium:

Oulun yliopisto | FI
Alternatives Européennes Association | FR
Ars Electronica Linz GmbH & Co KG | AT
Institut za društvena istraživanja u Zagrebu 
| HR
LATRA Innovation Lab | EL
Stichting the Tactical Technology Collective 
(TTC) | NL

Stichting Waag Society | NL
The Provost, Fellows, Foundation Scholars, 
& other members of Board, of the College 
of the Holy and Undivided Trinity of Queen 
Elizabeth near Dublin | IE
Universitat de Barcelona | ES
Zavod za kulturo, umetnost in izobraževanje 
Kersnikova | SI

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41

DEMOCRAT

EDUCATION FOR RESPONSIBLE 
DEMOCRATIC CITIZENSHIP

EU-society faces four major challenges: the Anthropocene 
crisis, digitalisation, the pandemic and the war in Ukraine 
and its consequences. All these challenges put at risk 
the model of liberal democracy, which, of course, has 
faced similarly internal threats (political polarisation, 
right wing extremism, mistrust in scientific research and 
conspiratorial beliefs) and external critique (questioning 
whether plural democracy is the best model to affront 
societal challenges). Education, and especially Education 
for Democracy (EfD), shall contribute to the defence and 
enhancement of democracy. This includes the values and 
principles encompassed within the UN’s 2030 Agenda and 
its Sustainable Development Goals. Goal 4.7, in particular, 
defines that education should promote sustainable 
lifestyles, human rights, gender equality, promotion of a 
culture of peace and non-violence, global citizenship and 

appreciation of cultural diversity. 

To reinforce the resilience and sustainability of democracy, DEMOCRAT aims, 
through a participatory approach, to elaborate curricula for EfD based on a 
framework of responsible democratic competences (RDCs), to test them in 
open, local, innovative learning projects and to develop a toolbox to support the 
development of transformative EfD practices in the EU and beyond. DEMOCRAT’s 
ambitious research and innovation programme will provide insights into the 
points of comparison and contrast in EfD in the EU-member states and will 
develop an innovative curriculum framework linking RDCs with digitalisation 
and sustainability. DEMOCRAT will test and analyse pedagogical practices and 
material considering its effectiveness for acquiring democratic competences and 
European identity. It will garner insights into the factors influencing the impact 
of EfD on public participation through the analysis of European datasets, with 
a particular focus on the relation between socio-economic and educational 
inequalities and political and social participation.

Cordis: https://cordis.europa.eu/project/id/101095106

Project n°: 
101095106

Start date: 
01/03/2023
Duration: 
36 months

Keywords: 
Education for 
Democracy, Civic 
Education, Democracy, 
Political Participation, 
Sustainability, 
Digitalisation

Consortium:
Universitat de Barcelona | ES
Dublin City University | IE
European university continuing education 
network AISBL | BE
Foundation for Global Governance and 
Sustainability | BE
Helsingin yliopisto | FI

Hochschule Düsseldorf | DE
Notus | ES
Stichting International Parents’ Alliance | NL
Tallinn University | EE
Uniwersytet Jagielloński | PL

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Topic 2022-01-05: 

EVOLUTION OF 
POLITICAL EXTREMISM 
AND ITS INFLUENCE ON 
CONTEMPORARY SOCIAL 
AND POLITICAL DIALOGUE

The projects are expected to analyse the various forms of 
extremist discourses and narratives, their dynamics and disruptive 
potential. They should provide psychological, sociological and 
anthropological analyses of drivers behind violent political 
transformations. They should also explore the tension between 
tackling political extremism and human rights law on freedom of 
speech. In addition, projects are expected to map the penetration 
of extremist ideology and argumentation into general media, 
social and political discourses. They should analyse the drivers 
of such discourses, including the respective roles of the media, 
political spheres and popular sentiment and their interplay. 
Finally, they should propose evidence-based strategies to counter 
extremist discourses, prevent the spread of political extremism 
and limit its short and long- term impact. 

44

45

OppAttune 

COUNTERING OPPOSITIONAL 
POLITICAL EXTREMISM 
THROUGH ATTUNED DIALOGUE: 
TRACK, ATTUNE, LIMIT

OppAttune tracks the evolution of oppositional extreme 
ideologies and protectionist decision-making, develops 
an innovative attunement model and tests a series of 
interventions at the national and transnational levels which 
limit the spread of extremism. OppAttune revitalises trust 
in key democratic institutions. Its actions involve an on-line 
I-Attune self-test interactive to build democratic capacity 
across diverse publics. OppAttune will create an OppAttune 
Summer Academy for students and researchers (2025) 
and an OppAttune Winter Academy for practitioners and 
policymakers (2026). OppAttune provides micro, meso 

Project n°: 
101095170

Start date: 
01/04/2023
Duration: 
36 months

Keywords: 
Political Dialogue, 
Extreme Narratives, 
Democracy, Human 
Rights, Discursive 
Governance, Social 
Dialogue

and macro level evidence-based recommendations and strategies designed 
to counter the potential of extreme narratives to disrupt democratic growth. It 
delivers this via a multi-disciplinary consortium of 17 countries across the EU 
and its periphery.

Democracies and the European project are under threat by extremism and lack 
of political and social dialogue. Existential insecurities arising out of economic 
and refugee-related crises have been exacerbated by Covid-19 to create re-
bordering e.g., xenophobic-nationalism and re-shoring e.g., the localisation of 
production. Oppositional worldviews, narratives and dissensus within public 
debate are all vital to a functioning democracy. However destructive polarisation 
of oppositional us/them logic is at the core of the rise of extremist narratives. 
Disruptive actors polarise oppositional logic using disinformation, emotions, 
hot cognitions, conspiracy theories and mistrust to create new forms of direct 
action. This direct action is understood to many as direct democracy. This direct 
action cultivates unlikely coalitions creating attractive alternative on-line/off-line 
worlds which spread extreme narratives into the mainstream via deep rooted 
sociological and historical pathways. OppAttune will track, attune 
and limit extreme narratives to foreground EU transnational 
freedoms and multilateralism.

Cordis: https://cordis.europa.eu/project/id/101095170

Consortium:

Panteio Panepistimio Koinonikon 
Kaipolitikon Epistimon | EL
Cultures Interactive e.V. - Verein 
zur interkulturellen Bildung und 
Gewaltprävention | DE
Fondacija Centar za međunarodne i 
bezbednosne poslove | RS
Hammurabi Human Rights Organization | IQ
Institut Jožef Stefan | SI
İstanbul Bilgi Üniversitesi | TR
Kosovar Centre for Security Studies | XK

Malmö Universitet | SE
Österreichische Akademie der 
Wissenschaften | AT
Özyeğin Üniversitesi | TR
The American University of Paris | FR
PRONI Centar za omladinski razvoj | BA
Universidade De Coimbra | PT
Università ta’ Malta | MT
University of Cyprus | CY
Glasgow Caledonian University | UK
The Open University | UK

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47

SMIDGE 

SOCIAL MEDIA NARRATIVES: 
ADDRESSING EXTREMISM 
IN MIDDLE AGE

Conspiracy theories, misinformation and extremism online 
is a growing concern to governments. Extreme political 
narratives have been rising across Europe and these 
narratives influence mainstream political discourses and 
policies. This is having a direct impact on perceptions of 
democratic institutions, trust in science, and leads to calls 
for direct action (Jan 6th incursion in USA) to overthrow or 
disrupt democratically elected governments. 

Those in middle age (45-65) may be both susceptible to 
extremist narratives and also influential as decision-
makers. This group is under-researched, but the impact 
of them being drawn into extremist content may 
have significant consequences on political discourse, 

Project n°: 
101095290

Start date: 
01/03/2023
Duration: 
36 months

Keywords: 
Social media,  
conspiracy theories, 
misinformation,  
extremism

democratic processes and institutions. SMIDGE will analyse the various forms 
of extremist discourses and narratives across Europe through social network 
analysis, textual and content analysis of extremist discourse, and will consider 
national and demographic specifics through survey, focus groups and interviews 
in 6 countries (UK, Italy, Belgium, Denmark, Kosovo, Cyprus). From this in-depth 
examination of the current state of the art, SMIDGE will produce counter-
narratives, education and training resources aimed at promoting reflexivity, 
alongside multi-level policy recommendations and evidence-based tools and 
training for journalists and security professionals. The counter-content will be 
created through collaboration with stakeholders during co-creation exercises 
in the focus groups. SMIDGE takes the theory of responsible research and 
innovation (RRI) as its core conceptual approach to ensure that the project 
adheres to the highest ethical and quality standards. The outputs from SMIDGE 
will provide evidence-based content, tools and resources that will directly 
help to counter extremist narratives from multiple perspectives, thereby 
providing greater understanding of the specificities and characteristics of 
those in middle-age and their vulnerability to extremism online.

Cordis: https://cordis.europa.eu/project/id/101095290

Consortium:

Københavns Universitet | DK
FAS-Research Sozialwissenschaftliche 
Forschungsgesellschaft mbH | AT
Fondazione Hallgarten - FranchettiCentro 
Studi Villa Montesca | IT
Inclusive Europe | BE

Kosovar Centre for Security Studies | XK
UCLan Cyprus Limited | CY
Università degli Studi di Milano | IT
De Montfort University | UK

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49

ARENAS 

ANALYSIS OF AND RESPONSES 
TO EXTREMIST NARRATIVES

Social protest movements, the Covid-19 crisis and the war in 
Ukraine have triggered increased polarization of debates. They 
have challenged European democracies and thus fostered 
extreme narratives, with strong and numerous consequences 
for citizens, politics, and the democratic exercise.

The ARENAS consortium focuses on the narratives as crucial 
nexuses, because “the battle of stories, not the debate on 
issues” can determine the way that citizens react to political 
events. A strong antagonism is constructed between 
extremist and mainstream narratives, which is evident if 
we compare the narratives on the on-going war in Ukraine. 
Extremist narratives always reflect the complex intersection 
of spatial and temporal context where the narratives 
are constructed, circulated, consumed, and reproduced. 
They are characterized by their reliance on pathos and 

Project n°: 
101094731

Start date: 
01/05/2023
Duration: 
48 months

Keywords: 
extremist narratives, 
discourse, polarisation, 
disinformation, counter 
narratives, historical 
roots, mediatization of 
extremist narratives, 
fake news, circulation, 
spread of extremist 
narratives

emotions, as well as the importance of violence in them: they tend to proliferate 
in historical periods characterized by social turmoil, and construct an alternative 
reality and promote negative emotions and behavioural patterns that run against 
mainstream and official narratives. In social media and through the connections 
between social and “traditional” media, extremist narratives are naturalized and 
have an impact on mainstream narratives.

ARENAS will provide concrete responses to the consequences of these extremist 
narratives by: 

1.  measuring and mapping the spread of extremist narratives; 

2.  defining remediation actions for individuals and groups affected by extremist 

narratives; 

3.  providing educational and institutional propositions to anticipate future 
challenges in terms of the construction and circulation of extremist 
narratives; 

4.  identifying multi-level policy recommendations to help counter 

extremist narratives, both at the institutional and political level, and 
at the level of associations and citizens.

Cordis: https://cordis.europa.eu/project/id/101094731

Consortium:

CY Cergy Paris Université | FR
Asociación Jóvenes Solidarios Arenas de San 
Pedro | ES
European Center for Human Rights | FR
Fundació Oxfam Intermón | ES
Suomen Setlementtiliitto ry | FI
Università degli Studi di Trento | IT
Centre national de la recherche scientifique | FR
Heinrich-Heine-Universitaet Duesseldorf | DE
Helsingin yliopisto | FI

Inštitut za novejšo zgodovino | SI
Momentum Marketing Services Limited | IE
Radošās Idejas | LV
Università degli Studi di Genova | IT
Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona | ES
University of Cyprus | CY
Wom Societa’ A Responsabilita’ Limitata | IT
Consorci Institut de Ciències Polítiques i 
Socials | ES

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51

Topic 2022-01-06

MEDIA FOR DEMOCRACY – 
DEMOCRATIC MEDIA

Proposals are expected to examine under what conditions 
traditional and new media organizations and journalism operate in 
modern European societies. Research should analyse whether and 
how they serve the public interest, and how this could be improved. 
Proposals should bring together, in a holistic manner, academic 
research, practitioners’ reflection, and citizens’ views on the 
relationship between media and democracy. They should analyse 
how recent transformations in journalism and media technology 
have affected individuals and communities concerning participation 
and democratic discourses and, conversely, how a shifting 
political landscape, with increased polarisation as a major trait, 
have affected the media. Research should propose digital media 
design improvements that effectively increase transparency and 
accountability of media and contribute to reinvigorating democracy. 

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53

ReMeD

RESILIENT MEDIA FOR DEMOCRACY 
IN THE DIGITAL AGE

The project will tackle existing challenges to a healthy 
relationship between media and democracy, by taking a 
bold approach to improve relations between citizens, media 
and digital technologies. 

With an interdisciplinary approach and an innovative 
methodology that combines qualitative and quantitative 
methods, ReMeD will gather, analyse, compare and contrast 
data on professional journalists, alternative media content 
producers and citizens operating in technologically mediated 
configurations, and on the media organizations, market 
structures and national and international regulations that 
underpin media production, circulation and consumption in 
the contemporary media landscape. 

ReMeD will work closely with all parties involved in order to co-produce high-
impact knowledge and solutions that will contribute to the creation of resilient 
democratic media that reinvigorate, strengthen and uphold democracy, the 
rule of law and fundamental human rights. The project is particularly timely 
as ReMeD’s results and policy recommendations will feed directly into the 
contemporary debates around the design and implementation of the Digital 
Services Act and Digital Markets Act.

Cordis: https://cordis.europa.eu/project/id/101094742

Project n°: 
101094742

Start date: 
01/03/2023
Duration: 
36 months

Keywords: 
Democracy, 
resilience, new 
Media consumption, 
transparency, hybrid 
media system

Consortium:

Universidad de Navarra | ES
Dublin City University | IE
Fédération européenne des journalistes | BE
Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München | DE
Paris Lodron Universität Salzburg | AT

Universitetet i Agder | NO
Univerzita Karlova | CZ
Vrije Universiteit Brussel | BE
The Chancellor Masters and Scholars of the 
University of Oxford | UK

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55

DIACOMET

FOSTERING CAPACITY BUILDING 
FOR CIVIC RESILIENCE AND 
PARTICIPATION: DIALOGIC 
COMMUNICATION ETHICS 
AND ACCOUNTABILITY

Digital communication enormously expands the number of ways 
people can interact and engage, but also challenges European 
societies by spread of conflict instigation, hate speech, and 
increasing amount of disinformation. The many initiators of 
destructive communication acts are various actors with diverse 
interests, who are not bound by either professional or ethical 
rules or obligations to distribute truthful information or stand for 
its reliability. The existing framework of public communication 
does not empower citizens to influence the ways the media 
institutions and actors operate in European democracies.

DIACOMET contributes to the advancement of ethical and 
accountable communication by fostering capacity building for 

Project n°: 
101094816

Start date: 
01/06/2023
Duration: 
36 months

Keywords: 
Dialogic communication 
ethics, civic 
accountability 
mechanisms, civic 
resilience, participation, 
democratic governance, 
Civic Code of Good 
Communication Conduct

civic resilience against information distortions and promoting civic accountability. 
Therefore, DIACOMET aims to generate a concept of dialogic communication ethics 
(DCE), which would provide a framework for an inclusive model of accountability 
mechanisms that combine media accountability (the level of organisations) with 
civic accountability (the level of citizens) and is guided by a Civic Code of Good 
Communication Conduct (CGC) (a new type of code of communication ethics).

The DIACOMET proposal explicitly addresses the aims of the Horizon Europe 
Culture, creativity and inclusive society Work Programme, the Topic, the Call and 
the European Democracy Action Plan through:

1.  Analysis of the role of dialogic communication in existing ethics codes and 

guidelines and formulation of the CGC.

2.  A novel concept of inclusive civic accountability bodies and a tested 

accountability mechanism.

3.  An interactive ‘dilemma game’ and a forum for learning and discussion.

DIACOMET proposes to establish a European network of 
civic accountability bodies for supporting individuals, groups 
and organizations to implement the CGC, and to assist in 
managing ethical issues emerging in public communication.

Cordis: https://cordis.europa.eu/project/id/101094816

Consortium:

Vytauto Didžiojo universitetas | LT
Delfi Uždaroji akcinė bendrovė | LT
Magyarországi Európa Társaság | HU
Österreichische Akademie der 
Wissenschaften | AT
Sihtasutus Poliitikauuringute Keskus Praxis | EE

Stichting Hogeschool Utrecht | NL
Tampereen korkeakoulusäätiö sr | FI
Tartu Ülikool | EE
Univerza v Ljubljani | SI
Universita della svizzera italiana | CH

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57

MeDeMAP

MAPPING MEDIA FOR 
FUTURE DEMOCRACIES

To set out future-proof pathways to strengthen democracy 
through improving accountability, transparency and 
effectiveness of media production and expanding active and 
inclusive citizenship, the project aims to clarify the extent to 
which certain media under which conditions perform which 
democratic functions for which audiences, thus making it 
apparent what is at stake for democratic media - and for 
democracy itself.

By applying an innovative multi-method design consisting 
of data science methods, large-scale quantitative analyses, 
in-depth qualitative approaches and participatory action 
research, the project will cover:

1.  perspectives of both representative and participatory 

notions of democracy as they exist in European societies, 

Project n°: 
101094984

Start date: 
01/03/2023
Duration: 
36 months

Keywords: 
Democracy, political 
information environment, 
regulatory framework, 
media accountability, 
media supply & demand, 
media production, 
political participation, 
inclusion, audiences, 
citizens, EU media map

2.  the entire range of news media, regardless of distribution channel, mandate, 

ownership and source of financing, 

3.  the legal and (self-)regulatory framework under which media houses and 

journalism operate and people use media, 

4.  the media’s potential to promote and support political participation (supply 

side), and 

5.  the media use patterns, communication needs and democratic attitudes of the 

audiences (demand side) in all EU Member States.

Based on the research results, an interactive multi-layer map of European political 
information environments will be created, whose layers reflect the legal and 
regulatory framework and the democratically relevant features of media supply 
and demand. In addition, the obtained “real” map is to be confronted with a map of 
how European citizens envision the future media landscapes. By comparing these 
maps, conclusions can be drawn from congruencies and discrepancies between 
them, good practice examples can be identified and guidelines can be derived to 
support developments that promote democracy and counteract phenomena that 
may jeopardize democracy. These guidelines will be addressed to policymakers, 
regulators, self-regulation bodies, media houses, journalists, NGOs and citizens.

Cordis: https://cordis.europa.eu/project/id/101094984

Consortium:

Österreichische Akademie der 
Wissenschaften | AT
COFAC - Cooperativa de Formação e 
Animação Cultural, C.R.L. | PT
COMMIT - Community Medien Institut für 
Weiterbildung, Forschung und Beratung | AT
IMT - Institut Mines-Télécom | FR

Libera università di lingue e comunicazione 
IULM | IT
Mary Immaculate College | IE
Mirovni inštitut | SI
Tallinn University | EE
Univerzita Karlova | CZ
Uniwersytet Jagielloński | PL

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59

Topic 2022-01-07

POLITICS AND THE IMPACT 
OF ONLINE SOCIAL 
NETWORKS AND NEW MEDIA

The projects are expected to build Europe-wide evidence on the 
extent to which political opportunities and information offered by 
platforms and new media – and resulting impacts, such as the 
“echo-chambers” effect – affects political attitudes in European 
states and at the level of the EU and its neighbourhood. Whether 
and how new media functions as a new level of news selection 
and study the resulting perception biases with citizens should be 
assessed. Research should examine the extent to which platforms 
and new media actually help democratise political systems and 
offer avenues of active engagement, or hinder participation for 
some. The effects of the replacement of media consumption with 
content consumption should also be examined. Proposals should 
investigate how audiences of different ages, different genders and 
different socio-economic and ethnolinguistic groups receive and 
assess information on digital platforms, and how political actors 
use these platforms to shape political behaviour. They should 
propose and design regulatory innovations in response to the covert 
use of social platforms for political goals. 

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61

SOLARIS

STRENGTHENING DEMOCRATIC 
ENGAGEMENT THROUGH 
VALUE-BASED GENERATIVE 
ADVERSARIAL NETWORKS

Generative adversarial networks (GANs) are a class of AI 
models able to create media contents – audio and video – 
resembling reality. Although there are different promising 
areas of application of GANs – audio-graphic productions, 
human-computer interactions, satire, artistic creative 
expression – their current and foreseen misleading uses 
are just as numerous and worrying. The main concern is 
related to the so-called “deepfakes”, fake images or videos 
simulating real events with extreme precision. If trained 
on a face, GANs can make it move and speak in a hyper-
realistic way. This technology poses an urgent political 
threat since GANs could be – and have already been – used 
to spread fake news and disinformation.

This raises an urgent challenge to democratic governance and regulation: to 
improve GANs accountability, transparency, and trustworthiness. Nevertheless, 
GANs also constitute an opportunity to enhance democratic awareness and 
expand active and inclusive citizenship.

SOLARIS reacts to these challenges in two ways. On the one hand, we 
analyse political risks associated with these technologies, to prevent negative 
implications for EU democracies. As a result, SOLARIS will establish regulatory 
innovations to detect and mitigate deepfake risks. On the other hand, we assess 
the opportunities raised by GANs for reinvigorating the democratic engagement 
of citizens. We will co-create, involving citizen science, value-based GANs 
contents to enhance democratic engagement. SOLARIS involves three use cases: 
the first aims at understanding the psychological aspects of GANs perceived 
trustworthiness. The second simulates the circulation of threatening GANs 
contents on social media, to detect risks and design mitigation strategies. The 
third co-creates value-based GANs contents to boost awareness on key global 
democratic topics (climate change, gender dimension, human migration), to 
ultimately enhance active and inclusive digital citizenship.

 https://projects.illc.uva.nl/solaris/

Cordis: https://cordis.europa.eu/project/id/101094665

Project n°: 
101094665

Start date: 
01/02/2023
Duration: 
36 months

Keywords: 
Generative Adversarial 
Network (GAN), Digital 
Democracy, Deepfake 
risk mitigation, Citizen 
science, Value-sensitive 
design of technology, 
Regulatory innovation 
strategies and best 
policy options

Consortium:

Universiteit van Amsterdam | NL
Agenzia ANSA - Agenzia Nazionale Stampa 
Associata - Società Cooperativa | IT
Brand Media Bulgaria EOOD | BG
CINI - Consorzio Interuniversitario Nazionale 
per l’informatica | IT
DEXAI - Etica Artificiale | IT
Instituti i Studimeve Ndërkombëtare | AL

 Libera Università Maria Santissima Assunta 
| IT
Ministry of Internal Affairs | AL
Universidad Carlos III de Madrid | ES
Univerza v Mariboru | SI
Verein der Europäischen 
Bürgerwissenschaften – ECSA e.V. | DE
The University of Exeter | UK

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63

SoMe4Dem

SOCIAL MEDIA FOR DEMOCRACY 
– UNDERSTANDING THE 
CAUSAL MECHANISMS OF 
DIGITAL CITIZENSHIP

Current diagnoses that democracy is in crisis at 
the beginning of the 21st century share a common 
argumentative reference point: the (implicit) reference to 
the dysfunctional constitution of the political public sphere 
which is currently undergoing structural change. The rise 
of social media platforms is considered as one of its main 
constituents. While social media make the public arena 
more open and thus more responsive, these platforms also 
lead to new mechanisms of fragmentation and exclusion, 
an erosion of norms in public debate and a loss of trust in 
traditional institutions.

The project will reconsider the diagnoses of this crisis by: 

1.  providing better empirical evidence for the impact of social media on society 

with respect to political debates

2.  understanding the main causal mechanisms of this impact 

3.  developing tools that improve the capacity of social media to contribute to 
the functioning of the public arena in a liberal democracy, i.e., deliberation, 
legitimation and the self-perception of the democratic subject.

Cordis: https://cordis.europa.eu/project/id/101094752

Project n°: 
101094752

Start date: 
01/03/2023
Duration: 
36 months

Keywords: 
Digital Citizenship, 
Polarization, Trust, 
Participation, Causal 
Mechanisms

Consortium:

Max-Planck-Gesellschaft zur Förderung der 
Wissenschaften e.V. | DE
Fondation Nationale des Sciences Politiques 
| FR
KIT - Karlsruher Institut für Technologie | DE
Università Ca’ Foscari Venezia | IT

Universität Leipzig | DE
Universität Potsdam | DE
Universiteit van Amsterdam | NL
Vrije Universiteit Brussel | BE
University of Bristol | UK

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65

TWON

TWIN OF ONLINE SOCIAL 
NETWORKS

Experts, scholars, and leading political decision-makers 
warn that Online Social Networks (OSNs) have transformed 
public debate in harmful ways. Personalization algorithms, 
it has been argued, create so-called filter bubbles and echo 
chambers where users’ opinions are reinforced, amplifying 
processes of opinion polarisation. Despite frequent calls for 
interventions to minimize such undesired effects, there is no 
agreed-upon method for estimating the effects of changing 
the parameters of the design of a social network service. 
Crucially, the complexity of such systems makes it hard to 
translate results of isolated experiments into an estimate of 
the overall effects. 

The TWON project will develop a novel empirical method for 
systematically researching the effects of design choices of 

mechanisms inside OSNs, by creating digital twins of social network sites, called 
TWONs. The TWON can then be used to study counterfactuals, such as: How 
would the effects look like, had the OSN been designed differently?

In order to achieve that, the TWON project will combine empirical observations of 
existing OSNs, theory-informed simulations, and specific case studies. These form 
an iterative process, in which we will build and refine the TWON. If successful, 
this would be a major leap towards a better understanding of platform 
mechanics, both for the scientific community and for societal stakeholders. The 
TWON project will produce evidence-based recommendations for regulatory 
innovations regarding OSNs and enhance digital citizenship by participatory 
methods. This can reduce the detrimental effects on democratic debates when 
platforms are primarily optimized for economic gain. TWON enables OSN 
research in a controlled but naturalistic environment that would not be possible 
relying on for-profit OSN operators. The effectiveness of the TWON method will 
be demonstrated in two case studies on two ongoing debates: the conflict 
in Ukraine and COVID-19.

Cordis: https://cordis.europa.eu/project/id/101095095

Project n°: 
101095095

Start date: 
01/04/2023
Duration: 
36 months

Keywords: 
simulation, 
digital twin, 
complex systems, 
filter bubble, 
echo chamber, 
polarization

Consortium:

Universiteit van Amsterdam | NL
FZI Forschungszentrum Informatik | DE
Institut Jožef Stefan | SI
KIT - Karlsruher Institut für Technologie | DE
Robert Koch-Institut | DE

Slovenska tiskovna agencija d.o.o. | SI
Universität Trier | DE
Institut za filozofiju i društvenu teoriju 
Univerziteta u Beogradu | RS

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67

Topic 2022-01-08

REPRESENTATIVE 
DEMOCRACY IN FLUX

Projects are expected to create a robust and comprehensive 
knowledge base on long-term developments in terms of trust in, 
and trustworthiness of, the political institutions of representative 
democracy and their legitimacy. Research should relate changing 
voting attitudes at the individual level to wider political and 
cultural discourses, where feelings and emotions can compete and 
overrule facts and reasons, and to the emergence of new social 
movements and parties. Projects should analyse key drivers of 
such changes, taking into consideration socio-economic as well 
as cultural variables. The political cleavages that shape current 
political phenomena and their connection to historical legacies, as 
well as their foreseeable negative and positive long-term impacts 
on democratic systems, should be analysed.

Based on the evidence collected and analysed, proposals should 
develop new approaches to understand the evolution of political 
parties in the context of intense digitalisation (including of the 
public space and public institutions) and individualism. They should 
examine the barriers and opportunities to re-invigorating and 
enhancing representative democratic systems.

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69

ActEU 

TOWARDS A NEW ERA OF 
REPRESENTATIVE DEMOCRACY 
- ACTIVATING EUROPEAN 
CITIZENS’ TRUST IN TIMES OF 
CRISES AND POLARIZATION

How can we conceptualize and empirically measure political 
trust and legitimacy beyond the usual survey question “How 
much trust do you have in the parliament?”? Does the multi-
level nature of European representative democracies require 
an identical level of citizen support at the regional, national 
and EU levels? How does social polarization on key policy 
issues of our times –immigration, climate change, and gender 
inequality– challenge the political trust in, and legitimacy of, 
democratic political systems? And what can policymakers and 
civil society do to master these challenges? 

ActEU aims at finding answers to these questions pursuing 
two overarching goals: 

In phase 1, we map and investigate persistent problems of declining trust, 
legitimacy and representation in Europe with a particular attention to the 
polarization of societies and the EU’s multi-level structures. Providing an innovative 
conceptual framework on political attitudes, behavior and representation across 
Europe, we establish an original empirical infrastructure based on an innovative 
combination of methods and newly collected quantitative and qualitative empirical 
data (focus groups, experimental surveys, web scraping). 

In phase 2, these results will flow directly into the creation of a toolbox of 
remedial actions to enhance political trust in and legitimacy of European 
representative democracies. 

In cooperation with a newly created Civil Society Network, Youth Democracy Labs 
across 13 European cities and in exchange with political cartoonists “Cartooning 
for democracy”, we will develop context-sensitive solutions for all polity levels and 
some of the most polarizing policy areas, and craft tailor-made toolkits for both 
policymakers and civil society and the educational sector. 

Finally, we deploy a differentiated dissemination strategy to maximize ActEU’s scientific, 
policy and societal impact in activating European citizens’ trust and 
working towards a new era of representative democracy.

 https://acteu.org/

Cordis: https://cordis.europa.eu/project/id/101094190

Project n°: 
101094190

Start date: 
01/03/2023
Duration: 
36 months

Keywords: 
Political-trust, 
legitimacy, participation, 
representation, 
polarization, immigration, 
gender, climate change, 
experimental survey,  
web scraping, focus 
groups, civil society, 
educational sector

Consortium:

Universität Duisburg-Essen | DE
Åbo Akademi | FI
Aristotle University of Thessaloniki | EL
Fondation Nationale des Sciences Politiques | FR
Institut Catholique de Lille | FR
Paris Lodron Universität Salzburg | AT
SWPS Uniwersytet Humanistycznospołeczny 
| PL

Trans European Policy Studies Association 
| BE
Universidad de Oviedo | ES
Università degli Studi di Trento | IT
Universität des Saarlandes | DE
Ústav mezinárodních vztahů, v. v. i. | CZ

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71

REDIRECT

THE REPRESENTATIVE 
DISCONNECT: DIAGNOSIS AND 
STRATEGIES FOR RECTIFICATION

The focus of REDIRECT is to study the current 
transformation of democratic polities in Europe, to realise 
whether and how their centres of gravity are shifting, 
and to improve our understanding of the “representative 
disconnect” – a multidimensional phenomenon of regression 
of the demos-kratos linkage involving institutional, 
behavioural and affective components. 

REDIRECT moves from the idea to study representative 
democracy in a comprehensive manner, connecting 
several relevant dimensions of analysis, in order to 
extract sustainable ideas and viable instruments to 
cope with the current problems of “democracy in flux”. 
These, in turn, will allow a parsimonious formulation of 

remedies, to be activated both at the institutional level (i.e. assuring a future to 
crucial “mediating bodies” of representatives democracy like parties, leaders, 
parliamentary institutions), and at the level of civil society.

In parallel to a critical review of the theoretical reflection on representative 
democracy, an interdisciplinary and multi-level approach to several empirical 
dimensions of the phenomenon of representative disconnect will be offered, 
focusing on several topics: the crisis of representation, trust in institutions and 
political representatives, political personalization, political individualism, mass-
élite congruence, social and social-media discontent. 

The long-term outcomes expected from the project mark the passage from the 
diagnosis to the strategies for rectification. Indeed, REDIRECT aims at provides a 
number of pragmatical recommendations to rearrange the demos-kratos relationship 
along a two-way street of intervention: the top-down way of institutional reforms 
(i.e., legislative and procedural innovation to ensure transparency and full 
information to citizens) and the bottom-up way of a stronger liaison between 
citizens and mediating bodies (i.e., remobilizing citizens via digitalization, 
diffusion of share values of social sustainability and civic education).

Cordis: https://cordis.europa.eu/project/id/101095142

Project n°: 
101095142

Start date: 
01/02/2023
Duration: 
48 months

Keywords: 
Representative 
democracy, 
Responsiveness, Trust, 
Legitimacy, Ruling 
class, political elites, 
Democratic mediating 
bodies, Democratic 
deliberation, Affective 
disconnect, Political 
affect, Rectification

Consortium:

Università degli Studi di Siena | IT
Társadalomtudományi Kutatóközpont | HU
Università del Salento | IT
Universitetet i Oslo | NO
Uniwersytet Jagielloński | PL
Vrije Universiteit Brussel | BE
The University ff Exeter | UK

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73

TRUDEM

TRUST IN EUROPEAN 
DEMOCRACIES

Political trust has long been regarded as an important 
element of regime support and factor of regime stability; 
it is widely associated with a number of positive 
outcomes in representative democracies. Political trust 
drives citizens’ interest and engagement in politics, 
increases voting turnout and makes law-abiding 
behaviour more common. Political trust is frequently 
equated to diffuse regime support and thus linked to the 
effective functioning and stability of the political system. 
The proposed research effort will monitor the structural 
(long-term) drivers of political trust but also emphasize 
the strategies which can be employed by diverse actors 
and agencies to strengthen accurate and informed 
judgments of agency trustworthiness. 

The objective of this ambitious project is twofold:

First, we aim to design and implement a complex research effort to collect 
comprehensive evidence on the judgments of trustworthiness in a range of 
European states. 

Second, the project will develop a comprehensive and transparent toolbox of 
short-term and long-term policy interventions including recommendations, and 
methodologies for enhancing trust in political institutions, boosting transparency, 
and inclusiveness of representative systems in Europe. 

While there is a growing concern about the crisis of democracy and democratic 
backsliding, this research effort will provide an innovative theoretical perspective 
on the sources of regime support and strategies for trust building in the public 
domain. The project looks at the different drivers of ‘positive high trust in 
democracy’ and ‘negative high trust in autocracy’. The project will facilitate 
development of a new paradigm of political trust and trust-building and will 
inspire emergence of new insights on the multi-facet origins of political trust 
and multi-factor nature of trustworthiness. The project has partners in Austria, 
Czechia, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, 
Slovenia, Sweden, and Ukraine.

 http://www.truedem.eu/

Cordis: https://cordis.europa.eu/project/id/101095237

Project n°: 
101095237

Start date: 
01/01/2023
Duration: 
36 months

Keywords: 
Trust in government, 
in parliament, legal 
system, media system, 
political parties, interest 
groups, NGOs, support 
for democracy, voting 
behaviour, political 
inclusion, political 
integration

Consortium:

Institut für Vergleichende Umfrageforschung 
Eurasien Barometer | AT
Aktiebolaget Bikupan | SE
Institut d’études politiques de Grenoble | FR
Leuphana Universität Luneburg | DE
Metropolitní univerzita Praha, o.p.s. | CZ
Università degli Studi di Salerno | IT
Universitatea din București | RO

University of Peloponnese | EL
Univerza v Ljubljani | SI
Univerzita Komenského v Bratislave | SK
Uniwersytet Śląski w Katowicach | PL
V. N. Karazin Kharkiv National University | UA
Centre national de la recherche scientifique 
(CNRS) | FR

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75

Topic 2022-01-09

GLOBAL GOVERNANCE FOR 
A WORLD IN TRANSITION: 
NORMS, INSTITUTIONS, 
ACTORS

Taking stock of recent developments, research should propose 
ways of redesigning, renewing and re-invigorating global and 
European traditions of cooperation with a view to greater 
accountability, openness and legitimacy. This should include 
new reflections on the norms, institutions and actors that can 
support a more robust and effective multilateralism, as well as 
a stocktaking and assessment of the modalities and possibilities 
of multileveled participation in cross-border governance, 
ranging from the local to the global level. Research should also 
account for differences between fields and areas of governance, 
corresponding to diverse levels and modalities of multilateral 
cooperation. It should analyse whether and how such differences 
may hamper the governance of intersecting global challenges. 

76

77

REMIT 

REIGNITE MULTILATERALISM 
VIA TECHNOLOGY

The REMIT project aims to Reignite Multilateralism 
via Technology. 

Multilateralism is under attack and the EU is caught between 
the U.S. and China. While there are many ways that the 
decline in multilateralism affects the EU, none is more 
troublesome than rivalries in technology.Firstly, because of 
the sector’s impact on economic competitiveness and the 
size within economies that tech occupies. Secondly, tech is 
important to national security and future threats, including 
threats to democratic principles. Thirdly, technology is crucial 
to the solutions for global challenges. REMIT will create 
knowledge that generates policy recommendations and 
strategies that support the EU in reconceptualizing multilateral 
governance in four crucial policy areas: digital, biotechnology, 
security and defense, and financial technologies. 

REMIT researchers create this knowledge by employing the Advocacy Coalition 
Framework (ACF) to specific subsystems. The policy subsystem is the ACF’s unit 
of analysis. It is characterized by three components: 

1.  the policy problem or issue

2.  the scope of actors seeking to influence that policy

3.  a territorial domain or authority for policymaking

REMIT experts focus on subsystems that emerge from their expertise, analysing 
the tensions and debates within each as well as defining the EU’s current role. 
Knowing the status quo makes the next step possible—to extrapolate ideas and 
to suggest pathways forward. In innovative scenario testing workshops with EU 
officials, important regional groupings (e.g., Mercosur, ASEAN, and African Union) 
and national officials, REMIT will develop policy recommendations that will give a 
remit to reignite multilateralism via technology. A reigniting that not only reacts to 
China’s rise as a systemic technology rival or Russia’s rise as a technology abuser 
or the dominance of large U.S.-based digital platforms, but that sets a 
clear vision for the future—one in which Europe plays a leading role.

 https://www.remit-research.eu/

Cordis: https://cordis.europa.eu/project/id/101094228

Project n°: 
101094228

Start date: 
01/03/2023
Duration: 
48 months

Keywords: 
multilateralism, critical 
technology governance, 
geopolitics and 
technology governance, 
economic, social and 
environmental aspects of 
technology governance

Consortium:

Universiteit Maastricht | NL
Erasmus Universiteit Rotterdam | NL
Finnish Institute of International Affairs | FI
Katholieke Universiteit Leuven | BE
Luiss - Libera Università Internazionale degli 
Studi Sociali Guido Carli | IT

Tartu Ulikool | EE
Universität Breme | DE
Universitatea Babeș-Bolyai | RO
European Cyber Conflict Research Initiative | UK

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79

NAVIGATOR

THE EU NAVIGATING 
MULTILATERAL COOPERATION

How should the EU navigate the increasingly complex - and 
conflict-laden - institutional spaces of global governance 
to advance a rules-based international order? And what 
factors should be emphasized when considering which 
institutions to strengthen, which to reform, and which to 
by-pass when revitalising multilateralism? NAVIGATOR’s 
main objective is to answer these questions and deliver a 
ready-to-use “search mechanism” and associated pathways 
of action that the EU and its member states can use as it 
seeks to strengthen a rules-based international order. 

To achieve this, NAVIGATOR comprises a strong, global 
and inter-disciplinary team of researchers who explores 
institutional variation on six policy issues – climate change, 
digitalisation, finance/tax, health, migration and security 

Project n°: 
101094394

Start date: 
01/03/2023
Duration: 
36 months

Keywords: 
actors, EU, climate 
change, digitalisation, 
finance and tax, 
geopolitics, global 
governance, health, 
institutions, migration, 
multilateral cooperation 
mechanisms, security, 
transnational democracy

– to identify what institutional mixes that enables the EU to have optimal impact 
in a given policy issue. We explore variation in formality (formal to informal), 
accessibility (open to closed), and normativity (expressed purpose is technical to 
openly normative). Drawing on these data and complementing these with content 
analysis, social network analysis, semi-structured interviews and European 
and global surveys, NAVIGATOR develops a “search mechanism” that allows 
the EU and member states to compare strengths and weaknesses of existing 
multilateral organizations, determine which can be reformed and which are too 
costly to reform, identify and assess alternatives, and, on this basis, develop 
action strategies to reform multilateralism. NAVIGATOR will be very relevant 
to the work programme, as it will assess the effectiveness of multilateral 
institutions and arrangements; identify the optimal pathways of action of 
EU support to multilateral, minilateral, private and public-private initiatives 
to further global governance in a given policy domain, and provide 
recommendations for EU engagement strategies in the context of the 
war in Ukraine, threats of nationalism and anti-EU populism.

 https://cordis.europa.eu/project/id/101094394

Consortium:

Norsk utenrikspolitisk institutt | NO
Copenhagen Business School  | DK
European Council on Foreign Relations 
(ECFR) e.V. | DE
Stichting VU | NL
Tallinna Tehnikaülikool | EE
The Hebrew University of Jerusalem | IL

Università Commerciale Luigi Bocconi | IT
Universiteit Maastricht | NL
Universite Libre de Bruxelles | BE
University of the Witwatersrand, 
Johannesburg | ZA
University of Ottawa | CA
Waseda University | JP

HORIZON EUROPE | Research & innovation reshaping democracies | 202280

HORIZON EUROPE | Research & innovation reshaping democracies | 2022

81

Topic 2022-02-01

NETWORK FOR INNOVATIVE 
SOLUTIONS FOR THE 
FUTURE OF DEMOCRACY

The goal is to establish a network of researchers in democracy 
together with practitioners of civic participation and deliberation and 
of citizenship education across Europe, bringing together a critical 
mass of such actors in Europe, from Member States and Associated 
Countries representing the different parts of Europe with their 
diverse policy contexts, challenges as well as historical and cultural 
backgrounds. Such a network should contribute to Europe’s future 
policy to strengthen and renew democracy in Europe, in line with the 
Commission’s priority “A new push for European democracy” and the 
follow-up to the Conference on the future of Europe.

The results of the call will be published in the near future.

GETTING IN TOUCH WITH THE EU

In person

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You can find the address of the centre nearest you online 
(european-union.europa.eu/contact-eu/meet-us_en).

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FINDING INFORMATION ABOUT THE EU

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This booklet gathers the projects selected for funding under the 
Horizon Europe Cluster 2 call HORIZON-CL2-2021-DEMOCRACY-02 
“Reshaping Democracies”.

Project information