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: 1) building capacity for citizens and citizen-facing Civil Society Organisations (CSOs); 2) creating regulatory tools and services for Policy and CSOs; and 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.

Digital transformation of democracy has become an irreversible process. Yet, digital democracy platforms bear risks and challenges. INNOVADE's ambitious and disruptive results will drive transformation in how democracy and civic participation are facilitated by advanced digital technologies, while ensuring equal participation irrespective of socio-economic background and other factors. By fostering a thriving digitally enhanced public sphere, INNOVADE contributes to policymakers, citizens and researchers' better understanding of digital democracy dynamics. Leveraging existing knowledge, INNOVADE investigates recent developments in e-participation solutions. Through historical analysis and transnational cooperation, INNOVADE delves into the wide and long-term impacts and provide scalable and replicable solutions for e-participation. To advance digital democracy, INNOVADE will a) build an interdisciplinary knowledge base on digital democracy to improve knowledge on the current state of the art, future trends, and emerging next practices; b) help decisionmakers better understand frameworks, structures and settings required for inclusive digital governance; c) provide a toolkit that allows governments to make informed decisions on how to advance the transition to optimum digital democracies; d) build a “Digital Democracy App” in conformance with the principles of data protection, data security, and ethics; and finally e) develop a conceptual framework, platform and the educational materials needed for democratising access to digital tools for citizens across different backgrounds. The project’s co-operation with public administrations, citizens, civil society, and the private sector will ensure dialogue and foster impact. Over the longer term, the project will contribute to strengthening democratic governance, improving the accountability, transparency, efficacy, and trustworthiness of governments, and expanding active and inclusive citizenship.

In response to the urgent challenges facing modern democracies, the European City Squared project will use real and synthetic data, along with the latest advances in quantum and classical computational social science, to develop an agent-based computer simulation environment that integrates recent advances in science and technology with social choice theory. This interdisciplinary approach, involving leading scientists, city governments, universities, entrepreneurs, and civil society representatives, will explore the effectiveness of various voting mechanisms, with a primary focus on Quadratic Voting. This novel method of voting has potential to enhance public good allocation and foster an emergent and natural altruism, addressing concerns such as polarization and trust in government. Our methodology will be underpinned by a rigorous adherence to data protection standards, ensuring GDPR compliance and the ethical integrity of our research. By employing mathematical models inspired by natural phenomena, we will identify algorithms conducive to robust democratic decision-making. These algorithms will be tested in real-world scenarios, in collaboration with our government partners, particularly the city of Aarhus, Denmark. The project aims to not only provide groundbreaking insights into democratic governance but also to contribute practical tools for enhancing efficiency and participation in democratic processes. If successful, our research promises to offer significant contributions to the fields of political science, computational modeling, and social choice theory, with the potential to bring unprecedented efficiency gains for European democracies.

China is a key global actor and a leading economic and technological power. China’s increasing relevance in the geopolitical system, its various specificities, complexities and goals as well as its rapid evolution and new policy directions pose challenge to the EU’s capacity to better understand contemporary China. Furthermore, the European Union needs to get to know and understand China on its own terms: not through the lens of other external sources but from its own European perspective. However, the European level expertise on contemporary China is often fragmented and difficult to access. To overcome this challenge, it is essential to connect established and emerging knowledge nodes as well as gathering, categorising, and mainstreaming their work on a publicly accessible platform. This approach will break down siloes and provide policy-makers, researchers, businesses, and civil society with the necessary knowledge to develop a comprehensive understanding of the various aspects that define contemporary China. Such an approach will also enhance the dissemination of information and facilitate the generation of new knowledge. In this regard, EuroHub4Sino project is built upon four interconnected and interdependent pillars that foresees (a) to develop a state-of-the-art digital platform which was absent in previous projects/initiatives as they had to rely on their own resources in their research/cooperation efforts. This platform will also better serve the wider civil society in mainstreaming independent European knowledge. An inclusive and diverse (b) network will make the most of the digital platform in its (c) collaborative research and communication activities. EuroHub4Sino has (d) developed an innovative and sustainable business model with an aim that this inclusive network and enhanced digital platform will continue working following the end of the project.