ChiC is a game-changing Coordination and Support Action aiming at maximizing the impact of the ICT-10 2015 projects and transforming CAPS in an Innovation Ecosystem. The consortium brings together well-experienced partners which can count on the lessons learned and the network acquired in on-going FP7 CSAs (in the CAPS field and beyond): this sound foundation will make us move the CAPS Programme one step further from day 1. In the last couple of years, CAPS-centered projects and initiatives have been successfully initiated and pursued by an increasing number of innovative and diverse players, including industry, academia local communities, grassroots activists, hackers, social entrepreneurs, students, citizens, creative industries and civil society organizations. There is a strong need to coordinate these efforts so as to maximize their impact for the whole European society. This is where the Creating high impact for CAPS (ChiC proposal comes with the ambition to act as a bridge between all CAPS-driven efforts and players, including the EC representative and related EU initiatives. ChiC is an ambitious 30 months CSA that groups a small, but very dynamic team of well-experienced players in the CAPS and related domains, which are committed to create broad impact on the basis of a well-structured and articulated work plan. ChiC will coordinate and support experimental and scientific efforts within the CAPS context to maximise their impacts and reach beyond current players for effective involvement and engagement of new stakeholders. The ambition of ChiC is to support the various CAPS and related projects by offering them concrete opportunities for networking, know-how sharing/exchange and effective promotion of their work and result, but also to ensure that the CAPS programme as a whole can grow as a unique, engaging and disruptive initiative.

An exponential increase in the use of social media has accelerated information diffusion. Disinformation also spreads, often faster and more widely than true news, posing a risk for democracy, national security, and social fabric, and undermining society’s trust in the information. It is therefore necessary to understand and measure the impacts of disinformation on opinions, culture, policy, and profits, as well as develop specific tools and services to allow citizens and the professional community to understand Social Media correctly. The SOMA (Social Observatory for Disinformation and Social Media Analysis) project aims to provide a springboard for the social media sector to steer an understanding of its dynamics and the relationship between social media and other sectors. SOMA will: map European social media actors by using an open community-based mapping service; establish a European centre for social media stakeholders undertaking research on disinformation; and, develop a Source Transparency Index to immediately verify sources. Key proposed solutions are: (i) a platform for content verification; (ii) fact-checking tools; (iii) social media mapping and visualisation tools for the engagement of European Social Media Innovation initiatives and EU projects. SOMA will also: (iv) develop a methodology for the socio-economic impact assessment of disinformation; (v) provide strategies and actions to increase media literacy, analyse legal roadblocks and community-based self-regulation aspects; (vi) provide policy recommendations based on the analysis of the information collected by the Observatory; (vii) develop tools for community-mapping and an analysis of a future hyper-connected society; (viii) create a repository of disinformation-related knowledge. The overall expected impact by SOMA is the creation of a solid environment to increase awareness among stakeholders on social media topics and develop tools and instruments for the social media community.