The AI4TRUST consortium
The AI4TRUST consortium counts on a highly competent transnational team consisting of 7 Research / Academic organisations (FBK, CERTH, UNITN, NCSR-D, UCAM, CNRS, UPB), 3 highly dynamic industrial partners (FINC, SAHER, GDI), 4 internationally active media professional partners/fact checkers organisations (DEMAGOG, MALDITA, ELLINIKA, SKYTG24) and 3 media networks (EURACTIV managing the website euractiv.com, euractiv.fr and euractiv.de; ADB managing EURACTIV Romania and the website euractiv.ro; EMS managing EURACTIV Poland and the website euractiv.pl) for a total of 17 partners from 9 EU countries, 1 Associated Country (UK) and 1 Non-Associated Third Country (CH).
FBK is the top Research Institute in Italy, ranked at the 1st place for scientific excellence within 3 different subject areas and for the economic and social impact according to the latest quality of research ANVUR evaluation. FBK directs its research to the experimentation of Artificial Intelligence that collaborates with people and does not replace them. FBK’s holistic vision directs the multiple skills for scientific-technological innovation and for social and cultural innovation to AI.
CERTH is one of the largest Greek research centres and among the Top-10 EU’s Research Centres in attracting research grants. CERTH is represented in AI4TRUST by two Laboratories of its Information Technologies Institute (ITI): the Intelligent Digital Transformation Laboratory (IDT, https://idt.iti.gr/); and the Media Analysis, Verification and Retrieval Group of the Multimedia Knowledge and Social Media Analytics Laboratory (MeVer, https://mever.gr). CERTH brings in AI4TRUST expertise in multimedia understanding, artificial intelligence and media verification.
The University of Trento (UNITN) is a young and dynamic university with 15,000 students and about 1200 people working as faculty and administrative and technical staff. A large number of bilateral cooperation agreements has led the University of Trento to be well-known and appreciated at an international level and to offer its students a lot of opportunities to study and work abroad, as well as in an international environment at home. UNITN participates in the project through the Department of Information Engineering and Computer Science (DISI), the Department of Sociology and the Faculty of Law. The team has significant experience and scientific expertise in the technical aspects of the project. Furthermore, the team has a successful track record of participating in EC-funded research projects and organising scientific conferences and events.
The National Centre for Scientific Research Demokritos (NCSR Demokritos) is the largest multidisciplinary research centre in Greece, with critical mass in expertise and infrastructure in the fields of Informatics and Telecommunications, Nanotechnology, Energy & Environment, Biosciences, Particle and Nuclear Science situated in a campus in Agia Paraskevi, Attica. NCSR Demokritos participates in the project with the Institute of Informatics & Telecommunications.
CNRS is the largest fundamental research organization in Europe and employs a large body of about 25,000 research professors and engineers, involved in all scientific fields across 1,100 labs. Three labs are involved in AI4TRUST: (1) CMB – Centre Marc Bloch, through its computational social science team which gathers an interdisciplinary group of modellers and social scientists, focusing on the socio-semantic dynamics of various social systems, in particular digital public spaces, (2) CREST – Center for Research in Economics and Statistics, a joint lab of CNRS, ENSAE, and Ecole Polytechnique, whose sociology team specializes in computational social science (3) CSO – Center of Sociology of Organisations, a joint lab of Sciences Po and CNRS which combines the study of organised collective agency with various social phenomena, including social networks, collective learning and related public policy.
University Politehnica of Bucharest (UPB) is the oldest and one of the most prestigious technical universities in Romania and Eastern Europe. The university has a strong reputation for offering high-quality education in fields such as engineering, computer science, and applied sciences. The Speech and Dialogue research laboratory in UPB, renowned for its research results in speech/ speaker recognition, emotion recognition from speech, and text-to-speech synthesis systems, will be actively engaged in cutting-edge research activities within the AI4TRUST project, leveraging its expertise to create trustworthy solutions against disinformation.
Saher (Europe) is a safety and security research, training and consultancy-focused SME based in Estonia operating at a global level. The strategic aim of Saher (Europe) is to develop the intersection between the four key stakeholders in the international security domain: Citizens; Government Intelligence / Law Enforcement Agencies; Industry and Academia. The mission of Saher (Europe) is to provide a collaborative platform for professionals, policy-makers, practitioners and the public to advance and amplify international security innovations.
The Global Disinformation Index (GDI) is a nonpartisan not-for-profit organisation founded to combat the spread of disinformation. We develop disinformation risk assessments of global media markets and news publishers. We provide these assessments through two distinct approaches: country-level studies that evaluate the health of news ecosystems; and risk ratings of global news publishers.
Demagog is the first Polish fact-checking organization, established in 2014. Since 2019 we are members of the International Fact-Checking Network and partners to Meta’s Third Party Fact-Checking Program. Since the beginning of our fact-checking operation we have fact-checked almost 5000 claims made by public figures and debunked almost 1000 of fake news. We publish reports in which we track promises made by politicians. We also run a unique educational project called Academy of Fact-checking in which we share our expert’s opinion on media literacy, fact-checking and misinformation with teachers, students, seniors, and other target groups. To further enhance our educational efforts, we have also launched an e-learning platform with various courses related to fact-checking.
Maldita.es is a leading non-profit foundation and media outlet that fights against misinformation in Spanish and promotes transparency through fact-checking and data journalism techniques. Its main mission is to provide citizens with tools, technology and information so that they can make informed decisions. The organisation’s work is underscored by specialised teams, cutting-edge technological tools, and an extensive community of engaged citizens who collaborate with the organisation in the battle against disinformation. Maldita.es is a signatory to the Code of Principles of the International Fact-Checking Network.
Ellinika Hoaxes is the first fact-checking organisation that received accreditation from the International Fact-CheckingNetwork (IFCN) in Greece, and has years of experience in the field of fact-checking covering a wide array of topics with a prominent example being pseudoscientific misinformation. In the context of our work, we have collaborated with educational institutions and global associations with the goal of promoting digital literacy and combating misinformation and disinformation online.
EURACTIV is an independent, well-established pan-European media network specialised in EU affairs and policies, aiming to spark and nourish policy debates among stakeholders, including government, business and civil society. Its uniqueness rests on two grounds: a network of media partners aggregating and localising content (two-way process), and the editorial quality, in its 24th year of activity, recognised as being of high repute, especially, to stakeholders on regional, national and European levels.
The EURACTIV Network is a combination of independent and integrated offices, present in 12 EU capitals and provides free EU policy news in 12 languages, reaching more than one million readers across Europe and beyond per month. The result is editorial content that is highly relevant to its readers, who can be often relied upon to convey it to their own networks, creating the leverage effect. EURACTIV is also a reliable subject in delivering performance-based content as part of EU-funded projects having been involved in EU Programmes for over 10 years.
Sky TG24 is part of Sky Italia, an entertainment and media company established in 2003. It operates under the Sky group, which is Europe’s leading entertainment provider with 23 million subscribers. The Sky Group is a division of Comcast NBCUniversal. Sky TG24 provides daily coverage to the country, delivering over 7,000 hours of live content each year. Within this extensive coverage, 3,500 hours are dedicated to in-depth analysis, ensuring comprehensive reporting on the most important Italian and international news stories. The network excels in its ability to deliver breaking news promptly and effectively and to tackle significant issues of our time, which have a tangible impact on people’s lives, through in-depth news, investigative reports, reportage, and interviews. Sky TG24 adopts a modern and innovative narrative, employing diverse formats and languages. Its website and social media channels (with over 3.5 million Twitter followers, 1.9 million on Facebook, and 1 million on Instagram) establish it as a multimedia and adaptable information system.
Asociația Digital Bridge (ADB) – EURACTIV Romania is the Romanian franchise partner of the international EURACTIV NETWORK. Since its launch in 2004, it has been known for providing quality reporting on major public policy themes in Romania. In a media landscape heavily dependent on governmental funding through political parties, EURACTIV Romania has sometimes struggled to produce quality journalism and to continuously monitor relevant themes while prioritising high professional standards and media ethics. EURACTIV Romania has actively participated in various projects supported by the European Commission focusing on relevant European policies themes. In October 2018, EURACTIV Romania launched the initiative Facts, not Fake, with the financial support of the National Endowment for Democracy, the German Marshall Fund, and the US Embassy. The primary objective of this initiative was to combat the rampant disinformation prevalent in online and television environments.
EURACTIV Poland is an expert news portal specialising in European and international affairs. Every day we publish information, analyses and comments on the politics and economy of the European Union, the EU’s neighbouring countries and the EU’s global strategic partners. We also organise trainings and international expert conferences and prepare thematic special reports. We are part of a pan-European network of EURACTIV information portals publishing in 13 countries and 13 languages, with headquarters in Brussels.
The Minderoo Centre for Technology and Democracy is an independent team of academic researchers at the University of Cambridge, who are radically rethinking the power relationships between digital technologies, society and our planet.
Fincons Group is an IT Business Consultancy and System Integrator with 40 years of experience and offices in Europe and the US. The Group provides services and solutions in strategy, consulting, digital, technology and operations to different industries.
Fincons has been able to adapt to, and anticipate, major market trends, complementing technological excellence and innovation with growing business comprehension. Its International Institutions and Research Business Unit leverages innovation drivers developing collaborations with industrial and public partners, research centres and universities; it oversees the technology observatory, relationships with international Academic and R&D institutions and partners, new concepts and prototypes design, selection of third-party products and innovative business applications development. Its Lab is actively involved in R&D activities in the areas of Augmented Reality, Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, Accessibility, Cloud and Edge Computing, Big Data, Rights Management, Blockchain, IoT, Industry 4.0, Green Deal and Sustainability, Privacy and Security.