- Funding Programme
- Year
- 2023
Improving Civic Participation with Emerging Technologies
The European Commission supported Portugal, the Netherlands and Spain in improving civic participation with emerging technologies. It explored the potential benefits and challenges of public authorities using emerging technologies for innovative civic participation and the adoption of civic participation to contribute to design, monitoring, and assessment of innovative ways to address policy challenges identified and selected as priorities in the participating countries.
Context
The EU recognises democracy as a key value and that healthy democracies rely on citizen engagement and active civil society. Citizen expectations for participation are increasing, while democratic values erode - partly due to a lack of alternative participation mechanisms. The White Paper on AI and The Future of Government 2030+ (Joint Research Centre) ask for novel approaches to be tested and highlight that emerging technology presents opportunities and challenges for participation (as a democracy enabler which can risk mis/disinformation/inequality). This project addresses these challenges, aligning with the European Democracy Action Plan, EC Recommendation C(2023)8627, and the Civic Space Strategy.
Support delivered
With support from the European Commission, Portugal (ARTE/LabX), Spain (INAP), and the Netherlands (Digicampus) led this project which supported the delivery of:
- A comprehensive examination of the role emerging digital technologies can play in improving citizen participation
- A report on How Innovation Ecosystems Foster Citizen Participation Using Emerging Technologies in Portugal, Spain and the Netherlands (with accompanying webinar).
- Three collaborative stakeholder sessions, one virtual cross-border session, and a 2-day co-creation bootcamp supporting the development of a prototype solution for civic participation challenges of each country.
- A virtual showcase of prototypes and closing events in each country, highlighting action plans for future development.
Results achieved
Participating countries developed prototype solutions for key civic participation challenges and concrete action plans for future prototype development. The report examining the role of emerging technologies in improving citizen participation explored the state of the art, including benefits, risks and key actions. The report on how innovation ecosystems foster civic participation mapped innovation ecosystems and provided evidence about how governments can better engage those ecosystems to improve civic participation. Overall, the project increased engagement between public sector organisations and innovation ecosystems to improve civic participation through emerging technology, by involving over 600 ecosystem actors from 21 EU member states.
More about the project
You can read the documents related to the project here: