PRESS RELEASE

06 February 2023 | Bratislava, Slovakia: PEDAL Consulting, s.r.o., together with consortium partners from Greece, Belgium, Romania, and Austria, successfully kick-started a new project “Artificial Intelligence to enhance civic participation” during the initial meeting in Athens at the end of January 2023. It will develop and test a human-centric online discussion platform to enhance citizen engagement in local governance. The European Commission allocated the sum of € 2,640,875 under its Horizon Europe programme.

The project is coordinated by Konnekt Able Technologies Limited. Together with 11 other partners, they marked the start to better understand the complexities and controversies surrounding the use of artificial intelligence (AI) in the field of civic participation.

The main objectives of the project are as follows:

• to develop a human-centric online discussion platform that will incorporate human and social interpretations into the design process;
• to pay particular attention to the needs and voices of vulnerable groups, ensuring that human rights impacts are monitored, debated, and addressed;
• to assess the ability of AI to enhance citizens’ participation while preventing/minimizing possible adverse effects;
• to provide scalable tools for the identification of security risks; threats and for conformity with the Fairness principle and Privacy principle in AI-based systems;
• to define a data governance framework with relevant ethical principles and practices;
• to provide policy recommendations on philosophical, legal, and ethical values that should be embedded in the development of AI civic engagement platforms.

In two different EU countries, the ITHACA project will be piloted. At the same time, the impact of AI on the functioning of democratic institutions and processes will be assessed. Based on data gained, the project aspires to define a roadmap for responsible and ethical AI in civic participation by February 2025.

About PEDAL Consulting

PEDAL Consulting is an innovation management consulting firm. It has got a 12+ year experience in the design and implementation of partnerships and cooperation models while addressing societal challenges. It is also the leading SME national performer with the most approved and successfully implemented grants under the Horizon 2020, Horizon Europe and COSME programmes of the European Commission. The multinational team strives to deliver outstanding results to clients – from both the public and private sectors across multiple industries, geographies, and policy domains. Pedal Consulting has got extended networks in all EU member states, but also in wider Europe, Eurasia, Africa, MENA, South America, and the United States.

Contact – Project Coordinator:
Mr Marco ROGAI, Pedal Consulting
e-mail: m.rogai@pedal-consulting.eu

Project Media officer:
Mr Andrej GÉMEŠ, PEDAL Consulting 
e-mail: andrej.gemes@gmail.com 

The ITHACA project has received funding from the European Union’s HORIZON EUROPE research and innovation programme, under grant agreement No. 101094364.