Lantern Grants

Addressing the impact of artificial intelligence, cyberviolence, and deepfakes on equality, democracy and inclusive societies

Funder
European Commission · Horizon Europe
Award amount
€3,500,000 – €4,000,000
Deadline
September 23, 2027
Eligible countries
European Union, United Kingdom, Norway, Iceland, Switzerland, Israel, Global

Summary

Forthcoming EU call topic HORIZON-CL2-2027-01-DEMOCRACY-04 · HORIZON Research and Innovation Actions. Part of call HORIZON-CL2-2027-01: Culture, Creativity and Inclusive Society - 2027. Opens 2027-05-13; next deadline 2027-09-23. Topic page: https://ec.europa.eu/info/funding-tenders/opportunities/portal/screen/opportunities/topic-details/HORIZON-CL2-2027-01-DEMOCRACY-04

Expected Outcome: Projects should contribute to all of the following expected outcomes: - Enhanced understanding of the impact of AI-driven technologies, including AI-generated deepfakes and automated content generation on equality, political participation, democratic processes, public trust, and social cohesion, with evidence-based insights into their role in mitigating or exacerbating disparities. - Uptake of evidence-based policy frameworks for responsible, trustworthy, and transparent AI governance, integrating ethical, legal, and societal considerations to safeguard fundamental rights, mitigate risks of disinformation, and ensure fair and safe AI deployment, in line with the obligations set out in the EU Regulation on artificial intelligence[1]. - Increased public awareness and media literacy to empower citizens to identify and critically assess disinformation, use of deepfakes for malicious purpose, and online harm, alongside the uptake of evidence-based tools for preventing, detecting, and mitigating these harms. - Strengthened capacity of academic institutions to conduct societally relevant AI research and drive the development of trustworthy, ethical AI models, enabled by increased academia-industry collaboration and better access to e.g., computing infrastructure, high-quality datasets, collaborative tools, and funding.

Scope: The rapid development and deployment of AI technologies, along with their malicious use such as the creation of artificially generated and manipulated content,, profoundly impacts democracy, equality, social inclusion, and knowledge production, and contributes to…

Summary as listed by the funder. Always read the full announcement for eligibility, limits and how to apply.

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What European Union reviewers look for

  • Most Horizon Europe calls score three criteria (the ERC uses excellence alone). Excellence: clarity and ambition of the objectives, and the soundness of the methodology.
  • Impact: credible pathways to the expected outcomes, and measures to communicate and exploit results.
  • Quality and efficiency of implementation: the work plan, resources and the consortium's capacity.

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