Center for Participatory AI
Enabling inclusive collaboration in AI development.
The Center for Participatory AI empowers stakeholders from diverse backgrounds, including citizen organizations, government agencies, non-governmental organizations, educational institutions, academic partners, and companies, to collaboratively design AI applications in a sustainable manner. It fosters a vibrant local Swiss community while also supporting transnational collaborations.
Guided by a people-first strategy, the Center prioritizes societal impact and sustainability, embracing an open collaboration model based on co-design, open data and software, and actively engaging with the public. The Center actively seeks partnerships to tackle issues that local stakeholders are concerned about, with the potential to be addressed through human-centered AI solutions. The Center recognizes the significance of both local knowledge and technology, valuing them as essential resources to be shared and mutually enriched.
Idiap has a vast alumni network across the Majority World (the Global South), a testament to its longstanding commitment to training doctoral students and postdoctoral researchers. Many of these alumni have returned to their home countries to pursue academic or industrial careers. Collectively, they represent a unique global source of AI expertise, cultural diversity, and insights spanning both local and transnational contexts. Idiap is leveraging this network to foster the development of AI solutions tailored to local needs and aspirations, collaborating closely with trusted local partners who share AI expertise and are actively addressing real-world challenges in their respective environments. Together, they are focusing on addressing pressing research questions that are pertinent to the Majority World.
Projects
We live in a crucial historical moment, with tremendous challenges ahead, from climate change to the energy crisis. ELIAS emerges
from the belief that AI will be a key discipline to help us tackle these challenges. At the same time, the development of AI entails deep
ethical and societal concerns that need to be addressed. As for fundamental research, ELIAS will address key scientific questions
about how AI can reduce computational costs, serves to model effects of policy decisions on society, and impacts individuals. ELIAS
will strive for a deep integration of the fundamental research that takes place in academia and the more applications-focused
research from industry.
ELIAS builds on and expands the highly successful and internationally recognized European
Laboratory for Learning and Intelligent Systems (ELLIS). ELIAS will further develop the excellence criteria and the pillars in ELLIS and
implement actions that will support AI researchers and young talents at different stages of their careers. Furthermore, ELIAS will
develop a Sciencentrepreneurship track, with the purpose of attracting and empowering talents at the interface of scientific
innovation and business and establish original AI solutions that move towards a sustainable long-term future for our planet,
contribute to a cohesive society, and respect individual rights.
The outcome of ELIAS will be to establish Europe as a leader in AI research in which impact on the environment, society and the
individual are integral considerations during development. We will measure the success of this endeavor in terms of key indicators,
including the number of new cross-institutional collaborations, the number of cross-disciplinary collaborations, the number of
industry-academic partnerships, publications in top conferences and journals, patents, and the number of projects that have resulted
in deployed technologies.
The IcARUS project seeks to facilitate a transformation in the application and utilisation of the knowledge base through the design of urban security policies. By rethinking tools for urban security policy, IcARUS project offers a unique opportunity to draw together the best evidence from urban security research and practice over the last 30 years to implement an integrated, evidence-based and multi-stakeholder approach to prominent urban security problems. Through a strategically designed process of co-production, IcARUS will integrate social and technological innovations to strengthen the strategic approach to urban security and therefore, promote a balanced vision of urban security, combining prevention, sanctions and social cohesion as mechanisms to encourage common approaches to security in the European Union. This project aims to transform the benefits to local communities in terms of urban security policies by engaging them as active co-producers of services rather than as passive recipients of public services alongside forms of multi-sectoral governance that deliver beneficial urban safety outcomes.
Background and Motivation. The HEP-VS is a key academic institution for the education of children, adolescents, and young adults in Valais. The potential transformation that AI will enable in education is unprecedented, as AI technologies open opportunities but also involve significant risks. To incorporate AI as part of present and future educational programs, and effectively serve the multiple actors in the cantonal educational ecosystem – including HEPVS students, HEPVS faculty and instructors, teachers and students in public schools - a systematic institutional approach to acquire AI literacy (knowledge, skills, and abilities needed to effectively interact with AI technologies) is paramount.
In parallel, Idiap, as a prominent institution in AI research, has been committed to inventing core advanced technologies, but also to design methods to facilitate the widespread understanding and use of these technologies, aligned with its “AI for Society’ mission. In particular, Idiap has recently developed a conceptual framework for AI Literacy, based on twelve competencies that span a range of needed knowledge, skills, and abilities, and focused on last-generation Generative AI technologies.
HEP-VS and Idiap started discussions in 2024 to envision a long-term collaboration as key cantonal institutions in education and AI, with the ambitious objective of devising a systematic approach to support the HEP-VS reflect upon, acquire, and spread AI Literacy, based upon the HEP-VS’s specific needs and priorities, and contextualized with different actors of the cantonal educational ecosystem.
Objective and methodology. The proposed one-year project presented here represents both a launching pad and a proof-of-concept of the Idiap/HEP-VS long-term collaboration. We will develop the systematic approach based on the twelve-competency Generative AI Literacy Framework and an “AI Literacy & Literacy with AI” approach that will integrate pedagogical, participatory, and technological methods. The project includes specific research activities to achieve 3 research objectives: (O1) assessment of the state of AI literacy for a population of HEP-VS students; (O2) co-design of customized educational modules for key components of the Generative AI Literacy Framework; and (O3) prototyping and initial testing of such modules. Importantly, some of the prototyping will use state-of-the-art AI as a tool to support AI literacy acquisition and assessment, thus integrating the expertise of Idiap in NLP and social computing, while HEP-VS will contribute to the research framework through its expertise, particularly in the areas of methodological design (educational sciences and disciplinary didactics), pedagogical design and experimentation (digital learning engineering and pedagogical facilitation), as well as in the analysis of the effectiveness and efficiency of classroom interventions and the evaluation of their implementation (statistics, cognitive psychology, epistemology of scientific inquiry, etc.). The conceptual framework proposed by Idiap for Gen AI literacy is directly aligned with the issue of effectiveness (learning outcomes) and efficiency (resource optimization) in the use of AI for learning across distinct disciplinary domains.
Expected outcomes and impact. As research outputs, the project will produce an assessment of the state of AI Literacy of a sample of HEP-VS students; educational resources for Generative AI Literacy (both consolidated from existing ones, as well as novel resources developed in the project); and joint scientific publications. Furthermore, the impact beyond concrete research outputs includes the consolidation of the bi-institutional partnership about this important priority theme for both HEP-VS and Idiap, and the establishment of first joint scientific results, which are needed to apply for larger research and educational projects.
Context: Access to factual information is essential for democratic decision-making, public trust, and civic engagement, yet artificial intelligence (AI) enables large-scale creation and dissemination of manipulated content, fabricated narratives, and content amplification that can distort public perception, erode confidence in democratic institutions, and polarize political discourse. These risks threaten to reshape political debates, influence electoral outcomes, and undermine public trust in media sources in Switzerland. Democratic values can be upheld by developing AI tools and governance frameworks to counter disinformation and monitor media framing.
Goals: DEMO-AI is an interdisciplinary research project, driving advances in computing to enhance the resilience of democracy, integrating expertise from law, journalism and communication studies, media and information literacy to ensure that AI-supported solutions align with democratic values and regulations. Four project goals include: AI tools for analyzing news media framing; AI tools for detecting manipulation of audio-visual media; legal research on regulatory frameworks for AI and disinformation in Switzerland; and engaging both the public and professionals in evaluating and testing media tools.
Expected Impact: DEMO-AI will produce tools to analyze issue framing and related narratives in Swiss media, facilitate the detection of audio-visual disinformation, and understand legal challenges. These tools will be designed, tested, and refined in collaboration with the general public and professionals, placing their specific needs at the center, thus ensuring real-world applicability. Through societal impact activities, the project extends beyond technology, addressing key challenges across AI, democracy, and policy.
