The results of the Call for Scientific Research and Technological Development (IC&DT) Projects in All Scientific Domains 2023  (MPr-12-2023 - ICDT/2023), promoted by the Foundation for Science and Technology, in conjunction with the Innovation and Digital Transition Programme - COMPETE 2030 (ERDF) and the Regional Programmes for the North, Centre, Lisbon, Alentejo and Algarve, have been released. The call for projects aims to fund IC&DT projects focused on the development of research activities in all scientific domains. The call closed on 21 March 2024, with 2,550 applications having been submitted.

The project ‘EDigiPolis - Articulating School Engagement and Political Learning: Understanding and Promoting Youth Democratic Practices and Critical Thinking through Digital-Visual Tools’ was one of the projects funded under this programme. The project, led by Carla Malafaia, Assistant Professor at FPCEUP and researcher at CIIE, addresses the political-educational concerns and repertoires of (dis)engagement of young people through the integrated and innovative application of methods that cross offline and online, educational software that generates plural debate and algorithms developed to detect visual political action. These methods and their articulation will be tested and perfected through their application in different contexts, with young activists and young NEETs from the coast and the interior of the country. The project will start from a synergistic interaction between AI and ethnography, progressing through a quasi-experimental study and a participatory methodology to enable youth-led co-creation of educational and political solutions, sensitive to their contexts.

In addition to the PI, the research team also includes Isabel Menezes, Tiago Neves, Pedro D. Ferreira, Norberto Ribeiro, Eeva Luhtakallio, Taina Meriluoto, Fátima Amante and Maria Figueiredo.

The EDigiPolis project involves CIIE/FPCEUP, as the proposing institution, and the Polytechnic Institute of Viseu, as a participant. It will be funded with 248,140.80 euros (85% from the PITD - Innovation and Digital Transition Programme /FEDER and 15% from the State Budget/FCT). It will run for 36 months and is expected to start in September 2025.

Congratulations to the team!