Projects Archive

Establishing a European Competence Centre for Science Communication and an associated Science Communication Academy is the goal of the COALESCE project. 

COALESCE wants to gather and consolidate existing science communication knowledge, resources and tools from a variety of sources, while engaging science communication stakeholders in a co-creating process as well as in validating the Competence Centre’s products for their respective needs.

To achieve this objective, COALESCE aims to build and engage Communities of knowledge and Practice in science communication (CoPs).

We invite all researchers, science-communication professionals, journalists, policymakers, citizens, industry professionals – among other actors – to be part of our community of practice, where you will have the opportunity to be engaged in mutual learning, co-creation activities, training and be part of building the future European Competence Centre for Science Communication.

Please register here in the COALESCE Communities of Practice (CoPs) so that we can actively involve you in the activities.

COALESCE SciComm Conversations podcast series offers opportunities for reflections on Science Communication in the age of Artificial Intelligence. 

Episode 1 - Generative AI and Science Communication: Opportunities and Challenges.

Prof. Mike Schäfer, University of Zurich, on the challenges and opportunities that generative AI presents to science communication. He recently published an essay entitled “The Notorious GPT” in the Journal of Science Communication.

Episode 2 - Engaging the Public on Artificial Intelligence.

Prof. Jennifer Edmond, Trinity College Dublin, on the subject of engaging the public on artificial intelligence. She has been involved in a number of projects that use theatre and interactive installations to engage people with AI. 

SciComm Conversations is the official podcast from the COALESCE project. COALESCE is funded by European Union to establish the EU Competence Centre for Science Communication.

COALESCE is the new Horizon Europe project of which Venice International University is a partner. Over the next four years (2023-2027), the project will establish the European Competence Centre for Science Communication.

Venice International University is part of ISIS@MACH ITALIA (IM@IT), the hybrid Italian multidisciplinary Research Infrastructure (RI) for Complex Materials and Interfaces, hub of the world's leading research centre ISIS neutron and muon source (UK).
This RI encompasses a suite of distributed laboratories, and small and medium facilities with instrumentation for research in nanoscience, located at Research Centers and Universities distributed throughout the Italian territory. Venice International University, and among its members CNR, University of Tor Vergata and University Milano Bicocca are part of IM@IT.

Sustainable MAnagement of Cultural Heritage in the Balkans in Response to Climate Change. Best Practices for Adaptation and Intercultural Cooperation - is a 1-year Central European Initiative (CEI) Know-how Exchange Program. It supports the exchange of knowledge and best practices between the EU and the Balkan region, to promote the sustainable management of cultural heritage in response to climate change. It will thus contribute to encourage climate change adaptation and, broadly, sustainable development in the area, engaging the regional decision makers and key stakeholders in a dialogue to compare current approaches and develop common best practices in this concern. 

MUHAI - Meaning and Understanding in Human-centric AI is a 4-year Horizon 2020 project (2020-2024) funded by the EU FET 'Boosting emerging technologies' (FETPROACT-EIC-05-2019). VIU is partner with Professor Luc Steels as MUHAI Scientific Coordinator and as leader of the Communication, Dissemination and Ethics WP. 

MUHAI works on developing Human-Centric Artificial Intelligence (AI) in a pivotal moment of AI tools diffusion. Its findings open doors regarding the meaning we human assign to reality and how to pass it to machines, to better our lives.

Meanings are distinctions (categories) that are relevant for prediction, classification, communication, problem solving or other mental tasks. The meaning of an experience include the events, actors, entities and what roles they play, the temporal, spatial and causal relations between events, the intentions, goals, interests, and motivations of the actors, and the values and emotions that implicitly underlie their behavior. Understanding is the process of constructing meaning by casting episodic events into coherent narratives that explain experiences and allow them to be integrated into a Personal Dynamic Memory.

Project partners bring to the table the enormous advances in recent years in technical AI components (such as deep learning networks), semantic resources (such as knowledge graphs) and simulation engines (as developed for VR - virtual reality). They are developing working and, hopefully, marketable demos that are part of broader outcomes encompassing theoretical research.

The scientific production is so far rich and relevant, with papers featured in major AI events around the world. If you are science-thirsty you can visit the dedicated 'Paper' section in MUHAI website, where you'll also find the first of the three volumes gathering the main research outputs.

These outcomes are innovative breakthroughs related to the nature and functioning of Personal Dynamic Memory, integrate them within human-centric AI systems, and systematically test them in two challenging human-centric case studies emphasizing AI for the common good: (i) learning common sense every day pragmatic knowledge required in everyday activities, and (ii) collaborative support for historical and social science research when constructing narratives to understand past and current social developments, in particular the origins and persistence of inequality in our society. 

The project investigates also ethical issues of AI use and promoted a trustworthy relationship with AI using emotional communication and aiming at translating complex topics in a comprehensive way. The project advances the reflection on ethics related to the use of AI enabling discussions with the industry, policy makers and the general public.

Information is shared with the media and all partners are participating in cultural meetings and educational activities. Furthermore, a set of blog entries and catchy campaigns are created, to engage the wider publics. An example is the Word Of The Month (WOTM) campaign: in order to familiarize the public with the terminology employed by AI researchers, a MUHAI vocabulary is created and made available on the MUHAI website and in the social media campaign. Have a tour and learn the slang of the AI gang!

To look ahead: AI is a major evolution in human’s use of technology and MUHAI is opening up doors for future research, but what makes AI researchers tick? During MUHAI researchers were asked to reveal what they look forward to in the FutureAI section.

Project website: www.muhai.org 

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For further information on MUHAI Project please contact Alessandra Fornetti, Executive Director of the TEN Program on Sustainability at alessandra.fornetti@univiu.org

List of participants: 

The University of Bremen (UHB) is MUHAI project Coordinator. 

MUHAI Scientific Board Members: 
Walter Daelemans (University of Antwerp)
Kerstin Fischer (University of Southern Denmark)
Andrea Baronchelli (City University of London)

MUHAI Stakeholders: 
SAP (Vanessa Micelli)
Telefonica Innovacion Alpha (Tarek Besold)
International Institute of social History Amsterdam (KNAW, the Netherlands)

At the 2015 United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP21), a Memorandum of Understanding on climate change (i.e. risk evaluation, adaptation and mitigation) was signed between the Italian Ministry for Environment, Land and Sea (IMELS) and the Comorian Ministry for Agriculture, Fisheries, Environment, Land Management and Urban Planning.

Following a technical visit to the Comoros Union – a group of Islands located in the Indian Ocean, on the East-African Coast – in 2016, Contarina S.p.A. presented DECOR project, aimed at developing an Integrated Waste Management model, in a synergic effort together with the Comorian Authorities.

The unprecedented threat of climate change is posing a severe risk to human activities, due to the increasing frequency and magnitude of extreme events.

Introducing Climate Proofing in Investments and Spatial Planning (ICPISP) is a project by Enel Foundation and VIU – TEN Program, in collaboration with the Euro-Mediterranean Center on Climate Change (CMCC). It aims at applying a multi‐hazard approach for a Socio‐Economic Regional Risk Assessment (SERRA).

VIU_TeDIS is one of the partners of the project SUSPORT.
SUStainable PORTs is a strategic project funded by the Interreg Italy-Croatia Program.
Priority Axis: Maritime transport
Specific object: Improve the quality, safety and environmental sustainability of marine and coastal transport services and nodes by promoting multimodality in the Programme area.

VIU_TeDIS is one of the partners of the SPROUT project: Sustainable Policy RespOnse to Urban mobility Transition, financed by the H2020 Program.

SPROUT provides a new city-led innovative and data driven policy response to address the impacts of the emerging mobility patterns, digitally-enabled operating and business models, and transport users’ needs.

VIU_TeDIS is one of the partners of the DISCO project financed by the Horizon Europe Program.

DISCO is the acronym for: Data-driven, Integrated, Syncromodal, Collaborative and Optimized urban freight meta model for a new generation of urban logistics and planning with data sharing at European Living Lab.

DISCO develops and demonstrates a federated European urban freight data space as data sharing on digital urban logistics solutions and smart tools for decision making. It will be a continental Ten-T (Trans-European Transport Network) with replicable Use Cases, built upon drivers to code transformation of urban planning and land use by an open and collaborative Data Space with a smart governance model.

When well communicated, science and research offer a number of potential benefits to society. But how can we recognize valuable scientific dissemination? When is it effective? How can we promote and incentivize science communication?