Related projects

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European Digital Media Observatory (EDMO)

The European Digital Media Observatory (EDMO) brings together fact-checkers, media literacy experts, and academic researchers to understand and analyse disinformation, in collaboration with media organisations, online platforms and media literacy practitioners. It is the central European platform and initiative in the fight against disinformation.

Numerous links exist between EDMO and vera.ai. To name but a few:

vera.ai's Kalina Bontcheva (USFD) and Jochen Spangenberg (DW) are members of EDMO's Advisory Board. 

Various vera.ai individuals have conducted workshops and trainings for EDMO.

There is a frequent exchange and close working relationships between EDMO and vera.ai personnel, guaranteeing that information, know-how and activities are exchanged both ways. This is to continue throughout the runtime of both projects. For vera.ai, EDMO and its constituent parts (i.e. the so-called EDMO Hubs) are regarded as prime collaborators and destinations for project outcomes.

While the original EDMO (EDMO 1) ended on 30 Nov 2022, its successor started on 1 January 2023.

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EDMO Hubs

So-called EDMO Hubs are networks of organisations whose activities cover primarily their respective regional areas when it comes to dealing with the countering of disinformation. In total, by the beginning of 2023, 14 hubs are operational, covering all EU member states.

For more information about existing links between EDMO, the Hubs and vera.ai, see this article on our website that provides more insights.

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TITAN

The TITAN project (Coaching to Fight Disinformation) is, in a way, vera.ai's “sister project”. It is funded under the same EU call and runs from September 2022 until August 2025. Contrary to vera.ai, which focusses primarily on services for professionals, TITAN concentrates on AI-powered services and solutions targeting citizens. 

Cooperation between the two projects started right after launch with personal exchanges, including a guest appearance of TITAN at the vera.ai kick-off meeting, and project coordinator Symeon Papdopoulos presenting our aims and approaches to the TITAN consortium in September 2022.

vera.ai partner ATC is also involved in TITAN.

AI4Trust

AI4Trust (in full: "AI-based-technologies for trustworthy solutions against disinformation") is sort of “the second sister project” of vera.ai, as it is based in the same unit at the European Commission.

The project, co-ordinated by Fondazione Bruno Kessler, Italy, runs from 1 January 2023 until 28 February 2026. It aims to provide a hybrid system in which machines cooperate with humans, relying on advanced AI solutions against advanced disinformation techniques to support media professionals and policy makers.

Hence AI4Trust is another natural collaboration partner for vera.ai. This is facilitated by known entities and people active across both initiatives, and working relationships between vera.ai and AI4Trust project participants. 

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AI4Media

AI4Media is an EU Horizon 2020 funded project, running from September 2020 until August 2024. It aims to become a Centre of Excellence for AI-related matters in the media sector, also bringing together various actors in the field such as academia and industry. 

vera.ai partners CERTH, Fraunhofer, ATC and DW are participants in AI4Media. This way, close collaboration and exchanges is ensured and taking place on a permanent basis. Of particular interest: AI4Media’s work on including ethical and trustworthy aspects in AI development and deployment.

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European Fact-Checking Standards Network

The European Fact-Checking Standards Network Project is an effort to bring together independent fact-checking organisations to discuss and define the standards of independence, transparency and methodological and journalistic quality that should guide efforts to combat disinformation. Efforts resulted in a Code of Professional Integrity for European fact-checkers approved by dozens of European organisations.

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The EBU network

The EBU is a network of public media organisations. In fact it can take pride in being the largest alliance of public media in the world. It has 112 member organizations (Deutsche Welle being one) in 56 countries, with an additional 31 Associates in Asia, Africa, Australasia and the Americas. Members operate nearly 2,000 television, radio and online channels and services. 

Of particular relevance for vera.ai: the EBU's Social Newswire. This members only service aims to “harness the power of reliable eyewitness media for their platforms by discovering, verifying and clearing content obtained from social media.” The network also provides a collaborative workspace for over 1,000 EBU and member journalists.

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AI-on-Demand Platform

The AI-on-demand platform (AIOD) seeks to act as a resource to facilitate European research and innovation in AI. The objective of the platform is to support all solutions and tools that contribute to the ecosystem of excellence and the ecosystem of trust, which define the European Vision of AI.

The first iteration of the AI-on-demand platform was developed under the leadership of the AI4EU project (ICT26-2019), which put in place the basic functionalities of the platform. The initial investment by the European Commission was followed by the funding of six supporting projects (ICT49-2020), each of which is committed to building new innovative services for the platform.  

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SpeechTrust+

vera.ai partner Fraunhofer IDMT is involved in the project SpeechTrust+. It aims to explore a new generation of detectors that will reliably and sustainably detect AI-based speech synthesis and voice distortion. 

To achieve the above, not only the same AI methods that have led to the tremendous improvements in speech synthesis will be applied, but also methods from the field of audio forensics. This combination is meant to create a toolbox for the robust detection of both speech synthesis and voice distortion.

VIGILANT

VIGILANT is a project funded by the European Research Executive Agency under the Horizon Europe scheme. 

It is an interdisciplinary effort by a consortium of leading researchers and experts to help police authorities counter illegal online disinformation. Using an ethical-by-design approach, VIGILANT aims to equip Police Authorities with cutting edge disinformation identification and analysis tools, technology, and knowledge to make their fight against criminal online content easier and more effective.

While the target users of VIGILANT are police and law enforcement (research is centered around illegal online disinformation), it shares with vera.ai the aim to develop cutting edge tools and technology for disinformation analysis and its identification. This includes establishing a web-based platform and ecosystem integrating advanced state-of-the-art investigation, forensic and analysis tools into a single modular toolbox.

vera.ai is co-funded by the European Commission under grant agreement ID 101070093, and the UK and Swiss authorities. This website reflects the views of the vera.ai consortium and respective contributors. The EU cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained herein.