The DSPC project is a transformative initiative aimed at fostering empathy and promoting reconciliation among historically conflict-impacted European communities. By collecting and sharing personal narratives, the DSPC project seeks to bridge societal divides and inspire meaningful dialogues. At its core, the project centres around a user-friendly digital platform where these diverse narratives will be hosted and made accessible to the public.

Project results

“Expedition 17” – is an interactive educational project for Ukrainian youth in the Stuttgart region on SDGs with a set of lectures, excursions and creative workshops. The culmination of “Expedition 17” will be an art exhibition in Stuttgart, where the 17 art objects produced by the Ukrainian youth will be presented to the general public, encouraging dialogue between German and Ukrainian communities.

Project results

The Cross Border Creativity project combines site-specific research and hands-on creative workshops for young disadvantaged people, led by artists Grainne McMenamin and Catherine Bourne. These workshops focus on celebrating our natural heritage and aims to foster a sense of community, encourage self-expression, and build lasting friendships, all while promoting sustainable creative practices that can be continued and shared into the future.

Project results

AIEdu aims to encourage the development of new approaches and teaching practices in citizenship education by focusing on the impact of AI on society. AIEdu aims to support young educators to become better aware of the responsible and respectful ways to use technology as part of their work, and support the development of the students’ digital skills and AI competencies in order to protect and promote human rights and inclusion in the digital era.

Project results & survey

The “From Dump to Art: Confronting Illegal Waste Dumping” project will be carried out over 12 months in three rural locales: Podravske Sesvete (Croatia), Pécsvárad (Hungary) and Vršac (Serbia). The initiative aims to instil environmental responsibility in local communities, raise awareness of the adverse effects of illegal dumping through art and film, and develop a model for wider project replication in rural settings. 

Project results & video

Posts from Ukrainians and Russians on Facebook during the war inspire a performative laboratory of this project. Choreographers from Ukraine and Russia will stage a dance performance based on personal quotes. Audience engagement includes ‘liking’ or ‘disliking’ inscriptions on a wall installation, with the opportunity to add their own chalk inscription. Dancers will erase these inscriptions symbolically, dismantling the wall as a metaphor for dialogue and the end of conflict, echoing the destruction in bombed cities on both sides of the border.

Project results

This project aims to explore how new technologies can facilitate communication between local governments and citizens. Its main objective is to assess the utility of AI-supported chatbots in gathering data and opinions to assist public administration in designing effective policies. This project aims to bridge this gap through the iterative development of chatbots, testing their utility for public administration experts. The resulting insights will guide future regulations on such technologies and will be presented to European and national regulatory agencies.

Project results

We design workshops and experiences that develop the skills needed to promote constructive dialogue and civic-mindedness. In a polarized world, we need to find ways to build consensus. Using the power of play, we promote civic-mindedness in a whole new way.

The project consists of the dynamic three-day forum “Schools and AI: Risks and Opportunities” on 25-27 October 2024, Lisbon, Portugal, focused on AI ethics in civic education, where educators, students, parents, experts, and civic activists come together to examine the transformative impact of AI and tackle emerging ethical challenges. The project will explore AI ethical problems in civic education with students: shaping tomorrow’s perspectives on benefits and risks.

Project results & AI toolbox

GEODEM-AI addresses democratic principles, civic engagement, and social responsibility of AI in geographic information by offering interactive multimedia training materials for teachers and educators based on real-world civic applications. It aims to foster active citizenship and education. Through the research review, online training module, guidelines/recommendations and teacher stories, GEODEM-AI will encourage an informed, healthy, critical view of ethical issues related to the positive and negative challenges from the rise of AI for the collection, use, reuse, and storage of geographic information and geo-data in education.

With professional experts, we created a unique curriculum called InnoMate, which equips youth with essential work and entrepreneurial skills. Through teamwork, 600 students will tackle real-world issues, enhancing their problem-solving abilities since 2018. The program itself is 8 months long, led by pre-trained teachers. It starts in each participating school with a one-day Hackathon, followed by a 12-week Innovation Club. Students also visit companies for workplace observation and meet role models. The program includes multi-round competitions, a 3-day innovation camp with experts, and pitch presentations.

This project offers a transformative journey, reflecting on stereotypes and challenges in two different yet similar cultural norms – Ukraine and Bulgaria. Targeting financial literacy, we aim to empower 20 participants from two countries to become financially independent, recognise opportunities, and equip them with the knowledge and skills needed for self-determination.

Consumer rights and responsible consumption are unfortunately still not widely understood in countries like Bulgaria and Serbia. Typical problems relate to insufficient or incorrect information provided by the producers or (re)sellers and the consumers are often left to manage by themselves. The main objective of the project is to increase the level of financial and economic literacy by providing the target group with knowledge and instruments to improve their ability to make conscious and responsible decisions.

The project, “Подай сигнал” (in English: Signal for Change), aims to develop an online platform in Bulgaria that educates and guides citizens through the process of reporting various issues affecting their local communities. These include urban and public infrastructure problems, administrative and institutional misconduct, vandalism and violence, environmental concerns, and violations of laws and regulations. While users cannot directly submit reports through the platform, it will provide clear instructions on the reporting process and guide them to the appropriate institutions. Initially, the platform will be available exclusively in Bulgarian.

The initiative aims to establish a set of standards for cities to be recognised as “Human Rights Cities”, strengthening local governance, enhancing policymaking, promoting human rights, integrating diversity and inclusion, training of local government officials and ensuring that the voices and needs of all citizens, particularly marginalised groups, are heard.​

The memory issue is one of the dividing axes between Bulgaria and Macedonia; the memory of the Holocaust is particularly polarising. The project’s specific objective is to introduce youth from the two states to its history through the learning-by-doing method. During a travelling seminar in both states, up to 16 young people will explore key memorial sites and produce videos, which will be uploaded to an interactive online memory map. The story will be told through the eyes of the younger generation, who will demonstrate they can remember the past without making it a conflicting point of nationalist narratives.

The Decolonial Film Festival (DFF) is a cultural and educational initiative that uses the power of cinema to promote critical awareness of colonial history and its contemporary consequences. By showcasing films from marginalised and diasporic voices accompanied by debates and discussions, the DFF creates spaces for reflection, dialogue, and community building. Our objective is to make decolonial ideas more accessible and engage audiences in questioning societal norms shaped by colonial legacies. To achieve this, we will organise the second edition of our festival in May 2025, coinciding with the Cannes Film Festival, offering a critical and accessible alternative to its elitist framework.

The Youth Climate Dialogues use participatory and storytelling methods to create immersive events bringing together EU decision-makers from the European Parliament, European Commission, and the Council with diverse young people across Europe. These Dialogues challenge the traditional ‘panel discussion’ format and replace it with innovative deliberation methods focused on resilience,
diversity, and collaboration in democracy. The event mixes storytelling, role-swapping between youth and decision-makers, and eyewitness talks to ensure meaningful youth engagement in decision-making. A key feature is the follow-up mechanism, where EU representatives must provide a written response to youth proposals after each event.