A new €3 million EU research project led by University College Dublin (UCD) Centre for Digital Policy will explore the benefits and risks of Artificial Intelligence (AI) from a societal perspective in order to enhance AI capabilities and EU regulatory frameworks.

Commencing in February 2025, the FORSEE (Forging Successful AI Applications for European Economy and Society) project is funded through the Beyond the horizon: A human-friendly deployment of artificial intelligence and related technologies funding call under the Horizon Europe programme.

The project aims to broaden the concept of AI "success" beyond technological and economic efficiency and provide insights that will structurally enhance capacities to anticipate, evaluate and manage the future and long term opportunities and challenges associated with AI.

Led by Dr Elizabeth Farries, Director of UCD Centre for Digital Policy, the consortium includes eight partners from universities, research institutions and think tanks across six European countries. Dr Farries said, "FORSEE seeks to improve our understanding of what “successful AI” actually means in order to enhance regulatory perspectives and approaches. Focusing on sustainability, labour and economic efficiency, gender and engagement with civil society, our research group will offer broadened awareness of the risks and opportunities of AI, based on our grounded research.”

Professor Niamh Moore-Cherry, Principal of UCD College of Social Sciences and Law said, “I am delighted that this exciting consortium project led by Dr Elizabeth Farries has been funded. As the development of AI technology accelerates, it is crucial that we gain a better understanding of its economic, societal and ethical implications as well as its technological success. The FORSEE project, bringing international experts together to develop a critical building block for AI policy and regulatory frameworks in Europe, is part of a growing portfolio of research across a range of disciplines in our College focused on AI and data science and we are delighted to be hosting it.”

Engaging with institutions, civil society organisations and the broader public, the FORSEE team will discern the current criteria of AI success to highlight potential tensions between existing AI applications and EU priorities, and evaluate impacts on economy and society. The project will also examine the conditions that underpin or restrain success for small and medium enterprises within the EU, in order to equip stakeholders and policymakers with the tools to address future risks and opportunities.

Co-PI Prof Eugenia Siapera, Professor of Digital Technology, Policy and Society and Co-Director of UCD Centre for Digital Policy, said, "In a context of rapid technological developments and regulatory responses, FORSEE aims to develop a strong empirical basis for fair, equitable and sustainable AI governance in dialogue with institutional bodies and societal stakeholders.”

Dr Alexandros Minotakis, a Post-Doctoral researcher at UCD Centre for Digital Policy and member of the project team added, “This project will result in concrete recommendations on European policy, complimenting the existing regulatory framework through its interventions.”

The consortium brings together a broad range of partners encompassing interdisciplinary expertise across legal and policy analysis, political economy, computational social science, information and communication, media and platforms studies, collaborating with academics from computer science. Participating UCD researchers include Prof Aphra Kerr, Dr Arjumand Younus, Dr James Steinhoff and Dr Pat Brodie.

Consortium partners include UCD (Ireland), Trinity College Dublin (Ireland), Tilburg University (The Netherlands), University Paul Sabatier Toulouse III (France), the WZB Berlin Social Science Centre (Germany), Demos Helsinki (Finland), TASC Europe Studies CLG (Ireland) and the European Digital SME Alliance (Belgium).