We are happy to announce a new project in which we will be working in a consortium of partners on AI-powered tools to integrate in the CONSUL DEMOCRACY code base. The project will run from 2025-2027 and covers a research phase, feature development, testing as well as piloting in different European cities that are already using our platform.
Partners:
Danes Je Nov Dan (https://danesjenovdan.si/en)
Cosla (https://www.cosla.gov.uk/)
Mehr Demokratie (https://www.mehr-demokratie.de/)
This project is funded by the Google Impact Fund.
User research and survey We have created a 5-minute survey that helps us prioritize what really matters to our users and identify meaningful AI-powered features. Will you help us and fill out the survey? We will be forever grateful ❤️. Survey link At the moment this survey is only available in English. If you require translation assistance, you can use the translation feature of your preferred web browser to take the survey. We accept responses in any language. |

Project description
To address the low rates of citizen participation in Europe’s democratic processes, particularly among underrepresented groups such as youth, migrants, and low-income communities, the project will develop a free, open-source Civic Assistant powered by large language models (LLMs). This assistant will enhance public organization’s existing CONSUL platforms by incorporating features like voice input, real-time translation, and AI-generated proposals, making participation more accessible and inclusive.
By implementing this solution, the project aims to significantly improve engagement in democratic online discussions, enabling citizens and administrations to interact more effectively. With the Civic Assistant integrated, we aim to increase the number of people engaging with the pilot cities’ platforms, as well as to reduce the administrative efforts and costs on the part of local governments. Ultimately, this initiative seeks to empower marginalized groups such as youth, migrant groups and people from low-income communities, hereby creating more resilient and inclusive participation processes.
We will be keep you updated through our newsletter and in our Slack channel. If you want to know more about this project, don’t hesitate to get in touch through e-mail.