Finding affordable, quality student housing is a universal challenge across Europe making it the perfect real-world issue to test out new civic technology. On June 10th, the IDEAL project brought this topic to the table during a specialized 90-minute workshop in Dijon, France. Facilitated by Fabienne Trotte from Relais Culture Europe (a member of the IDEAL consortium), the session put the IDEAL digital platform and mobile application directly into the hands of the people it i

The IDEAL project has officially kicked off its pilot phase in Thessaloniki, marking an exciting step forward in building more inclusive and participatory spaces for dialogue. In close collaboration with the association ANORASIS, a group of people with visual impairments came together to set the foundations of the pilot and begin a process that places lived experience at the center. From the very first session, the tone was clear: this is not just about testing a platform — i

On 19 February 2026, the Digital Inclusion Day organised by the Job Center of the Municipality of Athens at the Serafio Cultural Center brought together policymakers, practitioners, innovators and community actors around a crucial question: How visible is democracy to those who are often rendered invisible , and how can digital tools help change that? Among the practices presented, the IDEAL project stood out as a concrete, research-based response to the growing need for in

In Paris, La Maison des Réfugiés (House of Refugees) is an emblematic space: a resource center dedicated to learning, support, and socio-professional integration. It promotes solidarity and inclusion, while raising awareness about exile and migration, making it the ideal venue for the IDEAL workshop organized by Relais Culture Europe in November 2025. The IDEAL session adopted a cultural and artistic tone, in line with the mission of Relais Culture Europe . The discussion w

Today, digital democracy is becoming an important complement – and some would say even an alternative – to offline forms of political participation. Increasingly more people use social media as a news source, debates regularly unfold in comment sections, and protests often start in encrypted chats. The digitalization of public life has upended traditional ways of political engagement. Digital platforms have brought clear democratic advantages: nowadays, information is readily

The IDEAL project added real value to the conversation on digital transformation and collaborative innovation during the Erasmus+ IMMER-CV Final Event. Organized by INNOPAC in Valencia and streamed online, the hybrid conference marked the successful conclusion of IMMER-CV’s 18-month mission to deliver a groundbreaking training curriculum on immersive technologies for the Cultural and Creative Sectors (CCS). Prof. Charalampos Alexopoulos, representing the IDEAL consortium fr

One of the main goals of the IDEAL project is to make the democratic collaboration more accessible to various communities, including those that may have difficulties using the dominant language of the country they reside in. That is why we rely on language technology of text simplification . It aims to build automatic tools that transform a given text piece -- e.g. a sentence, a paragraph, or a whole document -- into a variant that maintains the meaning of the original, but

In the first half of 2025, two of the IDEAL project partners, WU Vienna University of Economics & Business and Caritas Vienna , collaborated for hosting group discussions with beneficiaries from diverse backgrounds in Vienna and Lower Austria. The meetings formed an important part of the project’s groundwork to explore what people living in Austria need to participate more in democratic life. As part of Caritas Vienna “Zusammenreden 2.0” (“Talking together 2.0) meetup series

Deliberation and political participation are fundamental rights that are out of reach for many vulnerable or marginalised groups....

Democracy is more than just casting a vote on election day. A truly effective democracy thrives when people engage in public debates, use...

In a Europe defined by its rich cultural and linguistic diversity, democracy must be as inclusive as its people. With 24 official...