How will the future labor market look and are European education systems endowing the next generation with the skills they will need to succeed? These questions are at the heart of a new research project at the Catholic University of Eichstätt-Ingolstadt.
What are the links between migrant career prospects and their working abroad in the EU? This was a guiding question of a research project coordinated by the University of Bamberg. The project aimed to develop a long-term approach to supporting migrant worker integration and combating labor shortages in the EU.
Increasing influence of anti-pluralist parties is often associated with lower academic freedom in the respective country. This is one of the findings of the latest Academic Freedom Index (AFI) which is being released March 13, 2025. Scholars at Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg (FAU) publish the index every year in collaboration with colleagues at the V-Dem Institute at the University of Gothenburg. It covers 179 countries across the world.
Most people want harmful social media content such as physical threats and defamation to be restricted. This also applies in the USA where several social media platforms have recently modified their policies in favor of unrestricted free speech. However, the majority of users believe that intolerance and hate have become unavoidable on social media. This was revealed in a large-scale survey conducted by the Technical University of Munich (TUM) and the University of Oxford in 10 countries in Europe, America, Africa and Australia. The study also highlights differences among countries.
In a project funded by the bidt, researchers from the Universities of Passau and Bamberg are investigating how Russia is developing its own generative AI models under strict supervision and how authoritarian data affects AI systems in democratic systems.
The majority of politically active individuals experience digital violence. The results of a study conducted by the Technical University of Munich (TUM) in cooperation with the human rights organization HateAid show that around two thirds of affected women have experienced sexualized online attacks. Around one third of the respondents who experienced online aggression were also physically attacked. More than half changed their behavior – from self-restrictions on communications to the intention of abandoning their political involvement.
Cash grants appear to be more promising than matching grants, especially if survival of small businesses rather than innovation is the key objective in fragile political contexts. This is the result of a study conducted by economists from the University of Passau and the World Bank in Washington D.C. and Burkina Faso.
A central issue at the UN Climate Change Conference will be the negotiations on new payments from industrialized nations to poorer countries. However, the question of whether and how these payments will be financed remains highly controversial. The study by an international team of researchers has now revealed: The windfall profits alone taken in by oil and gas companies due to the 2022 energy crisis would have been sufficient to cover the existing commitments of the industrialized nations for nearly five years. The researchers therefore recommend collecting taxes on these so-called windfall profits from fossil fuels.
Researchers across Europe have joined forces under the coordination of a team from the University of Passau to investigate persistent conspiracy beliefs. The researchers hope to gain new insights into how democracies can be made more resistant to conspiracy theories.
How can Europe efficiently achieve its goals in the regulation of artificial intelligence? And how can the EU itself use AI for this purpose? In the AI4POL project, an international research team will investigate whether EU regulations actually support its citizens. Furthermore, the team will develop AI tools and data science methods with which policymakers and regulators can better evaluate the effects of their legislation as well as potential threats posed by technological developments in non-democratic states. The project is funded by the EU Horizon Europe program.
