HRZZ Approves Funding for the Research Project “Epistemic Democracy in a Digital Era”

On November 27, 2024, the Board of the Croatian Science Foundation officially approved funding for a competitive three-year research project titled “Epistemic Democracy in a Digital Era”.

The project will explore how digital technologies powered by artificial intelligence algorithms influence democratic processes and collective decision-making procedures. It aims to address one of the most urgent challenges of our time: how to preserve the legitimacy and authority of democratic governance in the first half of the 21st century—an era marked by fake news and disinformation, algorithmic decision-making, new forms of civic and political engagement, and online activism.

The project also investigates a range of emerging political-epistemic phenomena, including epistemic bubbles, echo chambers, and political polarization, and how these may be shaped or intensified by digital technologies.

The research team is led by Dr. Ivan Cerovac (University of Rijeka), and includes esteemed scholars Prof. Snježana Prijić-Samaržija, Prof. Elvio Baccarini, and Dr. Benedikt Perak from the University of Rijeka, as well as Dr. Vojko Strahovnik, Dr. Mateja Centa Strahovnik, and Dr. Tomislav Furlanis from the University of Ljubljana.

The project is funded through the Croatian Science Foundation’s Research Projects (IP) programme and will run from 2024 to 2027.