What users see – and don’t see
Jana Lasser wants to understand not just what people do on social media, but also what they see in their personalised feeds. For her, this is central to grasping how recommendation algorithms shape civic discourse – and where current regulation…
How the research community can help keep Big Tech in check
By opening up platform data to independent researchers, the Digital Services Act (DSA) gives Europe’s scientific community new power to scrutinise how digital platforms influence our societies, with a key role for the European Research Council in…
News beyond the echo chamber
When people worry about ‘the algorithm’, they often imagine invisible machines quietly narrowing our horizons. Damian Trilling sees a more complex story and explores how news recommender systems can also broaden what we see online. Trilling’s work…
Bots, amplification and system-wide effects
Milena Tsvetkova studies how humans and intelligent machines interact in digital spaces. Her work moves past isolated cases to explore how interventions, bots, and algorithms affect entire networks, impacting democracy and daily interaction. …
Editorial - Making the digital world ours
By Gerd Gigerenzer Considering the digital world today means confronting questions that intersect with research, policy, and everyday life. As our societies become increasingly shaped by algorithms, platforms, and data-driven systems, the challenge…
Inclusive futures: ERC grantees tackling inequality through research
Inequality often emerges in subtle ways – through life transitions, urban planning choices, or the daily rhythms of community life. Three ERC grantees are tracing the everyday moments where systems, decisions, and spaces shape who belongs, who…
How science changes when all voices are heard
As EU research policy debates the balance between scientific excellence and societal impact, diversity - particularly the place of women in science - remains central to the discussion, writes Elyès Jouini.The figures speak for themselves: women make…
Seeing the full picture: Why science needs every mind
Science thrives when every perspective is part of the story. Yet, with women making up less than one-third of researchers globally, our understanding remains incomplete, filtered through a narrow lens that obscures crucial insights, writes Lora…
Breaking boundaries and building materials layer by layer
When Milena Arciniegas talks about her work, she goes straight to the core: ‘What I do is chemistry, but combined with automation - we use robots to build new materials.’ Based at the Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia in Genoa, the Colombian-born…