Project description
Using big data to serve the people
The politics of contemporary welfare state development in emerging market economies has already been investigated by ERC researchers. Building on this research, the new ERC-funded Politus project will explore the commercial viability of proprietary natural language processing and machine learning technology for AI-based data-driven fair social policymaking. It will address two interconnected problems of opposition political parties and municipalities in Turkey and other emerging markets. The first is the abuse of public social policies with the aid of big data. The second is the government-led information gap that opposition parties and municipalities cannot fill without access to big data. Politus will provide the tools needed to uncover discretionary and clientelist allocation of social policies.
Objective
The Politus Project will assess the commercial viability of proprietary natural language processing and machine learning technology for AI-based data-driven fair social policymaking. The project will verify the innovation potential of computational social science and policy-related novel methods from the PI’s ERC-funded Emerging Welfare Project (https://emw.ku.edu.tr(opens in new window)). To deliver the technical and commercial proof of concept, the PI will establish the Politus Analytics Company, which will offer an AI-based data platform and fair data-driven policymaking consultancy services to two main client personas - political parties and municipalities. The Politus Project will address two interconnected problems of opposition political parties and municipalities in Turkey and other emerging markets regarding social policy making: (1) populist governments gain political advantage by abusing public social policies with the aid of big data, which disables opposition parties and municipalities to develop competitive electoral strategies (2) These big data sources are not available to non-governmental stakeholders, including opposition parties and municipalities, indicating a government-led information gap which opposition parties and municipalities cannot fill with traditional survey polling methods. The Politus project will develop an AI-based innovation that combines quantitative and computational methods in order to create a data platform that delivers representative, valid, instant, real-time, multi-country and multi-language panel data on key political and social trends, which will be used to design fair social policies for opposition parties and municipalities. Politus will serve its clients (municipalities and political parties) (i) the data and tools to pinpoint exact discretionary and clientelistic allocation of social policies (ii) data and insight to understand the needs and wants of the citizens and gain electoral advantage and (iii) the design of fair social policies.
Programme(s)
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
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HORIZON.1.1 - European Research Council (ERC)
MAIN PROGRAMME
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Topic(s)
Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Funding Scheme
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
HORIZON-ERC-POC - HORIZON ERC Proof of Concept Grants
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Call for proposal
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
(opens in new window) ERC-2022-POC2
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Net EU financial contribution. The sum of money that the participant receives, deducted by the EU contribution to its linked third party. It considers the distribution of the EU financial contribution between direct beneficiaries of the project and other types of participants, like third-party participants.
34450 Istanbul
Türkiye
The total costs incurred by this organisation to participate in the project, including direct and indirect costs. This amount is a subset of the overall project budget.