Law, Science and Technology Joint Doctorate: Rights of the Internet of Everything

Project Information

LAST-JD-RIoE

Grant agreement ID: 814177

DOI

10.3030/814177

Project closed

EC signature date 17 August 2018

Start date 1 April 2019

End date 31 October 2023

Funded under

• EXCELLENT SCIENCE - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions

Total cost

€ 3 833 291,75

EU contribution

€ 3 833 291,75

Coordinated by

ALMA MATER STUDIORUM - UNIVERSITA DI BOLOGNA
Italy

Periodic Reporting for period 2 - LAST-JD-RIoE (Law, Science and Technology Joint Doctorate: Rights of the Internet of Everything)

Reporting period: 2021-04-01 to 2023-10-31

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

Introduction
“Law, Science and Technology: Rights of the Internet of Everything” aims to anticipate the new technological trends of IoE and to spotlight some of its challenging aspects with an interdisciplinary international EU wide programme, composed of 15 interdisciplinary 3-year doctoral research projects connected in a unique vision where different competences from different disciplines interact synergically and are combined in a holistic way. The projects are designed to enhance collaboration and interaction across these disciplines, to integrate non-academic partner organizations, and to develop interdisciplinary methodologies for building, studying and regulating IoE. It intends to create a generation of young researchers trained in the above topics. They end up with the knowledge and entrepreneurial capacity to create innovative companies or work in research, industry or public administration.

This is possible only if IoE technologies are viewed through the lens of the law, ethics, human rights, and in turn, that social humanist disciplines acquire genuine understanding of the relevant technological principles, languages, and methodologies. Otherwise, the risk is advancement in the state of the art in technology that is not matched by social needs causing discrimination, vulnerability, inequality, economic unbalancing in the “digital society”.

Main Objectives
The mission of RIoE is to define an international joint doctorate educational training model in Law, Science and Technology where Academia and Industry join forces to:
• create a common platform of knowledge and language for early stage researchers (ESR) working in Law, Science and Technology and specializing in IoE;
• establish structures for long-term cooperation, strengthening relationships among the leading universities, research institutes and enterprises and to continuously develop the research training platform that European industries rely on;
• avoiding the gap in Europe with respect to programs in USA/CN.

Specific impacts on the research community of RIoE
• to train 15 ESRs in a joint academic/industrial programme with a common training plan, cutting-edge training-by-research, high quality supervision, complementary and transferable skills training, etc.;
• to pursue an innovative research project that tackles a timely and important scientific problem with an interdisciplinary approach (Computer Science, Law and Ethics);
• to transfer expertise/know-how among the partners of the Consortium and with external groups via industrial internships, networking activities, intersectorial exposure, secondments, workshops, sharing of learning material, public engagement and outreach activities.

Doctorate projects are jointly supervised within a joint governance structure in which the beneficiaries as well as the partner organisations are actively involved. The doctorate programme exposes ESRs to different sectors and they acquire a comprehensive set of transferable skills.

Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far

Despite the COVID-19 lockdown that has affected the in-presence activities in Italy since March 2020 and also with alternate periods in 2021, we respected the original schedule of training switching to online lectures using TEAM platform and using MOODLE repository. The consortium delivered 1145.5 hours of courses divided as follows. UNIBO: 103 hours, UNITO: 72 hours, UAB: 45 hours, MRU: 132 hours, UL: 468.5 hours, KUL 60 hours, LUH 90 hours, UPM 70 hours, UNIVIE 105 hours. UNIBO offers four workshops: AI&Law, Legal Design, the LegalTech, Blockchain.

The fellows produced an elaborated abstract of their research, they produced also an extensive common database of the main bibliography (more than 1322 papers and classified https://www.mendeley.com/community/last-jd/) divided into main groups: big data, AI, blockchain/DLTs, ehealth, IoT, use-cases, theoretical issues, ethics topics, legal regulations.

The fellows started the first secondment then the COVID-19 lockdown forced the consortium to pass to “virtual secondment” which consists of attending the training activities, research meetings, supervision call remotely. All the fellows performed a significant internship inside of industries of the consortium during the IV, V, VI terms.

The fellows produced communication materials, available in social media, in the portal and in other platform for promoting their careers.

Output: scientific conferences (210), publications (145 papers, 56 in OpenAIR), 15 deliverables of the research activities.

The consortium managed 7 Board meetings, 3 of them with public events and invited speakers. Three annual conferences were organised and the Final Conference.

The fellows performed properly their training and mobility plan following the DoW.

The research and the scientific material are organized in 5 clusters:
1. Internet of Data;
2. Internet of Things;
3. Internet of Persons;
4. Internet of Healthcare;
5. Internet of Money.

Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)

Progress beyond the state of the art
RIoE is intersectorial through the secondments and training contributions of the Partner Organizations that shape the application of the research in practice. Training is delivered also by experts from a non-academic background, so that ESRs can experience methodologies, priorities, and practices from other sectors as well as different working environments, under the supervision of experts in specific fields. Real problems/needs allow the overcoming of knowledge gaps and the advancement in the understanding of open research problems. The advancement in the state of the art of research can be transferred to the private sector, which translates research results into technological and social innovation. Companies need qualified staff with specific skills to face problems arising from rapid technological development and RIoE is the first European PhD programme structured to train professionals in all relevant disciplines, pooling world-leading research groups in Computer Science, Law, Ethics, Security and Trust, Legal informatics, Natural Language Processing, Compliance, Law and Technology, etc.

Expected results until the end of the project
1. 13 advanced and interdisciplinary PhD thesis;
2. 15 deliverables about advanced overview of the interdisciplinary research. The best deliverables are now published as book;
3. High-level papers in the main international conferences with the aim to disseminate the findings of the fellows’ researches and in this manner to exploit their future careers;
4. Impact in the community where LAST-JD-RIoE brand is very well known (see the JURIX Doctoral Consortium 2019-2023).

Impact
RIoE contributes to further the understanding of the emerging issues related to the IoE paradigm to ensure that Europe remains innovative and competitive, maintains social equilibrium, respects individuals and their cultural as well as religious identities. RIoE guarantees that IoE is viewed through the different methodologies and disciplines like law, ethics, human rights, and in turn, that social humanist disciplines acquire a deep understanding of the relevant technological principles, languages, processes, and methodologies, contributing to ensuring that the advancement in the state of the art in technology is matched by social innovation.
We are shaping a great community in the legal informatics domain joining law, science, technology, and ethics disciplines ( >100 PhD stud., >50 profs., >10 Univ. in Europe,> 5 Univ. Extra-EU (AU, USA, CN)).

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