At a turbulent time in global and European politics, can new technologies help to better support our democracy?

At this one day event we will be discussing with parliamentarians, policy makers, academics and civil society how digital tools and technologies might help us better understand, engage and build the trust of the public when considering the policies that affect their lives.

The partners of the EU-funded Sense4us project - who are working on a new information discovery toolbox to support the development and scrutiny of policy and legislation - are convening this conference to explore the major challenges currently facing decision-makers, and how digital tools might offer innovative solutions.

Register here free

The event will explore the following questions:

• What factors matter most in terms of building trust in the policy-making process? This is a particularly pertinent question at the moment as EU institutions grapple with how best to effectively identify and respond to citizen concerns in light of Brexit.
• Can developments in big, open and linked data (BOLD) improve policy-making, for example in relation to policy modelling and simulation, and what are the challenges in a democratic context?
• Can new models of co-creation help build trust in the policy and legislative process through participatory design?
• Do new developments and innovations in the technology field mean we are on the verge of a new era of ‘anticipatory governance’?

Speakers will include:

• Kaja Kallas, MEP, Estonia
• Cat Drew, Uscreates, former Policy Lab UK, Cabinet Office
• Miriam Fernandez, Research Fellow, Knowledge Management Institute, Open University
• Dr Ruth Fox, Director, Hansard Society
• Steven Ginnis, Head of Digital Research at the Social Research Institute, Ipsos Mori
• Andrea Halmos, Policy Officer, European Commission, DG CONNECT, eGovernment and Trust
• Somya Joshi, Director of Research, E-Gov Lab, University of Stockholm
• Stefan Klauser, Project Leader "Digital Society", Computational Social Science, COSS
• Alex Krasodomski-Jones, Researcher, Centre for the Analysis of Social Media (CASM), DEMOS
• Vasilis Koulolias, Director, Acting Head of Open Data Innovation, E-Gov Lab, University of Stockholm
• Dr Aron Larsson, Researcher, E-Gov Lab, University of Stockholm
• Frank Leyman, Manager of International Relations, FEDICT
• Francisco García Morán, Chief IT Advisor, European Commission
• Michaels Psalidas, Managing Director, Crowdpolicy
• Paul Walland, IT Innovation, Southampton University and Project Co-ordinator, Sense4us Project
• Professor Maria Wimmer, Institute for Information Systems Research, University of Koblenz

Parliamentarians, policy makers, academics and civil society