Periodic Reporting for period 2 - VIGILANT (Vital IntelliGence to Investigate ILlegAl DisiNformaTion)
Periodo di rendicontazione: 2024-05-01 al 2025-10-31
VIGILANT is a 3 year, €4 million Horizon Europe Innovation Action project with 17 partners and associated partners which will equip Police Authorities (PAs) with advanced technologies from academia to detect, analyse and disrupt disinformation linked to criminal activities. Using an ethical-by-design user-centric approach, the VIGILANT tool will be an integrated platform of advanced disinformation identification and analysis tools and technologies, employing state-of-the-art AI methods. The interdisciplinary consortium includes leading researchers and engineers from social science and humanities, computer science, independent non-profit research institutes specialising in relevant fields, commercial partners, police trainers, and four PAs. VIGILANT is an end-to-end system capable of ingesting content from the Internet, social media and from local sources. It includes data harvesters, state-of-the-art disinformation detection and analysis tools, and a customisable dashboard through which Police Officers (POs) and analysts can investigate and monitor disinformation linked to criminal activities and other forms of harmful content.
With a view to establishing a support network for Police Authorities, the VIGILANT project has also set up a Community of Early Adopters (CoEA) for PAs not in the consortium, who are interested in adopting the VIGILANT platform and availing of the disinformation training. The main goal of the project is to build a common European platform to help police combat this increasingly serious issue of disinformation in Europe.
With a view to establishing a support network for Police Authorities, the VIGILANT project has also set up a Community of Early Adopters (CoEA) for PAs not in the consortium, who are interested in adopting the VIGILANT platform and availing of the disinformation training. The main goal of the project is to build a common European platform to help police combat this increasingly serious issue of disinformation in Europe.
All project Key Objectives have been achieved.
Key Objective 1: Adapt state-of-the-art research tools and technologies for disinformation analysis and detection to the domain of crime-related disinformation. Tailor the tools to the needs of the PAs, allowing them to process more cases of disinformation
Key Objective 2: Exploit social-science-based tools to enable PAs to investigate disinformation campaigns and their actors. The tools will enable analyses of the impact of disinformation campaigns and will help in countering disinformation campaigns through inoculation actions
Key Objective 3: Develop a comprehensive data model and protocol for collection, storage and conveying of data, that will adhere to the relevant regulations, such as GDPR and the Law Enforcement Directive . This will keep VIGILANT transparent and lawful, especially in the eyes of the general public
Key Objective 4: Integrate the tools into an interactive and user-friendly VIGILANT platform allowing easy use by PAs by having all tools harmonised with each other. Through this, the effectiveness of PA disinformation-related crime investigations will be further enhanced
Key Objective 5: Ensure successful adoption of the VIGILANT platform by PAs within and beyond the consortium and create a specialist European network for PAs to share their experiences and knowledge
Key Objective 1: Adapt state-of-the-art research tools and technologies for disinformation analysis and detection to the domain of crime-related disinformation. Tailor the tools to the needs of the PAs, allowing them to process more cases of disinformation
Key Objective 2: Exploit social-science-based tools to enable PAs to investigate disinformation campaigns and their actors. The tools will enable analyses of the impact of disinformation campaigns and will help in countering disinformation campaigns through inoculation actions
Key Objective 3: Develop a comprehensive data model and protocol for collection, storage and conveying of data, that will adhere to the relevant regulations, such as GDPR and the Law Enforcement Directive . This will keep VIGILANT transparent and lawful, especially in the eyes of the general public
Key Objective 4: Integrate the tools into an interactive and user-friendly VIGILANT platform allowing easy use by PAs by having all tools harmonised with each other. Through this, the effectiveness of PA disinformation-related crime investigations will be further enhanced
Key Objective 5: Ensure successful adoption of the VIGILANT platform by PAs within and beyond the consortium and create a specialist European network for PAs to share their experiences and knowledge
Scientific Impact
Contribution to Knowledge: VIGILANT workshop and conference papers provide a knowledge contribution to the community of researchers working to combat disinformation. VIGILANT made a significant contribution to the academic community, being presented in at least 20 conferences and seminars across the world. In total, 26 academic papers were published or submitted as part of the project. Topics covered multilingual disinformation detection, synthetic content analysis, and ethical challenges in AI. VIGILANT researchers were also regular participants in CERIS (Community for European Research and Innovation for Security) events, helping to strengthen connections with other EU researchers and innovators.
Technical Impact
Advancements: Significant advancements in areas such as the generation of synthetic disinformation, the detection of deepfake images, and the development of multilingual disinformation analysis capabilities have resulted from the VIGILANT project.
Integration: A major challenge in the project and a significant scientific impact is the integration of the nearly 40 text, image/video and network analysis tools into a single platform. The project has adopted state-of-the-art techniques and technologies to achieve this. Where possible, the consortium aims to make this information available publicly, without revealing information classified as sensitive.
Reuse: As a result of the VIGILANT project focus on reusing existing technologies from partners previous projects, it has helped prevent many of them from being forgotten about and lost, which unfortunately happens all too often when staff and expertise move organisation. By identifying, collecting together, and integrating all of these individual pieces of technology, updating them where necessary and creating documentation and training material for them, the project has ensured their survival for the benefit of the research community.
Economic Impact
Infrastructure: The investment in infrastructure necessary to complete this project will also enable partners to develop solutions for other research projects, licencing and or industry collaboration. Future researchers in each partners team will be able to reuse methods and techniques developed in this project in their future work.
Widening participation in research across Europe: The VIGILANT consortium (16 Partners and 1 Associate Partner) is a balance of long established research institutes from countries with strong participation in Horizon Europe, and 9 partners from widening countries With over half the consortium from widening countries, the project is an exemplar of widening research participation in Horizon Europe.
Connecting Academia and Industry: Core to the success of VIGILANT has been the participation of industry and commercial partners. The connection established between the commercial and non-commercial partners and academia will result in future collaborations generating knowledge and exploitable results.
Societal Impact
Protecting Democratic Processes: The main societal impact from the VIGILANT project will be helping PAs to protect democratic processes, maintain or improve societal cohesion and uphold the rule of law in Europe.
Knowledge Building in PAs: The VIGILANT project will build technical capabilities and institutional knowledge within partner PAs and those attending CoEA events about how to deal with disinformation linked to criminal activities.
Knowledge Exchange: The project is proactively engaging with other Horizon Europe projects, government and European organisations and other stakeholders and experts to exchange knowledge and techniques to combat disinformation.
Building Awareness of Disinformation and Other Forms of Hybrid Threats: A key outcome of the project is the increased awareness of disinformation and other forms of hybrid threats to functioning government and cohesive society within the consortium, and without.
Contribution to Knowledge: VIGILANT workshop and conference papers provide a knowledge contribution to the community of researchers working to combat disinformation. VIGILANT made a significant contribution to the academic community, being presented in at least 20 conferences and seminars across the world. In total, 26 academic papers were published or submitted as part of the project. Topics covered multilingual disinformation detection, synthetic content analysis, and ethical challenges in AI. VIGILANT researchers were also regular participants in CERIS (Community for European Research and Innovation for Security) events, helping to strengthen connections with other EU researchers and innovators.
Technical Impact
Advancements: Significant advancements in areas such as the generation of synthetic disinformation, the detection of deepfake images, and the development of multilingual disinformation analysis capabilities have resulted from the VIGILANT project.
Integration: A major challenge in the project and a significant scientific impact is the integration of the nearly 40 text, image/video and network analysis tools into a single platform. The project has adopted state-of-the-art techniques and technologies to achieve this. Where possible, the consortium aims to make this information available publicly, without revealing information classified as sensitive.
Reuse: As a result of the VIGILANT project focus on reusing existing technologies from partners previous projects, it has helped prevent many of them from being forgotten about and lost, which unfortunately happens all too often when staff and expertise move organisation. By identifying, collecting together, and integrating all of these individual pieces of technology, updating them where necessary and creating documentation and training material for them, the project has ensured their survival for the benefit of the research community.
Economic Impact
Infrastructure: The investment in infrastructure necessary to complete this project will also enable partners to develop solutions for other research projects, licencing and or industry collaboration. Future researchers in each partners team will be able to reuse methods and techniques developed in this project in their future work.
Widening participation in research across Europe: The VIGILANT consortium (16 Partners and 1 Associate Partner) is a balance of long established research institutes from countries with strong participation in Horizon Europe, and 9 partners from widening countries With over half the consortium from widening countries, the project is an exemplar of widening research participation in Horizon Europe.
Connecting Academia and Industry: Core to the success of VIGILANT has been the participation of industry and commercial partners. The connection established between the commercial and non-commercial partners and academia will result in future collaborations generating knowledge and exploitable results.
Societal Impact
Protecting Democratic Processes: The main societal impact from the VIGILANT project will be helping PAs to protect democratic processes, maintain or improve societal cohesion and uphold the rule of law in Europe.
Knowledge Building in PAs: The VIGILANT project will build technical capabilities and institutional knowledge within partner PAs and those attending CoEA events about how to deal with disinformation linked to criminal activities.
Knowledge Exchange: The project is proactively engaging with other Horizon Europe projects, government and European organisations and other stakeholders and experts to exchange knowledge and techniques to combat disinformation.
Building Awareness of Disinformation and Other Forms of Hybrid Threats: A key outcome of the project is the increased awareness of disinformation and other forms of hybrid threats to functioning government and cohesive society within the consortium, and without.