A large, interdisciplinary consortium, including Associate professor Vivian H.H. Chen from the Erasmus School of History, Culture & Communication (ESHCC), has been awarded €6.8 million to the project DECIDE: Democratising AI, Empowering Citizens through Transparent Decision Making, which focuses on the democratisation of artificial intelligence (AI). The grant has been allocated through the NWA ORC programme of the National Science Agenda, which supports research driven by societal challenges.
AI is playing an increasingly prominent role in decision-making processes - across healthcare, mobility, public services, and local governance. However, citizens often do not understand how these systems work or what criteria are used in their decision-making. DECIDE aims to fundamentally change this.
Substantive Collaboration as a Foundation
DECIDE revolves around four themes, known as Citizen Empowerment Scenarios. These include shared decision-making in healthcare, sustainable mobility, local democracy, and lifestyle. In each scenario, AI applications are co-developed with citizens to ensure the systems reflect their values and daily practices.
Researchers from diverse fields - including psychology, computer science, law, and philosophy - combine their expertise. The project is structured as a matrix: thematic work packages such as ethics, education, and regulation are directly linked to the practical scenarios. This enables interdisciplinary collaboration and fosters context-driven knowledge development.
The Erasmus Contribution: Citizen engagement in social issues through transparent AI
Dr. Chen will co-lead a sub-project on citizen’s engagement and decision making in managing social issues together with prof. dr. Arul Chib. Citizen participation is important for societal development and cohesion. The project focuses on the process and outcomes of responsible development of transparent AI-tools to support citizens in their decision-making, following transparency by design framework. It takes a bottom-up approach to understand obstacles and challenges citizens face when making complex decisions on social issues that concern them, and investigate how citizen engagement can be promoted through AI Systems. The aim is to encourage citizens to actively make responsible decisions by co-designing and locating accurate information with AI systems, as well as o enhance the optimal level of knowledge, skill and trust of citizens to utilize inclusive AI systems for approaching social issues.  
Linking research to societal impact
The grant was awarded through the programme ‘Research along Routes by Consortia’ (NWA-ORC) of the Dutch National Science Agenda. The Erasmus led sub-project addresses urgent societal challenges such as the growing distrust in AI systems, unequal access to reliable information, and the risk of exclusion in complex transitions like the shift to renewable energy. These challenges mirror NWA‑ORC’s focus on developing long-term, interdisciplinary solutions to complex social issues. It exemplifies the NWA-ORC vision of bridging science and practice. Collaborating with citizens, municipal councils, NGOs, and technical experts in the co-design of transparent AI systems, the realistic impact of the project is a future where citizens make better‑informed decisions, vulnerable groups are less likely to be left behind in transitions such as clean‑energy adoption, and municipalities can demonstrate accountability with AI‑enabled transparency at every step.
About the Consortium
The DECIDE consortium consists of nearly fifty partners from academia, policy, technology, and practice. Participants include almost all Dutch universities, several universities of applied sciences, university medical centres, municipalities, societal organisations, knowledge institutes, and companies. This broad collaboration enables the development of AI in an inclusive, democratic, and practice-oriented manner.
Consortium partners
Adwise – Your Digital Brain, Blockverse – Diverse Talent-Future Ready, DutchVR - Software voor VR en AR, ECNL – Europees Centrum voor Non-Profitrecht, Erasmus Universiteit Rotterdam, Forvis Mazars – Auditing, accountancy, tax en consulting., Go FAIR Foundation – Certificering Internet of FAIR Data & Services, Hogeschool van Amsterdam, Human Factors NL, ImproVive – Virtual reality en AI-oplossingen, Jheronimus Academie voor Datawetenschap, Kennisplatform AI in de GGZ, Nederlands Instituut van Psychologen, Nederlandse Vereniging voor Raadsleden, Radboud Universiteit Nijmegen, Rijksuniversiteit Groningen, ROC Amsterdam, ROC Twente, Saxion Hogeschool, SmartwayZ.nl, Stichting Tetem Kunstruimte, Stichting Voedingscentrum Nederland (Nederlands Voedingscentrum), Tairis Medical, Technische Universiteit Delft, Technische Universiteit Eindhoven, The Hyve, Universitair Medisch Centrum Utrecht, Universiteit Twente, Universiteit Utrecht, Universiteit van Amsterdam, (Venturespring) Simpaticom – Adviesgemeenten en instituten over ontwikkelingen op het gebied van de slimme samenleving, Verdify – Personaliseer voedingskeuzes, Waag | technologie & samenleving, Wageningen University & Research
- Researcher
- Researcher
- More information
For more information, please contact Julia Wetsteijn, press officer at ESHCC via wetsteijn@eshcc.eur.nl.
