This International Women’s Day, ADAPT would like to celebrate and highlight the importance of inspiring inclusivity as well as highlight the success of our teams. To start this week of celebration off, we would like to highlight one such team that makes up the diverse community of ADAPT: The VIGILANT project. This project is an interdisciplinary effort by a consortium of leading researchers and experts to help Police Authorities counter disinformation linked to criminal activities. Collaborating on the project are Prof. Owen Conlan (Project Coordinator), Dr. Brendan Spillane (Project Executive Officer), Eva Power (Project Manager), Carolina Scarton (Scientific Lead), Dominka Hajdu (Client Lead).
Using an ethical-by-design approach, VIGILANT aims to equip the Police Authorities with cutting edge monitoring and investigation tools, technology, and knowledge to make their fight against criminal online content easier and more effective. The project aims to provide a platform, deliver training and create a network to assist Police Authorities in the detection and analysis of disinformation linked to these criminal activities:
Platform:
VIGILANT is an end-to-end solution built around a disinformation toolbox comprising over thirty cutting-edge tools aimed at aiding police authorities in combating disinformation. VIGILANT will include advanced tools from FP7 and H2020 projects for text analysis, adapted and customised for police authorities to address disinformation related to criminal activities.
Training:
The VIGILANT project provides thorough training to its police partners on the use of the platform and its tools. It will also train them about coordinated disinformation campaigns and how to spot their intended effect. By understanding why individuals share and believe disinformation about crimes, police can better counter its harmful effects.
Network:
The project seeks to establish a sustainable peer-to-peer support network for European police officers, enabling them to share experience and knowledge even after the project concludes. Often, disinformation and other harmful content related to criminal activities found in one jurisdiction are reused by criminal networks in others. By creating a network of police officers and units, it will facilitate knowledge sharing and coordinated responses to campaigns and criminal activities.
In terms of output, the VIGILANT Project is composed of eight work packages and twenty-eight deliverables in total. Given the security of the project, certain deliverables are classified as sensitive and are not accessible to the public. For more information on the available work packages, please visit their website linked here.
VIGILANT is supported by the remarkable contributions of the women on the team. Speaking on the project, VIGILANT Project Manager Eva Power said:
“Seeing how disinformation is increasing throughout Europe, it is incredibly interesting to be part of a team with such investment in creating a tool to help Police Authorities in Europe combat disinformation.”
VIGILANT Client Lead, Dominka Hajdu shared her insights into the project also:
“The VIGILANT project stands out for me for uniting a truly diverse group of women and men who represent top experts in their respective fields from research institutes, think tanks, SMEs, and police authorities. As I am responsible for nurturing and expanding the so-called community of early adopters—a coalition of law enforcement authorities collaborating on the project—and spearheading the entire communication and dissemination effort, I get to engage with most of the consortium partners. I can say that the variety of expertise and perspectives is truly enriching, making every collaboration effort a source of new insights for everyone involved.”
The VIGILANT project is funded by the European Research Executive Agency under the Horizon Europe scheme. To learn more about the project, access their website here: https://www.vigilantproject.eu/
