Searching for consortium — HORIZON-CL2-2026-01-DEMOCRACY-04: Sustainable Paths to Media Viability

The HORIZON-CL2-2026-01-DEMOCRACY-04 call addresses one of the most pressing questions facing European democracies: how to secure the long-term viability of independent, quality journalism in a rapidly changing economic, technological, and regulatory environment. Declining advertising revenues, platform dependency, AI-driven disinformation, and foreign information manipulation are reshaping the conditions under which media organisations operate, while the European Media Freedom Act, the AI Act, and the European Democracy Action Plan redefine the framework within which sustainable solutions must be developed.

STEMwise is an official spinoff of the University of Zagreb's Faculty of Mechanical Engineering and Naval Architecture, working at the intersection of explainable AI and EU research exploitation. Our flagship platform, eSARP, is an explainable AI decision-intelligence system at TRL 7, with a domain-transferable architecture. Within a consortium addressing this call, we can contribute trustworthy AI components relevant to editorial decision-support, audience analytics, and the detection of information manipulation, complemented by established capability in communication, dissemination, and exploitation developed through eight R&I projects across nineteen countries.

We are open to participating as a partner or co-leading work packages related to trustworthy AI, exploitation, and dissemination. Coordinators preparing a proposal for this call are welcome to contact us - info@stemwise.eu