New CIVICA Research Hubs to Tackle Europe’s Challenges

The CIVICA alliance, of which Bocconi is a founding member, has launched a new flagship initiative strengthening long-term, interdisciplinary research collaboration with the announcement of the winners of the first call to create four Research Hubs. And Bocconi faculty will be involved in two of the projects.

The Hubs will bring together researchers to tackle major societal, political and economic challenges facing Europe and the world and are conceived as durable platforms for cooperation. They will go beyond individual projects by fostering interdisciplinary research networks and shared data and infrastructure for high quality research that is also collaborative, policy-relevant and internationally connected.

Laurent Manderieux, Claudio Dordi and Viktoriia Lapa will be involved in the DigiAfrica (Infrastructure, Critical Minerals, and Transnational Governance in Africa’s Digital Transition) Research Hub. This interdisciplinary research network will examine the political economy of Africa’s digital transformation, focusing on digital infrastructure, critical minerals, and governance frameworks. It aims to generate evidence and collaboration through workshops, a webinar series, and a joint Horizon Europe proposal, centering African agency in shaping digital partnerships.

Nicolò Cavalli will be involved in the SEPO (Scaling the European Polarisation Observatory for the study of social platforms and AI) Research Hub. This project aims to expand the European Polarisation Observatory from its current role as a growing data infrastructure into a durable research network and sustainable platform for collecting, processing and sharing social media and public opinion data. It seeks to support researchers and students within and beyond CIVICA by strengthening long-term data access and advancing the study of online social ecosystems across all of CIVICA’s thematic areas.

With the selection process complete, the four hubs will now move into their implementation phase, launching research activities, events and collaboration structures. Over the coming months, teams will begin building their networks and organising workshops and seminars.