€1.8 million to sustain 14 public interest organisations redirecting AI to serve people, society & planet – European Artificial Intelligence & Society Fund

Now more than ever, the public interest field needs sustained, flexible funding to respond to the AI challenges facing people, society and planet. That’s why the European AI Society Fund has dedicated €1.8 million to renewed funding for 14 organisations in our community for a further two years.

Working across seven countries as well as at European level, these groups draw on diverse skills and expertise around technology and social justice. They will work to see legal safeguards for people and society upheld and implemented, expose where AI is causing harm and push for accountability and justice.

Against a push to rollback hard-won protections, our grantees will be fighting to keep safeguards in the European AI Act and other laws and to see these effectively adopted in countries around Europe, putting the needs of the people most affected by AI at the forefront of the debate. And they will stand up to powerful interests – from governments that implement AI systems that infringe people’s rights, to Big Tech’s untrammelled build out of data centres.

“The European AI & Society Fund grant is core to supporting our work in the EU to shape law and policy for the benefit of people and society. It's structured to maintain our independence and lets us work in a flexible and trusted way to rapidly respond to changing EU agendas. The community, training and cross-ecosystem learning opportunities that supplement grantees are carefully designed to really let us do more.”
Ada Lovelace Institute

Since 2020, the European AI & Society Fund has nurtured a strong community of public interest organisations with a range of expertise on technology and social justice that can shape the agenda on AI. Over the past five years, our funding has allowed us to support more than 60 organisations across 27 countries, with both social justice and digital rights expertise.

Our Build Initiative is dedicated to building core capacity for a diverse and resilient civil society ecosystem across Europe. Through this we have supported public interest organisations to grow their expertise, engage with policy and regulation at critical moments, and carry out long-term investigations into AI harms.

They have significantly strengthened accountability and people’s rights in recently adopted European AI regulation, advocated for improved conditions for gig workers and AI accessibility for people with disabilities.

Long-term, flexible funding is essential to make sure there is sustained capacity within civil society to be a strong voice for the public in AI policy. It also ensures coalitions and collaboration can flourish – collective power is more important than ever if we are to wrest back control over our technological futures. That’s why we have renewed 14 Build grants.

''Support from the Fund has made a substantial impact on Algorithm Audit as a small, growing organisation. The Build grant enabled us to hire additional full-time employees, consolidating our expertise and expanding our capacity to pursue multiple projects simultaneously. This growth in team size has been essential for achieving greater visibility at the European level and taking on more ambitious initiatives such as leading the Dutch Technical Agreement standardisation process.''
Algorithm Audit

We are pleased to continue this initiative, and leverage the skills and expertise built-up by our community. Funding renewals were awarded based on an assessment of proposals from 24 grantees, from which 14 were selected for renewal. Eight of these grantees are eligible to receive unrestricted funding. We are ending our support for 10 of our previous grantees and would like to thank them for their enormous contribution to our community and our mission. We aim to continue to integrate our alumni network in our ongoing fieldbuilding activities.

The organisations awarded renewed Build grants are:

Ada Lovelace Institute, €80.000, Brussels/Europe

With the passing of the AI Act, Ada Lovelace Institute is now focused on engaging EU institutions in Brussels on its implementation. They will work with the AI office to make people’s concerns and proposals heard. The Institute will also focus on how the proposed European Commission’s AI and Digital Omnibus processes and Digital Fitness Check will impact Europe and the UK. And they’ll study how the Digital Fairness Act could manage problematic AI chatbots.

Algorithm audit, €179.400, The netherlands/Europe

Algorithm Audit will develop and test a practical evaluation framework for Large Language Models (LLMs) and chatbots that interface between governmental bodies and citizens. They will form an independent advisory commission to explore the normative questions that could arise when a chatbot is supplying information to the public.

Their methodology adopts a sociotechnical lens – assessing technical robustness, RAG architectures (which allows LLMs like Chat GPT to retrieve new external data to answer a query) and evaluation frameworks – alongside the social implications for democratic values and inclusivity.

The Algorithm Audit team will also expand its long-standing work on algorithmic non-discrimination through workshops, training, and case studies, translating value-based principles into practice for both publicly and privately used AI systems.

Anec – the european consumer voice in standardisation, €118.800, Europe

With this renewed Build grant from the European AI & Society Fund, ANEC will strengthen how it shapes trustworthy and consumer-centred AI standards through a focused programme of activities. ANEC will engage AI technologists to participate and comment on AI standards and provide expert input, comments, and recommendations to ANEC’s Digital Society Working Group and the AI Taskforce.

The recently established ANEC AI Taskforce will coordinate positions, exchange expertise and prepare contributions to AI standardisation work. ANEC will also continue to actively represent consumers’ voices in the JTC 21 plenary meetings. These actions will reinforce ANEC’s advocacy in building a transparent and inclusive AI standardisation framework.

ANEC will continue contributing to wider civil society mobilisation and knowledge on AI standardisation by providing accessible insights.

centre for democracy and technology europe (CDT europe), €120.000, europe

This new Build grant will support CDT Europe’s follow-up advocacy and analyses based on their effective remedies research, responding to political developments such as the push towards deregulation. In addition to their work on monitoring the AI Act implementation, CDT Europe will explore how new laws, such as the Digital Fairness Act, can address gaps in existing EU legislation on AI-related harms. They will produce briefs and advocacy documents outlining unaddressed harms and potential solutions.

In parallel, CDT Europe will continue to promote civil society participation in the AI Act’s implementation and enforcement by channelling expertise to key EU stakeholders through official and informal mechanisms and continue convening stakeholders. CDT Europe will leverage their transatlantic network to facilitate knowledge-exchange. These sessions will help public interest partners develop collective strategies to counter geopolitical shifts that threaten rights-based AI regulation, and they will produce outcome reports with recommendations from each.

civio, €77.000, spain

With a further Build grant from the European AI & Society Fund, Civio will continue working to ensure accountability and transparency in AI systems deployed across Spain’s public administration. Through investigative journalism, Civio will expose how algorithmic decisions impact citizens’ fundamental rights—from biased healthcare diagnostics to discriminatory risk assessment tools—translating complex technical issues into accessible stories that reach broad audiences through collaboration with major media outlets. All their learnings and methodologies will be documented and shared openly to strengthen the wider accountability ecosystem.

Civio will also pursue strategic litigation to establish legal precedents for algorithmic transparency, building on their BOSCO case Supreme Court victory. By applying its principles to new cases, Civio will challenge the misuse of intellectual property and security arguments to conceal public algorithms.

Finally, Civio will advocate for concrete policy reforms, like a national algorithmic register – both through direct engagement with decision-makers and through coalition-building via the Spanish AI network, IA Ciudadana.

european digital rights (EDRi), €120.000, brussels/europe

With the European AI & Society Fund’s support, EDRi will advance its ongoing work to put rights and justice at the heart of AI laws and policies. They aim to contest the unchecked growth of AI systems, and – where AI uses are genuinely necessary and proportionate – to ensure governance structures put people, planet and democracy first.

The grant will enable EDRi to carry out advocacy activities through their civil society AI coordination group: monitoring the enforcement of the AI Act in EU Member States and contesting over-reach; and using complaints, strategic litigation and other mechanisms to redress harm and push for stronger protections.

EDRi will also expand their work to contest AI harms beyond the AI Act: raising awareness about the environmental consequences of AI hype and techno-solutionism; producing evidence and positions on the intersection of AI and environmental justice; developing a more comprehensive critique of generative AI; and continuing to co-lead the Protect Not Surveil coalition to challenge the nexus of AI and securitisation, and the roll-out of experimental AI systems against minoritised communities.

european disability forum, €160.000, Brussels/europe

With this grant, the European Disability Forum will run a two-year programme to advance disability-inclusive AI in Europe. It will help national disability organisations take part in putting the AI Act into practice, including by updating its AI toolkit with guidance on enforcement and complaints.

It will influence future AI policies and guidelines at EU and national level so they protect accessibility and non-discrimination, and it will monitor the EU’s possible ratification of the Council of Europe’s AI convention.

It will also carry out research on how AI affects women, racialised people and young people with disabilities, and create a youth-friendly AI literacy toolkit with young people with disabilities.

european network against racism (ENAR), €160.000, Europe

With the support of the European AI & Society Fund, ENAR will continue mainstreaming racial justice in digital rights policies by ensuring the meaningful participation of racialised communities in the ecosystem and promoting counternarratives to technosolutionism.

ENAR will continue strengthening their members’ capacity to shift debates into political demands grounded in justice, transparency and accountability. Their work combines evidence-based advocacy, movement and capacity building, as well as knowledge production to address the impact of technologies on racialised people.

european sex workers’ rights alliance (ESWA), €120.000, europe

Over 2026–2027, ESWA will strengthen its digital rights and AI policy work to ensure sex workers’ voices shape the future of technology in Europe. As the only sex worker-led network working in this field, ESWA will monitor and influence the implementation of the EU AI Act and Digital Services Act, ensuring accountability from platforms and policymakers. Their activities include research on how sex workers use AI, advocacy for safer digital spaces, and training members to protect their rights online. ESWA will continue to challenge discrimination and exclusion in AI systems, making sure those most marginalised in digital spaces are not left behind.

foxglove, €160.000, UK/germany/ireland/ france/ belgium

This European AI & Society Fund grant supports Foxglove’s work challenging Big Tech’s unchecked power across Europe. Building on their work in 2025, Foxglove will expose and challenge the environmental toll of AI and data centres, including their energy and water use. They’ll support newsrooms to challenge Google’s AI Overviews which scrape content without consent.

Foxglove will also encourage competition regulators to stop Big Tech dominating the development of Generative AI. And they will challenge governments embedding AI in public services without safeguards.

They’ll continue to fight with tech workers for justice, including supporting 900+ Amazon workers in a major union-busting legal challenge and supporting social media content moderators to fight for fairer conditions.

Gesellschaft für Freiheitsrechte (GFF), €105.000, germany/europe

Based in Germany, the Gesellschaft für Freiheitsrechte e.V. (GFF) promotes democracy and civil society, protects individuals from disproportionate surveillance, and advocates for equal rights and social participation for all.

GFF has established its Center for User Rights to strengthen the accountability of Big Tech companies under European regulations such as the Digital Services Act (DSA), the Digital Markets Act (DMA), and the AI Act. The Center supports the wider civil society ecosystem in effectively using legal tools to translate research findings into concrete action and to respond to incidents such as the deplatforming of organisations. With this European AI & Society Fund grant, the Center aims to continue this work and expand its activities to cover AI transparency and accountability.

homo digitalis, €118.500, greece/europe

With this Build grant from the European AI & Society Fund, Homo Digitalis will launch a new project to promote accountability and protect fundamental rights as the EU AI Act takes effect. Focusing on Greece —a long-standing testing ground for border and policing technologies— the project aims to expose and challenge intrusive AI systems that enable surveillance, discrimination, and rights violations.

Homo Digitalis will create Greece’s first public registry of AI systems used by national authorities and EU agencies; publish a comprehensive research report on risks, practices, and compliance gaps; and coordinate a coalition of grassroots movements, civil society organisations, and academics to push for transparency, policy reform, and rights-respecting technology governance in border management and policing.

irish council for civil liberties enforce, €200.00, ireland/europe

Enforce is a unit of the Irish Council for Civil Liberties (ICCL). Many Big Tech companies are based in Ireland, which gives ICCL a unique opportunity to monitor human rights on large digital platforms with an international focus. Enforce is ICCL’s response to the global challenge to enforce digital rights. Their mission to protect human rights also helps protect journalistic media, curb online hate and hysteria, and protect democracy.

ICCL Enforce will use its technical and policy expertise to implement and enforce the regulation of AI systems. To ensure that the national law enables the AI Act, fundamental rights authorities and AI regulators to work together, ICCL Enforce will advocate for information exchange. ICCL Enforce will also work with AI regulators and fundamental rights bodies to set the tone for the enforcement regime of the EU AI Act. In addition, ICCL Enforce will investigate the procurement and use of AI systems by Irish public bodies.

the good lobby italy, €111.708, italy/europe

The Good Lobby initiative aims to strengthen digital human rights advocacy and promote responsible AI governance in Italy, placing these issues at the heart of the political debate ahead of the 2027 elections.

With this Build grant from the European AI & Society Fund, The Good Lobby will continue coordinating the Italian Digital Human Rights Network, fostering constructive dialogue with institutions, policymakers, and civil society to shape fair, transparent, and accountable digital and AI policies. They will produce evidence-based recommendations through a comprehensive report on Italy’s evolving AI regulatory framework, assessing its alignment with the GDPR and the EU AI Act.

Leveraging their long-standing expertise on conflicts of interest, The Good Lobby will focus on investigating opaque relationships between Big Tech and the Italian government. Across their efforts on digital rights and the environmental footprint of AI, The Good Lobby will actively engage trade unions and youth movements to ensure inclusive participation in shaping Italy’s equitable digital future.