Report: Closing the expertise gap – How to strengthen civil society’s skills to shape Europe’s tech future

Civil society plays a critical role in making sure technologies are built and used in ways that promote thriving democratic societies. But they need support developing their tech skills to do so.

Indeed Europe’s freshly passed tech regulations are founded on the assumption that civil society will be an investigator and watchdog, scrutinising products and gathering evidence to hold those that build and deploy digital technologies like AI accountable.

Recent civil society research into nudified images of women and children on Grok AI, and gender bias in Facebook job advertising, has led regulators to act, demonstrating how effective civil society can be in practice. But too few organisations have the skills and capacity to take on this work.

Groups need expertise and capacity to understand, interrogate and challenge the technologies that affect the communities they represent. Which is why the European AI & Society Fund and Civitates – two philanthropic initiatives that together fund over 80 organisations working on technology in Europe – conducted this research to identify what it would take to properly equip civil society to play this role.

The report recommends:
1. The European Union should provide accessible, flexible and long-term funding through the forthcoming Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF) and redistribute Digital Services Act (DSA) fees and fines so that civil society has the technical capacity to support effective accountability through European legislation. National governments should also make public funds available.

2. Philanthropy should replicate successful initiatives in the US by targeting resources to fund multi-disciplinary coalitions in Europe, bringing technologists and civil society together.

3. Civil society organisations should leverage existing resources from their funders to acquire tech skills and build organisational practices that can help technologists to thrive.

4. Technologists can use their skills to support public interest organisations and join values-driven coalitions working to shape the policy field.

Read and download the full report below: