EC² - Redefining Urban Governance through AI & Computational Modelling

European City Squared is a large-scale research project investigating how advanced technologies can help improve democratic decision-making. By combining methods from computational social science, artificial intelligence, and quantum theory, the project seeks to understand how collective decisions are made and how alternative voting systems might better serve the public good.

At the heart of the project is a simulation platform that uses real and synthetic data to model how people make collective decisions. This tool helps researchers test new forms of voting, such as Quadratic Voting, and assess how they might reduce polarisation, build trust, and improve how public resources are shared. The models combine insights from quantum theory, cognitive science, and artificial intelligence to better reflect how real-world democratic processes work. Funded by Horizon Europe, EC² brings together researchers, policymakers, and civic actors from across Europe. Pilot studies will take place in collaboration with several cities, including Aarhus and Barcelona.

European City Squared aims not only to advance academic understanding of democracy but to deliver practical tools and insights that can support democratic innovation across Europe. If successful, the research will offer significant contributions to the fields of political science, computational modeling, and social choice theory, with the potential to bring unprecedented efficiency gains for European democracies.

Official website: https://eurocity2.eu/

Role of Center for Humanities Computing  

CHC is the Project Coordinator of EC² aswell as lead of work packages 4 and 5, ensuring the project’s scientific excellence and robust digital infrastructure.

CHC is responsible for:

• designing agent-based simulations, and
• developing culturally sensitive language technology for EC² to increase the complexity, explainability and realism of the simulations.
• cloud infrastructure.
• data management services.