projects

current and past research projects and grants

Projects are grouped by grant period into current and past work.

Current Projects

Improving Social Media with Large Language Models (NWO VIDI)

  • Period: 2025-2030
  • Funding: €850,000
  • Role: PI
  • Focus: Designing and testing AI-based interventions for healthier online public discourse and prosocial outcomes on social media platforms.
  • PhD students:
    • Erfan Monazzah (2025-): Improving social media through AI (funded by VIDI).
    • Michelle Schimmel (2025-): Language models, social media, and affective polarization (funded by VIDI).
    • Daniele Barolo (2025-, advisory team): Large language models for social science research.

DemDialogueAI: A Cross-National Study to Promote Democratic Dialogue on Social Media Using Generative AI (Trans-Atlantic Platform)

  • Period: 2024-2027
  • Funding: €500,000
  • Role: Co-PI
  • Focus: Cross-national collaboration on generative social simulation and democratic dialogue interventions.
  • Core collaborators: Chris Bail (Duke), Chris Barrie (NYU), Aniko Hannak (UZH).

False Words, Failing Democracies? A Global Comparative Analysis of Institutional Vulnerability to Political Misinformation (Swedish Research Council, VR)

  • Period: 2026-2029
  • Funding: €472,000
  • Role: Co-PI
  • Focus: Global comparative analysis of misinformation in political communication and institutional vulnerability.
  • Core collaborators: Anton Törnberg, Juliana Chueri.

Past Projects

Seeing the City Through Digital Platforms (NWO VENI, VI.Veni.201S.006)

  • Period: 2021-2025
  • Funding: €250,000
  • Role: PI
  • Focus: How digital platforms transform cities, urban conflict, and platform-mediated spatial dynamics.

ODYCCEUS (EU Horizon 2020, Grant No. 732942)

  • Period: 2017-2021
  • Funding: €6,000,000 (project total)
  • Role: Co-authored two work packages; funded postdoctoral and PhD research trajectory.
  • Focus: Computational approaches to political conflict and social media dynamics.
  • PhD students:
    • Anna Keuchenius (2018-2025): Computational social science and collective meaning-making (funded by ODYCCEUS).
    • Livia van Vliet (2018-2023): Twitter politics across 26 countries (funded by ODYCCEUS).