Projects

Political parties, politicians, companies, and interest groups increasingly discuss how to achieve a net-zero carbon emissions future, but systematic evidence that tracks these political debates is still lacking. This project identifies the problems political actors raise and the solutions they offer regarding renewable energy, sustainability, and water treatment, and assesses how companies and interest groups aim to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Combining quantitative text analysis, human coding, and supervised machine learning, it maps environmental and sustainability policies and provides recommendations for policymakers. It is part of NexSys, an All Island SFI Strategic Partnership Programme on the transition to a net-zero carbon energy system.

Peer review plays an essential role in grant evaluation, helping assess the feasibility and quality of applications and providing a basis for funding decisions. This collaboration between University College Dublin and the Swiss National Science Foundation analyses anonymised grant review reports using human coding and machine learning. The project conceptualises characteristics of peer review reports, classifies a large corpus of reports, and investigates whether strategic initiatives and new evaluation procedures affect the content and structure of review reports.

The Democracy and AI project develops a framework to assess the democratic risks and opportunities of generative artificial intelligence, which is reshaping political communication and governance. Bringing together a multidisciplinary network from six Una Europa institutions across political science, communication studies, and computer science, it examines how AI affects democratic values, electoral integrity, and governance through research workshops, a seminar series, and a training programme, developing analytical tools to safeguard democratic resilience.

The Irish Polling Indicator (IPI) is Ireland’s leading polling aggregator, attracting over 40,000 views each year. It helps the public, journalists, and politicians interpret shifts in public opinion by focusing on long-term trends rather than individual polls, and its data are regularly used in television, radio, and print coverage, including during the 2024 general election. The IPI’s accessible website and open data have made it a key reference for anyone following Irish politics.

Stefan Couperus and Martijn Schoonvelde, both at the University of Groningen, and I investigate how and why politicians talk about football clubs in parliament. Football in Parliament kicks off with a dashboard (opens in new tab) covering 175 football clubs from England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland discussed in the House of Commons since 1920. Users can see which clubs dominate the debate, track change over time, and check which politicians and parties mention specific clubs most, down to the full text of each speech. We are now expanding the project into a research paper.