A small strategic investment has yielded a major result: thanks to years of coordinated programme building, the AI team of EWUU alliance (Eindhoven University of Technology, Wageningen University & Research, Utrecht University and UMC Utrecht)  has secured €2.8 million in funding as part of the €6.8 million NWA-ORC grant for the DECIDE project – Democratizing AI, Empowering Citizens through Transparent Decision-Making.

Building the DECIDE consortium: EWUU’s role

The DECIDE project, led by Prof. Mieke Boon (University of Twente), brings together nearly fifty partners from academia, policy, technology, and society to develop a new generation of transparent, democratic AI systems that empower citizens in decision-making processes.

The EWUU alliance has played a pivotal role in shaping the consortium. Through the EWUU-AI programme, the alliance invested €12.5k in grant writing support and over a year of in-kind programme management, ensuring that the consortium was strategically aligned and well-prepared for the highly competitive NWA-ORC call. Crucially, EWUU’s pre-existing AI research lines and cross-institutional collaborations laid the groundwork for a convincing and credible proposal.

What DECIDE will do

AI increasingly influences decisions in healthcare, mobility, education, and public services—but often in opaque, “black box” ways. Top-down development and implementation of AI is principally driven by efficiency goals, commercial benefits and technical feasibility, often neglecting societal and ethical values which increases distrust of the citizens. DECIDE tackles this challenge by:

• Making AI decision-support systems more transparent, so citizens and professionals can understand and trust how decisions about them are made.
• Developing AI citizen-support systems – a new generation of AI tools that help citizens make informed decisions themselves, using transparent, explainable methods and open data.
• Engaging citizens, educators, SMEs, policymakers, and large tech firms in co-design processes to ensure AI is aligned with societal values and democratic principles.

How EWUU will be involved in implementation

Within DECIDE, the EWUU alliance leads several key work packages that draw on its combined strengths in AI, health, social sciences, and education. EWUU’s contribution (€2.8M) will fund five PhD researchers, one postdoc, dedicated programme staff, and outreach activities, embedding the alliance at the heart of the project’s scientific and societal impact.

The EWUU research team includes:

Fernando Paulovich, Isel Grau Garcia, Hendrik Baier Yinqian Zhang (TU/e), Guido Camps (WUR), Sanne Abeln, Wilson Santos Silva, Mehdi Dastani, Roxana Radulescu,  Albert Salah Rens van de Schoot (UU), and Carl Moons Maarten van Smeden, Anne de Hond (UMCU), who will work on explainable and trustworthy AI, citizen engagement in co-design, and the integration of AI into healthcare and prevention, mobility, and education contexts.

EWUU researchers from TU/e, WUR, UU, and UMCU will work on explainable and trustworthy AI, citizen engagement in co-design, and the integration of AI into healthcare and prevention, mobility, and education contexts. This ensures that the alliance not only shapes the science behind transparent AI, but also strengthens sustainable collaborations with societal and private partners.

Strategic value for EWUU

For the EWUU alliance, DECIDE is more than a project—it is a proof point that strategic programme building pays off. A modest seed investment has translated into multi-million euro funding, national visibility, and a strengthened alliance capacity for the next six years.

By embedding EWUU expertise across the consortium and securing long-term resources, DECIDE will enhance EWUU’s role as a driver of responsible, citizen-centered AI for health, society, and democracy.