Research Projects

Developing a Web Based Learning Environment for Supporting Students’ Argumentation Skills and Reducing Prejudice

Coordinating Institution: OUC

UCLan Cyprus Team: Kalypso Iordanou (Co-PI), Athina Manoli, Panayiota Christodoulou

2022-2024

Funding Agency: Excellence Hubs-Research and Innovation Foundation

Project Summary:
The Are-Pred project has secured funding under the Restart 2016-2020 programme of the Research and Innovation Foundation of the Republic of Cyprus. The project aims to develop a research-based curriculum and a Web-Based Learning Environment for supporting middle-school students to develop their argumentation skills and reduce ethnic prejudice. The objectives of the project include examination of engagement in dialogic argumentative and reflective activities to support the development of students’ argumentation skills on controversial social issues. Additionally, the project will focus on how these skills can reduce myside bias and ethnic prejudice as well as emotional change on controversial social issues.

Developing Scientific Research with Ethics and Integrity

Coordinating Institution: Trilateral Research IE

UCLan Cyprus Team: Kalypso Iordanou (Leading UCLan Cyprus Team), Josephina Antoniou, Antonis Antoniou, Phivos Phylactou

2022-2024

Funding Agency: European Commission (Horizon-Europe)

Project Summary

Different “machines of trust” in science have been identified in the literature: research ethics, research integrity, science communication, benefit sharing and technology assessment. Previous EU funded projects have focused on particular actors of the trust in science ecosystem (e.g. scientists, research funding organisations, research ethics committees) to explore the impact of particular “machines” (e.g. science communication, research ethics). VERITY goes beyond the state of the art by conceptualising “stewards of trust” as the actors of the ecosystem that are responsible for upholding societal trust in science and facilitating science-society co-creation, either this refers to formally responsible organisations like research funding organisations and higher education institutions, or it refers to de facto responsible organisations like social media companies and video streaming platforms which influence societal perceptions of science and innovation. VERITY combines multidisciplinary expertise, both from the social sciences and engineering, to synthesise existing knowledge to evaluate tools and methods for enhancing trust in science through original research and small-scale participatory activities, before producing the VERITY Protocol of Recommendations for “stewards of trust”. VERITY brings forward interdisciplinary expertise to perform network analysis and execute interventions on social media, to validate the VERITY Protocol and alleviate practical barriers for its uptake in practice by different stakeholders. VERITY findings will be widely disseminated to different “stewards of trust”, such as policymakers, research funding and performing organisations, higher education institutions and other research and innovation actors, to enhance societal trust in science and facilitate science­ society co-creation.

Project webpage: www.verityproject.eu

Beyond Bad Apples: Towards a Behavioral and Evidence-Based Approach to Promote Research Ethics and Research Integrity in Europe

Coordinating Institution: Universitetet I Oslo

UCLan Cyprus Team: Kalypso Iordanou (Leading UCLan Cyprus Team), Josephina Antoniou

2023-2026

Funding Agency: European Commission (Horizon-Europe)

Project Summary

Ethics and integrity are key dimensions of excellence in research and crucial for public trust in science. BEYOND will reinforce efforts to promote adherence to the highest standards of research ethics and integrity (RE/RI) and prevent research misconduct (RM) by developing and disseminating regulatory and educational interventions that elucidate institutional and individual responsibilities for ensuring and fostering research environments conducive to ethical research. To that end, BEYOND will adopt a complex ecosystemic perspective on research ethics and integrity that recognizes the multiple responsibilities of researchers and other stakeholders to enrich the overly simplistic Bad Apples approach that underpins most existing measures to prevent research misconduct. BEYOND will EXPLORE the existing literature on behavioural ethics and moral psychology as well as the socio-economic consequences of research misconduct and ENGAGE all involved stakeholders in a public consultation. To GUIDE and EQUIP all stakeholders in the research ecosystem, BEYOND will utilize this knowledge to develop 1) psychologically informed contextual interventions to promote RE/RI and prevent RM from the perspective of individual and institutional responsibilities, 2) methodologies to measure the short-, medium- and long-term impact of RE/RI trainings on attitudes and behaviours of students and researchers, 3) a best practice manual and guidelines to supplement standard operating procedures from a complex research ecosystemic perspective as well as a 2030 roadmap towards improving the RE/RI culture and 4) new training materials and tools to supplement existing educational efforts. BEYOND will mobilize all stakeholders via the three thematic networks involved in the consortium (ENRIO, EUREC, The Guild) and the stakeholder advisory board to ensure widespread dissemination of results and facilitate their institutional uptake and embedding.

Social Media Narratives: Addressing Extremism in Middle Age

Coordinating Institution: University of Copenhagen

UCLan Cyprus Team: Kalypso Iordanou (Leading UCLan Cyprus Team), Vasiliki Christodoulou

2023-2026

Funding Agency: European Commission (Horizon-Europe)

Project Summary

Conspiracy theories, misinformation and extremism online is a growing concern to governments. Extreme political narratives have been rising across Europe and these narratives influence mainstream political discourses and policies. This is having a direct impact on perceptions of democratic institutions, trust in science, and leads to calls for direct action (Jan 6th incursion in USA) to overthrow or disrupt democratically elected governments. Those in middle age (45-65) may be both susceptible to extremist narratives and also influential as decision-makers. This group is under-researched, but the impact of them being drawn into extremist content may have significant consequences on political discourse, democratic processes and institutions. SMIDGE will analyse the various forms of extremist discourses and narratives across Europe through social network analysis, textual and content analysis of extremist discourse, and will consider national and demographic specifics through survey, focus groups and interviews in 6 countries (UK, Italy, Belgium, Denmark, Kosovo, Cyprus). From this in-depth examination of the current state of the art, SMIDGE will produce counter-narratives, education and training resources aimed at promoting reflexivity, alongside multi-level policy recommendations and evidence-based tools and training for journalists and security professionals. The counter-content will be created through collaboration with stakeholders during co-creation exercises in the focus groups. SMIDGE takes the theory of responsible research and innovation (RRI) as its core conceptual approach to ensure that the project adheres to the highest ethical and quality standards. The outputs from SMIDGE will provide evidencebased content, tools and resources that will directly help to counter extremist narratives from multiple perspectives, thereby providing greater understanding of the specificities and characteristics of those in middle-age and their vulnerability to extremism online.

Project website: https://smidgeproject.eu

Innovative Higher Education for Environmental Sustainability

Coordinating Institution: Hogskolan I Halmstad – Sweden

UCLan Cyprus Team: Kalypso Iordanou (Leading UCLan Cyprus Team), Vered Aharonson; Vasiliki Christodoulou; Christos Karpasitis

2022-2024

Funding Agency: Erasmus+ (European Commission)

Project Summary

The project aims to develop an Interactive Educational Programme (IEP) on climate change, which transforms both challenges into advantages. The project will develop an intelligent educational video selection and content creation algorithm to support the development of an interactive video-based educational platform (IEP), the BTheChange, on climate change. Educational content will be individualised and matched to user preferences resulting in a powerful, appealing and engaging learning experience for the higher education learner. Effective educational videos will be reinforced with impactful learning and behaviour change activities.

Project webpage: http://btc.designstudiovede.solutions

Promoting the Development of Teachers’ and Students’ Metacognitive and Theory of Mind Skills Coordinating Institution: European University Cyprus

UCLan Cyprus Team: Kalypso Iordanou (Leading UCLan Cyprus Team), TBA

2022-2024

Funding Agency: ERASMUS+ (European Commission)

Project Summary

The main intended achievement of the PRO-ME-ToM project is to provide a well-elaborated and tested developmental program for improving metacognitive and Theory-of-MinD (ToM ) skills’ awareness, a crucial skill for a meaningful participation in the information society. Tests and description of in-class activities translated to five languages will be available for use to teachers form primary and secondary education in order to improve students’ metacognitive thinking and ToM skills. There will be constructed assessment tools for evaluating metacognitively aware thinking of teachers and students from the primary and secondary education level. A 12-week training program will be developed to promote teacher’s metacognitive awareness and to build their capacity to teach metacognitive skills. The measurement tool and training program will be available in five languages (Greek, Romanian, Hungarian, Portuguese and English). During the PRO-ME-ToM project 30 primary and 30 secondary teachers from each participating country will be trained about how to use the developed metacognitive training program and measurement tools. Approximately 150 primary and 150 secondary school students from five countries will be empowered with the key competence of metacognitive thinking by participating in a developmental program. Tools for measuring and improving metacognition in school settings will be available in five languages.

Project Webpage: https://prometom-erasmus.info/