The European Research Council (ERC) has awarded a Proof of Concept (PoC) grant of €150,000 to LIP researcher Joana Gonçalves-Sá to develop the project FARE_DSA – A Framework for Auditing Recommendation Engines under the DSA.
Running for one year, the project aims to develop a methodology for auditing digital platforms, such as search engines and large language models (LLMs), and to investigate how their algorithms may influence access to information.
The research builds on Joana Gonçalves-Sá’s previous work within the FARE – Fake News and Real People project, funded by the ERC, and the FARE_Audit grant, which supported the development of tools to analyse how platforms respond to different user profiles.
FARE_DSA will explore the opportunities provided by Article 40 of the Digital Services Act (DSA), which allows vetted researchers to access non-public data from major platforms in order to study systemic risks such as political manipulation and electoral interference.
The project will also produce policy recommendations and contribute to future audits of major digital platforms.