VU Amsterdam project team wins Connected World Societal Impact Award

by Maximilian Eder

An item from the Blog

As part of the VU Amsterdam profile theme, the Connected World Societal Impact Award has been awarded to Reshmi Pillai, Antske Fokkens, and Wouter van Atteveldt.

The research project titled “Simplifying Local News: A Framework and Evaluation Schema for Inclusive Information Access” aims to address the problem of text simplification of local news reports to make them more accessible for linguistically diverse or challenged individuals. Specific proposed research outcomes are to implement and evaluate prototypes based on open-source Large Language Models for news report simplification and to implement an evaluation metrics scheme that addresses the distinct challenges of simplification.

With this research, the team will identify specific societal impacts. First, with simplified news reports, they aim to connect a diverse audience to local news and thus empower them to participate more effectively in local communities. Second, by broadening the audience base, it is intended to enhance the outreach of the local news organizations, thus supporting their continued existence and increased contribution to the democratic framework of society.

About the award

The Connected World Societal Impact Award is given to research projects that aim to have a real impact in unleashing the potential of the connected world. The yearly award grants socially oriented impact projects of €10,000 and offers additional support.

Links to the initiative

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