The European Commission awards the University a projectto lead a digital media observatory in Spain and Portugal.

The University of Navarra has obtained the backing of the European Commission to lead a consortium of 23 Spanish and Portuguese institutions that will create an observatory to research digital media and monitor disinformation threats. With funding of 1.47 million euros, IBERIFIER is one of eight regional hubs that will form part of the European Commission's European Digital average Observatory.

The observatory is composed of twelve universities, five verification organizations and news agencies, and six other centers from research multidisciplinary . The team that will lead the consortium from the University of Navarra is made up of the main researcher (IP) of project, Ramón Salaverría, together with Ángel Arrese, Ana Azurmendi, Mª Carmen Erviti, Javier Serrano, Pilar Martínez Costa, Bienvenido León and Charo Sádaba. This project is part of the University's strategic line of research on 'Society and communication in the digital environment'.

The new observatory will focus its research on five lines of work. First, it will investigate the characteristics and trends of the Iberian digital media ecosystem. It will also develop computational technologies for the early detection of disinformation. In addition, it will verify and disprove disinformation in the Iberian territory, reporting to the European Commission. It will also prepare strategic reports on disinformation threats, both for its public knowledge and for the authorities in Spain and Portugal. Finally, it will also work on media literacy initiatives aimed at journalists and reporters, young people and society as a whole.

70 specialized researchers

According to the Full Professor of Journalism Ramón Salaverría, the launch of IBERIFIER "is a milestone in the research on digital media, as it will create an observatory of the highest level, composed of more than 70 researchers, specialized in areas such as Digital Communication, computer science and data, and strategic analysis".

IBERIFIER is one of eight digital media and disinformation observatories recently approved by the European Commission. The other seven are the Ireland Hub of Dublin City University (Ireland); EDMO BE/NL of Stichting Nederlands Institute voor Beeld en Geluid (The Netherlands); Central European Digital average Observatory (CEDMO) of Univerzita Karlova (Czech Republic); NORDIS - NORdic observatory for digital average and information DISorders, of Aarhus Universitet (Denmark), Belgium-Luxembourg Research Hub on Digital average and Disinformation (EDMO BELUCOX), of Vrije Universiteit Brussel (Belgium); DE FACTO Observatory of Information, of the Fondation Nationale des Sciences Politiques (France); and the Italian Digital average Observatory; of the Luiss Libera Università Internazionale degli Studi Sociali Guido Carli (Italy).

List of institutions participating in IBERIFIER

Universities

• University of Navarra (IP)

• high school Universitário de Lisboa - ISCTE

• University of Granada

• Carlos III University of Madrid

• University of Santiago de Compostela

• Polytechnic University of Valencia

• Polytechnic University of Madrid

• Miguel Hernández University of Elche

• Universitat de València - Estudi General

• University of Aveiro

• San Pablo CEU University Foundation

• King Juan Carlos University

Verifiers and news agencies

• Maldita.es

• EFE Verifies

• Verificat

• Polygraph

• Lusa - News Agency of Portugal

Other centres of research

• Real high school Elcano

• FECYT

• Barcelona Supercomputing Center - Centro Nacional de Supercomputación

• Centro Protocolar de Formação Profissional para Jornalistas - Cenjor

• OberCom - Communication Observatory

• Associação Literacia Para os average e Jornalismo