FUNDACION CIBERVOLUNTARIOS

Their core work

Fundación Cibervoluntarios is a Spanish foundation focused on digital empowerment and civic technology. They work on social media governance, digital literacy, and citizen participation platforms — essentially building tools and methods that help communities engage with digital technologies responsibly. Their projects span from social innovation platforms addressing sustainability goals to digital security and trust frameworks for software and online content verification.

What they specialise in

How they've shifted over time

In their early H2020 period (2016-2018), Cibervoluntarios focused on social innovation, co-creation platforms, and social media monitoring for sustainability goals — a community-driven, outward-facing agenda. From 2018 onward, their work shifted decisively toward digital trust, security, and governance: content verification (PROVENANCE), social media governance, and software certification/audit (TRUST aWARE). The trajectory shows a clear move from "helping people use digital tools" to "making digital tools trustworthy and secure."

They are moving from digital empowerment toward digital trust infrastructure — expect future work in AI governance, content authenticity, or cybersecurity for citizens.

How they like to work

Cibervoluntarios primarily joins consortia as a participant (3 of 4 projects), contributing civic engagement and end-user perspectives rather than leading technical development. They coordinated one project (SOCRATIC), showing they can lead but prefer a contributing role. With 36 unique partners across 15 countries, they maintain a broad European network rather than relying on a small circle of repeat collaborators — useful as a bridge to civil society audiences.

They have collaborated with 36 distinct partners across 15 countries, indicating a well-connected European network. Their partnerships span ICT, security, and societal challenge domains, giving them reach across both technical and civic sectors.

What sets them apart

Cibervoluntarios occupies an unusual niche: they are a civic tech foundation that bridges digital security research with real-world citizen engagement. While most digital trust projects are led by universities or tech companies, Cibervoluntarios brings direct access to communities and end-users — making them valuable for user testing, pilot deployments, and societal impact assessment. Their volunteer-driven model (implied by the name "Cibervoluntarios") gives them grassroots reach that typical research centers lack.

Highlights from their portfolio

• SOCRATIC
  Their only coordinated project — a social intelligence platform for sustainability goals, showing their ability to lead and define research agendas.
• TRUST aWARE
  Their most recent and largest-funded project (EUR 242,600), marking a strategic pivot into digital security, software certification, and privacy.
• PROVENANCE
  A content verification project addressing misinformation and social media trust — highly relevant to current EU policy priorities on digital governance.