EUCOMMEET · Project

Multilingual Digital Platform for Large-Scale Public Consultations and Citizen Engagement

digitalTestedTRL 5Thin data (2/5)

Imagine you need to get honest opinions from thousands of people across different countries who speak different languages — and you want a real conversation, not just a survey. EUCOMMEET built a system that runs structured public discussions online and in-person, with automated translation and moderation, so everyone can participate on equal footing. They tested it across 5 European countries with real citizens discussing real policy issues. Think of it as a "Zoom for democracy" but designed so the loudest voice doesn't dominate.

By the numbers

Countries where deliberative events were implemented

Consortium partners

Countries represented in consortium

Total project deliverables

EUR 2,998,650

EU research investment

The business problem

What needed solving

Governments, municipalities, and large organizations need to consult diverse populations across language barriers, but traditional methods — surveys, town halls, online comment boxes — either don't scale, exclude non-dominant language speakers, or devolve into unproductive arguments. Running meaningful multilingual deliberation is expensive, logistically complex, and typically requires specialist facilitators for every language group.

The solution

What was built

An open-source deliberation platform with automated moderation and automated multilingual translation, tested in real citizen participation events across 5 European countries. The project produced 19 deliverables including a full F/LOSS code release designed for maximum re-use.

Audience

Who needs this

Civic tech companies building e-participation or public consultation platformsGovernment digital transformation consultanciesHR tech firms running employee engagement in multinational companiesInternational organizations managing cross-border citizen dialoguesEvent technology companies looking to add structured deliberation features

Business applications

Who can put this to work

GovTech and Civic Technology

SME

Target: Companies building digital public consultation or e-participation platforms

If you are a civic tech company struggling to run meaningful public consultations that go beyond simple surveys — this project developed a tested multi-lingual deliberation platform with automated moderation and translation, piloted across 5 countries. The open-source codebase can be integrated into your existing tools to offer structured, scalable citizen engagement that actually reduces polarization.

Corporate Governance and Employee Engagement

mid-size

Target: HR technology or internal communications platform providers

If you are an HR tech company looking to improve employee voice programs in multinational organizations — this project created a multi-mode, multi-lingual deliberation method tested with diverse populations across 9 countries. The M4D2 approach could be adapted to run structured internal consultations where every employee, regardless of language or location, participates equally.

Public Administration and Government Services

any

Target: Consulting firms specializing in public sector transformation

If you are a public sector consultancy helping municipalities or regional governments run citizen participation processes — this project delivered a ready-to-use, scalable model for deliberative events backed by EUR 2,998,650 in EU research. The open-source tools include automated moderation and real-time translation, reducing the cost and complexity of multilingual public engagement.

Frequently asked

Quick answers

What would it cost to implement this deliberation platform?

The platform's code is released under Free/Libre Open Source Software (F/LOSS) licensing, meaning no license fees. Implementation costs would cover customization, hosting, and integration. The project itself was backed by EUR 2,998,650 in EU funding across 11 partners, giving an indication of the R&D investment behind the tools.

Can this scale to large populations or national-level consultations?

The M4D2 approach was explicitly designed to be scalable. It was tested across 5 countries (France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, and Poland) with multi-lingual participants. The automated moderation and translation features are specifically built to handle large-scale, cross-border deliberation.

What is the IP and licensing situation?

The code release follows F/LOSS (Free/Libre Open Source Software) best practices with git-based release. Licensing is designed for the widest possible re-use while preventing code lock-in and private reappropriation. This means companies can build on it commercially, subject to the specific open-source license terms.

Does this work in languages beyond the 5 tested countries?

The system includes automated translation capabilities and was designed as multi-lingual from the start. It was tested in French, German, English, Italian, and Polish. Based on available project data, the translation component could be extended to additional EU languages, though this would require validation.

What concrete tools were delivered, not just research papers?

The project produced 19 deliverables in total, including an open-source code release hosted via git. The technology includes automated moderation tools and automated translation for multilingual deliberation sessions, tested in real participatory events across 5 countries.

How long did it take to develop and test?

The project ran from March 2021 to June 2024, a period of over 3 years. Development followed three stages: understanding existing practices, connecting research to design, and implementing real deliberative events. The full development cycle from concept to tested deployment took the entire project duration.

Consortium

Who built it

The consortium of 11 partners across 9 countries is heavily academic, with 6 universities and only 2 industry partners (18% industry ratio). The 2 SMEs suggest some commercial interest, but this is primarily a research-driven effort. The coordinator is the University of Siena in Italy. For a business looking to adopt these tools, the low industry involvement means the technology may need additional commercial packaging and support infrastructure before it is enterprise-ready. The geographic spread across Belgium, Switzerland, Germany, Spain, Finland, France, Ireland, Italy, and Poland does demonstrate broad European applicability.

UNIVERSITA DEGLI STUDI DI SIENACoordinator · IT
NETHOODparticipant · CH
UNIWERSYTET WARSZAWSKIparticipant · PL
DUBLIN CITY UNIVERSITYparticipant · IE
UNIVERSITE PARIS 8 VINCENNES SAINT-DENISparticipant · FR
MISSIONS PUBLIQUESparticipant · FR
AGENCIA ESTATAL CONSEJO SUPERIOR DE INVESTIGACIONES CIENTIFICASparticipant · ES
UNIVERSITY OF STUTTGARTparticipant · DE
ABO AKADEMIparticipant · FI

How to reach the team

University of Siena, Italy — contact via SciTransfer for introduction to the research team

Order a report on this consortium See UNIVERSITA DEGLI STUDI DI SIENA profile →

Next steps

Talk to the team behind this work.

Want to integrate open-source multilingual deliberation tools into your civic tech or HR platform? SciTransfer can connect you with the EUCOMMEET team and help evaluate fit for your use case.

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