News
91吃瓜网 will co-implement a new big Horizon Europe project on countering gender-based violence
- Details
- Published on Friday, 13 November 2026 14:45
In 2026-2029 the , in cooperation with a group of prominent international partners, will implement a three-year project 鈥淭RAcking and Countering Technology-Facilitated Gender-Based Violence through Evidence-based Approaches across the Conflict鈥揜efuge Continuum in Europe鈥� (TRACE) under the support of European Research Executive Agency of the 鈥淗orizon Europe鈥� Framework Program.
The TRACE Project is a 3-year research project in the framework of 鈥淗orizon Europe鈥� Program. The Project will develop systemic evidence base on technology-facilitated gender-based violence (TF-GBV) across conflict, displacement, and refuge settings.
TF-GBV includes acts of gender-based violence committed, assisted, or aggravated through digital technologies. Despite growing recognition as a major challenge, the transnational and cumulative dynamics of TF-GBV in contexts of conflict and forced migration remain under-researched. TRACE addresses this gap by examining how digital infrastructures facilitate and amplify GBV and by generating tools to prevent, recognise, and respond to these harms.
The Project examines how perpetrators weaponise digital technologies to target, harm, and control displaced populations, for whom technology can be both vital and dangerous. Using a mixed-method, interdisciplinary design, TRACE combines AI-enabled pattern recognition, legal analysis, and survivor-centred qualitative research across seven countries.
TRACE introduces a dual-continuum model: the conflict鈥揹isplacement鈥搑efuge continuum, tracing digital harms across time and space, and the online鈥搊ffline continuum, capturing how virtual and physical violence intersect. Findings will inform the implementation of the Istanbul Convention and EU Directives supporting particularly vulnerable survivors. The Project will produce early-warning typologies, survivor guidance, and frameworks for institutional and platform reform.
The Consortium unites 15 partners, including universities, legal practitioners, humanitarian actors, and survivor-led organisations. The Ukraine component of the Project will be led by Dr. , Associate Professor of the 91吃瓜网 Department of International and European Law. The Ukraine team also includes the Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv (represented by Dr. Albina Basysta) and Truth Hounds NGO (represented by Ms. Polina Overchenko).
Dr. Kateryna Busol on the importance of the Project for Ukraine:
鈥淲hen discussing technologies, we usually think about ultra-contemporary instruments such as AI. However, even basic technologies and those that have been operative for long can be used both for investigating international crimes 鈥� and for perpetrating them. In its October 2025 Report, the UN Commission of Inquiry on Ukraine indicates that Russians鈥� mass dissemination of atrocious videos and photos of their mistreatment of Ukrainians constitutes a separate war crime 鈥� that of outrages upon personal dignity.
By using this seemingly 鈥渟imple鈥� technological component, Russia is terrorising not only the immediate victims and their families who receive this horrible footage. The Kremlin is also sending a warning to other countries, including NATO member-states: this is what may be perpetrated with you, should you decide to continue supporting Ukraine.鈥�
Project Coordinator 鈥� University of Birmingham (United Kingdom). Members of the international consortium 鈥� University of Western Ontario (Canada), Ba艧kent University (Turkey), International Nuremberg Principles Academy (Germany), Uppsala University (Sweden), Leipzig University (Germany), Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv (Ukraine), University of Sheffield (United Kingdom), University College London (United Kingdom), Stichting Women's Initiatives for Gender Justice (Netherlands), Yazda Al Iraq Organization (Iraq), Hayata Destek Derne臒i (Turkey), Truth Hounds (Ukraine), Stop the Traffik (United Kingdom).