Research projects

Legal aspects of using social scoring and artificial intelligence in the process of providing public services

The aim of the project is to assess the acceptability of using artificial intelligence systems in the process of providing public services based on a social scoring system. The widespread use of Big Data and the increasing digitization and automation of its processing are tempting public entities to reach for artificial intelligence-based solutions for evaluation and for making decisions on the use of public services and public benefits.
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The project will analyze existing and proposed regulatory solutions within the framework of artificial intelligence in the national, EU and European context. The international aspect is of particular importance due to the cross-border nature of technological solutions and the different regulatory approaches seen in other countries. In addition, the different level of implementation of AI-based solutions of individual European countries is also important.
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Program: MINIATURE 6, National Science Center

Project Manager: dr Mateusz Pszczyński

Link

Legal forms of cultural heritage management in Europe in a comparative legal perspective

The goal of this project, carried out within the framework of the international research program, “Dictionnaire de droit comparé du patrimoine culturel,” is to conduct basic research that will make a significant contribution to the study of cultural heritage protection law. After all, the protection and effective management of cultural heritage are nowadays increasingly seen as a key element of social development, as well as a way of dealing with the dangers of conflict, organized crime, terrorism and fundamentalism. However, these issues are still a very difficult problem for legal theory and practice. While, at the international level, legal regulation in the field of culture – usually concerning the protection of human creativity and the protection of cultural heritage – has already reached a certain degree of standardization, national legislation in this area is very diverse. This also applies to the internal legal systems of the European Union (EU) member states. Although the EU is the most integrated international organization in the world, in which issues of common policy in the area of culture are subject to ever deeper legal and institutional integration, legal regulation of the protection and management of cultural heritage is the exclusive competence of the national laws of the member states. In practice, this means that there are profound differences between the national law systems of cultural heritage in the EU. The main research objective of this internationally collaborative project is therefore to systematize the most important institutions of national cultural heritage law in selected European countries (Belgium, France, Greece, Spain, Germany, Italy, Latvia, Poland, Switzerland and the United Kingdom), in a comparative perspective. The tasks undertaken within the framework of the project thus aim to investigate whether and to what extent European systems of cultural heritage law have similarities or certain unifying elements, and if so, whether it is possible to establish common terminology and concepts relating to this area of regulation in Europe. The project’s contribution to a broader, international research program is to analyze the Polish legal system for the protection of cultural heritage based on a comparative research questionnaire. In this connection, it will be examined whether and to what extent Polish law in this area belongs to the common European core of cultural heritage law, and whether it contributes to its construction and crystallization. The scientific analysis undertaken as part of the project is based on the study of the texts of normative acts, court decisions, public administration practice, cultural policy instruments and the literature on the subject. The main result of this research project is a contribution to the development of a comprehensive dictionary of comparative heritage law (Dictionnaire de droit comparé du patrimoine culturel). It will serve as a milestone for further studies on cultural heritage law in Europe. The research results are also published in important peer-reviewed scientific journals and presented in conference papers.

Program: OPUS 18, National Science Center

Project Manager: dr Andrzej Jakubowski

Project implementation period: 48 months

Link

The journal “Opole Administrative and Legal Studies”

The project, carried out within the framework of the “Development of Scientific Journals” program, announced by the Decree of the Minister of Education and Science of August 3, 2021 on the “Development of Scientific Journals” program (Journal of Laws of 2021, item 1514), includes the concept of developing publishing and editing practices and their impact on the journal’s presence in international circulation. The project includes digitizing the journal, disseminating the journal in international and community spaces, and applying the journal to international databases, including Scopus and Web of Science.

The aim of the project is the development of the journal “Opole Administrative and Legal Studies” and its wider presence in the international publishing space.

The project implements the magazine’s development strategy, which includes three pillars:

  • To disseminate the journal in the international publishing and community space and to reach readers around the world with articles published in open access;
  • Strengthening the digitization of the magazine and its transparency and functionality in the digital space;
  • Substantive and pro-quality development of the journal by maintaining and strengthening good publishing practices and requirements for modern scientific journals.

Program: Development of scientific journals, Ministry of Education and Science

Project Manager: dr hab. Marta Woźniak, prof. UO

Project implementation period: 24 months

Link

Pro-quality evaluation of legal sciences

he primary research objective of the project is to analyze the evaluation systems of legal science and the measures used to assess the quality of research in the discipline in terms of their suitability for this purpose, and to develop a system to evaluate the work of research teams in the country and compare the results with those achieved by legal academics abroad. Individual governments, funders, and private institutions ranking universities and disciplines assume that science has a single set of quality measures common to all fields and disciplines, and therefore that what works for physicists, engineers, or psychologists will also work for lawyers, historians, and philosophers. In the humanities and legal sciences, there is strong opposition to such an equalization of disciplines. In particular, representatives of the legal sciences claim that their discipline is unique. So far, there has been no comprehensive study of the veracity of this view, although a pilot study conducted by the applicant (Stec 2021) shows that the affiliation structure of leading law journals according to the MEiN list differs very significantly from that of journals such as “Nature” or “Science.” This may suggest that the legal sciences are in fact the exception to the rule, something that the research conducted as part of this project is ultimately intended to verify.

webpage: https://ewaluacjaprawa.com/

Project implementation period 24 months

Program: Science for Society, Ministry of Education and Science

Project Manager: dr hab. Piotr Stec, prof. UO

Lecture prof. Piotra Steca na University of California Berkeley w Center for Studies in Higher Education: Is Law a “Parallel Science?” Metrics-based Research Assessment and Academic Legal Research

Link

Smart Human Oriented Platform for Connected Factories (SHOP4CF)

SHOP4CF (Smart Human Oriented Platform for Connected Factories) is an EU-funded project under the eighth framework program, Horizon 2020, which aims to create a unique infrastructure for the convenient implementation of human-oriented industrial applications. As part of the project, 20 partners are developing a comprehensive software platform with a wide range of components that cover a broad spectrum of industrial requirements, especially in the context of modern, flexible and data-rich manufacturing. SHOP4CF’s overall vision is that the manufacturing of tomorrow requires both machine skills (e.g., high accuracy, precision or perseverance) and human resources (e.g., creativity, adaptability or a sense of touch) operating within regulatory boundaries. Therefore, all components included in the SHOP4CF software platform aim to complement human and machine work to improve working conditions by: automating work and increasing human productivity through AI support. Factories in Europe are becoming smarter and better at optimizing their production processes, making the industry more sustainable and competitive.Today, the most important goal is to find the right balance between cost-effective automation of repetitive tasks and leveraging the capabilities of workers in activities that require adaptability and creativity As models based on connecting multiple elements of manufacturing plants are implemented, huge amounts of data are generated by embedded sensors and connected manufacturing equipment. All of this information can be useful in improving processes. The EU-funded SHOP4CF project is developing an open-architecture-based platform that will allow people to support manufacturing operations and basic implementations in an open-source solution available for free. Test pilots are being conducted by industry leaders (BOSCH, Volkswagen, Siemens, Arcelik) in Europe and 30 external pilot projects selected through 5 open calls. The project is coordinated by Technische Universitaet Muenchen. The project is carried out by a consortium: Teknologian Tutkimuskeskus Vtt OY (Finland) Fraunhofer Gesellschaft Zur Foerderung Der Angewandten Forschung E.V. (Germany), Teknologisk Institut (Denmark), Interuniversitair Micro-Electronica Centrum (Belgium), European Dynamics Luxembourg SA (Luxembourg), Fundingbox Research APS (Denmark), Technische Universiteit Eindhoven (Netherlands), University of Opole (Poland), Institut de Recherche Technologique Jules Verne (France), Institute of Bioorganic Chemistry of the Polish Academy of Sciences (Poland), Universidad Politecnica de Madrid (Spain). Total budget 16 million euros, EU contribution 15 million euros. The project is multidisciplinary in nature, encompassing the fields of science: social (including law), engineering and technology, in accordance with EU guidelines for research projects. The scientific team of the University of Opole (hired specifically for this project) under my leadership is responsible for analyzing the issue of personal and non-personal data, preparing guidelines for compliance with RODO and other privacy regulations. In addition, we are conducting research on licensing issues, including open-source licensing for modular software using AI. The scientific challenge is the issue of the use of artificial intelligence in the implementation of the project in compliance with the proposed EU regulations and the national laws of individual member states. The work results in recommendations for the implementation team, reports, ongoing analysis of legal issues, implementation support. The scientific result is a scientific monograph being prepared: Legal aspects of process automation in the digital economy 3.0 (publication date 2022/23 – Springer or Nomos publishing house), participation in scientific conferences.

Program: Horyzont 2020- Research and Innovation Framework Programme

Project Manager: dr hab. Dariusz Szostek

Webpage: https://shop4cf.eu

Project implementation period: 48 months

Link

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