Data for Policy 2026 (DfP’26)
Governance of/with AI: Implications for Data, Infrastructure, and Tech Sovereignty
8-10 September 2026 – Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona, Spain
#dataforpolicy2026 #DfP2026 | @dataforpolicy
Data for Policy 2026 (DfP’26)
Twin Transition in Data and Policy for a Sustainable and Inclusive Future
Twin Transition in Data and Policy for a Sustainable and Inclusive Future
Data for Policy 2026
Governance of/with AI: Implications for Data, Infrastructure, and Tech Sovereignty
8-10 September 2026 – Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona, Spain
Data for Policy 2026 Programme
8 – 10 September 2026
Please Note: Programme may be subject to change at short notice
Venue:
Rooms: A (Auditorium), Room B, Room C and Room D
For detailed information about the rooms where the presentations will take place, you can refer to the map here.
Day Two
9th September 2026
09:00
Keynote 2
Keynote (Auditorium): Stefano Iacus – Scientific Project Officer, European Commission — Joint Research Centre
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Stefano Iacus – Scientific Project Officer, European Commission — Joint Research Centre
Stefano Iacus, a statistician, is currently scientific project officer at the European Commission, Joint Research Centre, working on algorithmic transparency. He has been Senior Research Scientist and Director of Data Science and Product Research of the Institute for Quantitative Social Science (IQSS) at Harvard University (2022-2025), where is also managed the development of the Dataverse Project, and contributed to the board of OpenDP project.
In 1999, Iacus started his academic career at the University of Milan (Italy), where he became full professor of statistics in 2015, and also where he founded the Data Science Lab and served as its director. Since 2019, he has also served at the Joint Research Centre of the European Commission, where he led the team that explores new sources of data and exploits their advantages over traditional official statistical data, to support policymaking during crisis periods and refine preparedness measures. Since 2006, he has had a recurring visiting professor position at the University of Tokyo (Japan).
Iacus’ accomplishments extend beyond academia. During the COVID-19 pandemic, he managed a large scale business-to-government project for the European Commission, producing insights for policymaking using data from mobile network operators covering most European Union member states. In 2012, he co-founded a data science firm, Voices from the Blogs, that specialized in social media analysis and big data analytics. In 2017, he co-founded a second startup in the field of quantitative finance. Iacus has published several books, many scientific articles, and a variety of open-source software products in a number of fields including causal inference, sentiment analysis, inference for stochastic processes, computational statistics, and quantitative finance. His work is widely cited across scholarly fields.
Iacus received his bachelor’s degree in statistics, magna cum laude, in 1995 at the Sapienza University of Rome (Italy). He completed his Ph.D. in statistics at the University of Padua (Italy) in 1998, and his Ph.D. in mathematics in 1999 at the Le Mans University (France).
09:30
Plenary Session 2
Curated Panel (Auditorium): Impact of AI on the Public Commons (Auditorium)
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Panel: Impact of AI on the Public Commons
Panelists:
- Liam Wyatt – Senior Manager of Technology Partnerships at the Wikimedia Foundation
- Nil Homedes – Director at Decidim
- Luca Cominassi – External Consultant, Barcelona Supercomputing Center
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Dr. Joan Masó – Principal investigator of CREAF
Chair: Stina Heikkila – Project Coordinator – Citizen Science, Eurocities
Panel Abstract:
AI is reshaping how societies manage shared resources — from data and public infrastructure to knowledge itself. This has vast impacts on public commons, including digital commons, where open data and knowledge sharing are central. This panel will explore the frameworks and governance layers needed for existing commons projects to deal with both the opportunities and threats involved in the expansion of AI. It will explore how Public AI and (European) Common Data Spaces can be useful “allies” for maintaining values related to the commons while contributing to AI models that contribute to public goods.
Questions:
- What is your vision for how AI can enhance the public commons and vice-versa?
- How can we prevent data from public commons being used by extractive systems that are misaligned with public values, or fail to give back to the owners of the data?
- What type of governance mechanisms are “needed” (contributions from different points of view)?
- What opportunities does AI offer for public commons?
10:15
Coffee Break
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10:45
Parallel Session 5
- Governmental and Public Sovereignty – PS A.5
- Panel: Governing Algorithms, Empowering Humans: Institutional Architectures for Accountable AI in Public Policy, Healthcare, and Legal Aid – PS B.5
- DS Special Track Session: Digital Infrastructure – PS C.5
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Session A5 (Auditorium) :
Chair:
- “Demand-side sovereignty: public dialogue and government innovation.” ; Jessica Montgomery – University of Cambridge and Neil D. Lawrence – University of Cambridge. (Submission #66)
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“Wikipedia Mobile Views as a Policy Evaluation Infrastructure” ; Paul Favier – Université Paris Dauphine-PSL and Lucas Eustache – Université Paris Dauphine-PSL. (Submission #75)
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“From Platform Power to Algorithmic Governance: Democratic Platform Constitutionalism in Digitally Mediated Societies.” ; Mini Srivastava – Amity Law School, Amity University. (Submission #79)
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“Towards Digital Sovereignty in European Public Administrations: Managing Dependencies in Digital Infrastructures.” ; Patrick Mikalef – Norwegian University of Science and Technology, A. Paula Rodriguez Müller – Joint Research Centre, European Commission, Marijn Janssen – TU Delft, Luca Tangi – Joint Research Centre, European Commission, Tomasz Janowski – Gdańsk University of Technology and Sara Thabit Gonzalez – Joint Research Centre, European Commission. (Submission #180)
Session B5: (Room B)
Chair:
Panel: Governing Algorithms, Empowering Humans: Institutional Architectures for Accountable AI in Public Policy, Healthcare, and Legal Aid (Submission #84)
- “Artificial Intelligence for Public Policy: A Conceptual Framework for Addressing Epistemic and Ontological Biases through Human-Directed Policy Analytics” ; Ebinezer Florano – University of the Philippines Diliman National College of Public Administration and Governance.
- “Interdisciplinary Governance Framework for AI in Philippine Healthcare”; Iris Thiele Isip Tan – University of the Philippines Manila College of Medicine, Lisa Traboco, and Michael Fong – University of the Philippines Diliman.
DS Special Track Session C5: Digital Infrastructure (Room C)
Chair: Tim Gordon, Co-Founder, The Digital Statecraft Academy (DSA)
- “Financing Artificial Intelligence Infrastructure Value Chains: Mapping AI Infrastructure Investments and Compute Governance Across Africa.” ; Kai-Hsin Hung – HEC Montreal, Sumaya Nur Adan – University of Oxford, Krupa Suchak – DataSpires, Armita Sadeghian Barzoki – Toronto Metropolitan University, Kofi Yeboah – Mozilla Foundation, Mohammad Amir Anwar – University of Edinburgh and University of Johannesburg. (Submission #DAP-2026-0230)
- “From Data Securitisation to AI Governance: China’s Emerging Model of Digital Statecraft.” ; Mireia Paulo Noguera – Ruhr-Universität Bochum. (Submission #101)
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“Sovereign Mirroring: Domestic Platform-Building and the Reorganization of Global Open-Source Dependence in China.” ; Brigitta Németh – Corvinus University of Budapest and Johannes Wachs – Corvinus University of Budapest. (Submission #176)
11:45
Parallel Session 6
- Data Colonialism – PS A.6
- Governance with AI – PS B.6
- DS Special Track Session: Governing at the Margins – PS C.6
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Session A6 (Auditorium) :
Chair:
- “Data for Colonialism or Imperialism: Moving Towards a Global Dignity-Based Ethical Framework Response” ; Abiola Joseph Azeez – University of Ottawa. (Submission #DAP-2026-0165)
- “AI Surveillance and Human Rights: A Comparative Analysis of India and Vietnam.” ; Irene Poetranto – The Citizen Lab, University of Toronto, Justin Lau – The Citizen Lab, University of Toronto and Siena Di Cio – The Citizen Lab, University of Toronto. (Submission #81)
Session B6: (Room B)
Chair:
- “Resolving the Governance–Privacy Paradox: Synthetic Data as Infrastructure for Integrated Assurance Under the Three Lines Model” ; Eduardo Riba Brito – Cybernetica AS; University of Tartu Institute of Computer Science, Defir Ilmi Faridha – School of Economics and Business Administration, University of Tartu, Tartu, Estonia, and Mahmoud Shoush – Cybernetica AS Brito. (Submission #DAP-2026-0222)
- “AI for Navigating Stakeholder Divergence in Complex Societal Problems: A Scoping Review.“ ; Claudio Lazo – TNO, Utrecht University, Fabiano Dalpiaz – Utrecht University and Peter Werkhoven – Utrecht University. (Submission #166)
- “Recursive AI-Assisted Institutional Memory: Evidence from World Bank Portfolio Analysis” ; Omar Asensio – Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter School of Public Policy, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA USA ; Institute for Data Engineering & Science (IDEaS), Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA USA, Daniel Forcade – Politheon, Atlanta, GA USA, Christoph Klaiber – World Bank Group, Washington, D.C. USA, and Mersedeh Tariverdi – World Bank Group, Washington, D.C. USA. (Submission #DAP-2026-0234)
- “Balancing Risk Prevention and Empowerment: A Critical Youth Framework for Teen Social Media Governance” ; Angie Malorni – Rutgers University New Brunswick, School of Social Work, Caroline Sharkey – University at Albany School of Social Welfare, School of Social Welfare, Sara Wilf – California State Polytechnic University Pomona, Department of Sociology, Rachel John – Rutgers The State University of New Jersey, School of Social Work, and Ishita Kapur – The University of Tennessee System, College of Social Work. (Submission #DAP-2026-0223)
DS Special Track Session C6: Governing at the Margins (Room C)
Chair: Prof Irene Ng – Group CEO, Dataswyft.
- “Who Is Accountable for Social Exclusion? Justice and Accountability Mismatch in UK Digital Governance” ; Manlin Li – University Faculty of Science and Engineering, Faculty of Science and Engineering, Jennifer Schooling – Anglia Ruskin University Faculty of Science and Engineering and Panpan Sun – University of Nottingham, School of Law.(Submission #DAP-2026-0219)
- “Making AI Governable: Clio-X, Public Records, and Community-Based Digital Statecraft in Cameroon” ; Victoria Lemieux – The University of British Columbia, Institute for Computing, Information and Cognitive Systems; University of Lucerne, Zug Institute for Blockchain Research, and Esther Olembe – University of Yaoundé II, Information,library and Archives Sciences; National Archives of Cameroon (Submission #DAP-2026-0212)
- Counting Cases, Missing Patterns: Administrative Data Systems and Violence Against Women in Croatia.” ; Dunja Bonacci Skenderović – Bonacci Ltd, research and consulting. (Submission #63)
12:45
Lunch
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13:45
Parallel Session 7
- Regulatory Frameworks & Compliance – PS A.7
- Data Cooperatives and Collectives – PS B.7
- DS Special Track Session: AI & Compliance – PS C.7
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Session A7 (Auditorium):
Chair: Dr Antoni Rubi-Puig – Universitat Pompeu Fabra
- “What AI Regulatory Frameworks Reveal About Accountability in the Global Policy Landscape.” ; Maria Lorena Florez Rojas – Assistant Professor, University of Groningen and Miriam Weigand – Senior Data & Analytics Executive moving into Product Management at MeMo² a Kantar. (Submission #139)
- “AI agents as a regulatory data collection instrument: the case of occupational licensing” ; Vít Macháček – Government of the Czech Republic, Jakub Mirovský– Government of the Czech Republic, Karolína Hájková – Government of the Czech Republic and Štěpán Růt – Government of the Czech Republic. (Submission #134)
- “Structural Barriers to the Ethical Agency of Engineers and the Rise of Compliance Theatre in AI Development” ; Alessia M. Vlasceanu – The University of Manchester, Computer Science, Emily Collins – The University of Manchester and Caroline Jay -The University of Manchester. (Submission #DAP-2026-0208)
- “AI compliance tools: where is the human in the loop?.” ; Anne Elisabeth Beumer – Fondazione Bruno Kessler, Trento, Italy and Giulia Olivato – Fondazione Bruno Kessler, Trento, Italy. (Submission #170)
Session B7: (Room B)
Chair:
- “Data Cooperatives and Power Asymmetries in Rural Tanzania: How emerging regulatory principles, institutional design and digital literacy affect the digital sovereignty of marginalized women.” ; Kyoung Yang Kim – GIZ GmbH, Stephanie Arnold – Brussels School of Governance, Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB) and Emma Nkonoki – Häme University of Applied Sciences, HAMK. (Submission #168)
- “Configuring Data Sharing Collaborations for Social Good: Data as Economic Goods, Governance, and Value Capture Logic as Interdependent Dimensions.” ; Andres Alberto Perez Asiain – Politecnico di Milano, Department of Management Engineering, Federico Bartolomucci – Politecnico di Milano, Department of Management Engineering, Dwayne Ansah – Utrecht University, Copernicus Institute of Sustainable Development and Iryna Susha – Utrecht University, Copernicus Institute of Sustainable Development. (Submission #73)
- “An Ostromian Theory of Data Infrastructure Governance.” ; Simon Sun – National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University School of Law and Anjanette Raymond – Indiana University Kelly School of Business. (Submission #85)
DS Special Track Session C7: AI & Compliance (Room C)
Chair: Dr Viviana Bastidas – University of Cambridge.
- “From Instrument to Infrastructure: Metadata Governance for Agentic AI in the Public Sector.” ; Halfdan Lynge – Danish Agency for Digital Government. (Submission #11)
- “Building an AI-Ready Dissemination Infrastructure for Official Statistics: Governing Algorithmic Mediation at Mexico’s National Statistics Office.” ; Andrea Fernandez Conde – INEGI. (Submission #111)
- “Where AI Fails in Cybersecurity Compliance: Signs, Human Intervention Flags, and Lessons from a Saudi Sectoral Regulator.” ; Sarah Alharbi – Imperial College London. (Submission #191)
15:00
Coffee Break
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15:30
Parallel Session 8
- Digital and Infrastructure Sovereignty – PS A.8
- Content Moderation – PS B.8
- DS Special Track Session: Governability – PS C.8
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Session A8 (Auditorium):
Chair: Dr Migle Laukyte – Universitat Pompeu Fabra
- “From strategic autonomy to local capacity: digital sovereignty in European local governance policy discourse.” ; Frederic Heymans – Vrije Universiteit Brussel. (Submission #186)
- “Algorithmic Data Flows and Trade in Digital Services: Reimagining Data Sovereignty, Inequality, and Justice in WTO Governance.” ; Ayushi Singh – Jindal Global Law School, O.P. Jindal Global University and Samanvi Narang – Jindal Global Law School, O.P. Jindal Global University. (Submission #165)
- “An ecosystem approach to measure Digital Sovereignty: The case of AI.” ; Loreta Isaraj – Joint Research Centre, Sara Thabit-Gonzalez – Joint Research Centre, Giovanni Cerulli – Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche (CNR) and Diletta Di Marco – Joint Research Centre. (Submission #137)
- “Infrastructure as Destiny: Why AI Memory and Evaluation Architectures Determine Sovereign Governance Capacity” – Marcel Osmond – Queen Mary University of London, Center For Commercial Law Studies. (Submission #DAP-2026-0183)
Session B8: (Room B)
Chair: Dr Antoni Rubi-Puig – Universitat Pompeu Fabra
- “Evaluating Compliance with the Digital Services Act by Adult Content Platforms.” ; Gautam Kishore Shahi – University of Duisburg-Essen, Germany and Tim A. Majchrzak – Center for Advanced Internet Studies,Germany. (Submission #112)
- “Artificial Intelligence and Children’s Data Privacy in Kenya and South Africa: Reimagining Legal Approaches for the Digital Future.” ; Shirley Genga – Free State Centre for Human Rights. (Submission #105)
- “The Child Visibility Index: A Data-Driven Framework for Measuring Children’s Presence in Public Policy and Administrative Systems.” ; Maria Lokteva – Child Visibility Initiative, powered by inDrive and Nailakhanim Rustamova – Child Visibility Initiative, powered by inDrive. (Submission #57)
- “Lost in Translation? Quantifying Linguistic Bias in the Digital Infrastructure of the Science–Policy Interface.” ; Francis Lareau – UQAM, Jérémie Dion – Université de Sherbrooke, Louis Renaud-Desjardins – Université du Québec à Montréal, Malvina Barra – Université du Québec à Montréal, Luisa Ripoll-Alberola – Computational Humanities group, Leipzig University, Leipzig, Germany and François Claveau – Université de Sherbrooke. (Submission #121)
DS Special Track Session C8: Governability (Room C)
Chair: Prof Jennifer Schooling – Anglia Ruskin University
- “The Invisible Governance Layer: Legal Gaps in AI Evaluation Infrastructure and Implications for Tech Sovereignty.” ; Stevie Cline – Ohio Northern University. (Submission #12)
- “Digital Policy Design: from Principles to Practices” ; Fortunato Musella – University of Naples “Federico II”, Luigi Rullo – University of Naples “Federico II” and Sara Concetta Santoriello – University of Naples “Federico II”. (Submission #88)
- “From Zombie Governance to Infraethics: Shared Semantic Infrastructure as the Operational Bridge Between AI Principles and Decisions.” ; Mario Alejandro Tabares Arango – Corporación Libertad y Democracia (CORLIDE), Medellín, Colombia and Mateo Maya – Corporación Libertad y Democracia (CORLIDE), Medellín, Colombia.(Submission 118)
- “Where is the Evidence? Data Transparency Vs Social Media Opacity.” ; Hugo Leal – University of Cambridge, R. Marie Santini – NetLab UFRJ and Gina Neff University of Cambridge. (Submission 159)
16:45
Keynote 3
Keynote Talks (Auditorium): Domestic Data Streamers & GIGA
This double session will consist in two presentations from practitioners on achieving the use of data for actionable policymaking. The panel will be split into two presentations holded by Domestic Data Streamers and the Giga.
Domestic Data Streamers is a Barcelona-based research and design studio partnering up with organisations to build change through data, community, and arts. Giga is a joint partnership between UNICEF and ITU to connect every school to the internet and every young person to information, opportunity and choice.
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Presentation 1: “Don’t Give Me Your Data, Tell Me Your Story: Experiences on Turning Citizen Voices into Actionable Insights”
Martina Nadal – Partner, COO, and Head of Social Impact at Domestic Data Streamers
Presentation 2: “Beyond Speed Tests: Building New Data and Decision-Making Practices for Children’s Connectivity”
- Maria Antonia Bravo Reyes – Growth & Delivery Lead, UNICEF Giga Alliance
- Elena Fuetsch – Product Manager, UNICEF Giga Alliance
17:45
Debate 1
Digital Statecraft Debate 1 (Auditorium): “The state remains the primary institutional form of governance in the algorithmic age.”
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Debate 1 – Digital Statecraft: “The state remains the primary institutional form of governance in the algorithmic age.” (Submission #225)
- Prof Irene Ng – Group CEO, Dataswyft, UK
- Dr David Uriel Socol de la Osa – Hitotsubashi University, Japan
Chair: Tim Gordon – Co-Founder, The Digital Statecraft Academy (DSA)
18:30
Conference Reception
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19:30