EU: Observatory for Political Texts in European Democracies: A European Research Infrastructure (OPTED)

Liberal democracy is facing many challenges in Europe, making it imperative that we remain informed and dedicated to supporting its resilience and sustainability with well-defined, transparent actions. Today’s social scientists have the instruments to adequately observe and analyse the political and societal developments empirically through the political texts produced by political actors, citizens, media, and NGOs. However, fragmentation of the research field, language and context sensitivity of tools and unclear legal and ethical frameworks are key obstacles. The EU-funded OPTED project will lay the foundation in terms of conceptual design work for a European research infrastructure to support political text analysis. The project will address the development and application of instruments and techniques, the standardisation of quality estimation, scientific community building, and the legal and ethical frameworks.