Supported projects

AMSTERDAM / GHENT – Can a burglary be predicted before it happens? According to the ambitious Bigdatpol project at Ghent University, this will soon become a reality. Led by Professor Wim Hardyns, the research team has spent years developing an AI model that can identify areas and times of high ...

ISTANBUL / BRUSSELS – The nature of warfare is changing rapidly today. A flood of new technologies is emerging on the battlefield, including drones, robots, lasers and artificial intelligence.

BIHAĆ / ZAGREB – Behind the political debates on return hubs and stricter procedures lies an underlying trend that is receiving less attention: the roll-out of a state-of-the-art technological surveillance system at our external borders.

WILLEMSTAD / TICINO / AREZZO – A major investigation exposes the route of gold extracted from the Amazon in Venezuela and into Europe: over 90 tonnes of the precious metal were routed through the Caribbean and refined in Switzerland, Italy, and Turkey, reaching the supply chains of Apple, Tesla, and ...

BELGRADE/ LJUBLJANA - Leaked internal documents from the Swiss surveillance company NeoSoft reveal that Serbia’s Security Intelligence Agency (BIA) explored the purchase of a covert portable IMSI catcher known as the NS Backpack.

BUCHAREST / MADRID / KYIV - From cyberbullying and cyberharassment, exposure to harmful content and hate speech, to online child sexual abuse and exploitation, statistics show that all are on the rise, and digital safety for the youngest citizens has become a global concern.

BIHOR/RADICOFANI - Produced by tapping into the heat stored beneath the Earth’s surface, geothermal energy is regarded as one of the most promising renewable sources, with a largely untapped potential. This investigation explores the different experiences local communities across Europe have with ...

BERLIN – This investigation focuses on the winners and losers in the online sex work revolution, where people can buy digital subscriptions to explicit content. A pioneer of this model is OnlyFans, a booming platform whose users spent $6.6 billion in 2023 alone.

ATHENS - The European Union is deploying AI-driven technologies along its borders in an to attempt to control migration flows, raising legal and ethical concerns about the impact on migrants' rights. While these systems are promoted as improving efficiency and security, they have raised concerns ...

DUBLIN / BARCELONA - AI has exploded but when its cutting edge software is stripped back, carbon intensive hardware is whirring busily behind, at a high cost to the environment. What exactly does it amount to for Europe?

BRUSSELS - Our meat consumption must go down, and to facilitate this, an army of producers is ready with alternatives. Some found inspiration in age-old recipes, others are reinventing meat altogether.

LONDON / BERLIN – This investigation reveals how oil and gas equipment intended to reduce methane is hiding pollution and greenhouse gas emissions from researchers. And while flaring is said to be decreasing globally, in many cases, it hadn’t stopped at all.

BARCELONA / THE HAGUE / ROME - Governments across Europe use predictive algorithms in courts, prisons and police stations.

GALWAY/NUUK/REYKJAVIK - For months now, the North Atlantic has been plagued by extreme heat waves. The new high-tech research vessel the Belgica is sailing to the polar regions for the first time to document and investigate the effects of climate change in the oceans. Journalists Arno Van Rensbergen ...

ROLLE - Who's next? That's the question on everyone's lips. For over three years, not a week has passed without the media reporting a hacking incident. Cyber hackers have never been so powerful. They are everywhere, looking for human error and technical flaws in our hyper-connected world.

RIGA - From Trams through Pharmaceuticals to Renewable Energy: Czech millionaire Tomáš Krsek is a well-known investor, entrepreneur, and philanthropist with a known fortune of €436 million (2021). 

LJUBLJANA - What is the cost of security companies, such as G4S? One way of calculating the harm is counting the dead and the injured. 

HSINCHU - Microchips are at the heart of our digital world. Without them, our smartphones and laptops do not work, our cars fall silent and the internet crashes. So it comes as no surprise that car factories are halting production due to a global chip shortage, China and the US are fighting a trade ...

EL ZONTE - El Salvador is the first country in the world to adopt Bitcoin as its official currency: "One thing is certain: it is here to stay."

ANTWERPEN - After images of her were non-stop circulating online, 13-year-old Destiny took her own life. For her, it was the only way out of all the judgements and hurtful comments. In a physical murder, the killer is visible. But who is to blame when everyone online has participated in the murder ...

DUBLIN - Facebook and Google let advertisers target the audience they want to reach, that much is known. Less known is that both platforms perform another round of targeting, irrespective of the advertiser's wishes. 

NAIROBI - Facebook, the world’s biggest social network, has been used to attract millions of Kenyans to fake companies who are after their personal information. Kenyan journalist Odanga Madung exposed the series of frauds the US tech giant was unable to stop. 

BAGHDAD - This series of articles investigates the production and dissemination of fake news to sow instability in Iraq and the Middle East. It reveals how Iraqi (terrorist) groups are paying Facebook millions to churn out fake news, and gives an inside look in Hezbollah's fake news training camps.

ACCRA, LAGOS - This story identifies the lapses in the current tax systems and how Ghana and Nigeria are dealing with profit shifting and tax avoidance. It exposes how major tech companies, Facebook and Google, use tax havens to avoid payment of taxes in Nigeria and Ghana, depriving these countries ...