Centre's Research Projects Overview
The Centre's Research Projects
The Centre for Religion, Human Values and International Relations is carrying out two research projects in partnership with the Irish Council of Churches/Irish Inter-Church Meeting (ICC/IICM).
The Economics of Belonging
In the first of these, entitled ‘The Economics of Belonging,’ we explore how the experience of faith communities can help shape and inform the development of more effective wellbeing indicators, across the island of Ireland, that could help policy makers and the community and voluntary sector to work together more effectively to address the root causes of poverty and deprivation. The Dublin City Inter-Faith Forum (DCIF) contributes to this project.
The latest report of this project can be accessed here EoB report 2023
Multilateralism and Methodology
The second project, ‘Multilateralism and Methodology’, examines the ways in which our current structures for international cooperation may not be fit-for-purpose when it comes to some of the major global challenges that are of concern to churches, including climate justice and global peace-building efforts. The project is analysing the ways in which religious leaders can support political efforts to address these challenges through effective multilateral engagement.
The latest reports on 'Collective Action for Ending a Collective Problem: A Multi-stakeholder Project on Global Food Security' can be accessed by clicking on these links: Detailed report and Shorter version
Ethics of AI
Under the auspices of the ‘European Future Talks,’ and as part of the follow-up to the Conference on the Future of Europe (CoFoE) in 2021/2022, officials of the European Union promoted consultations in 2023/2024 on major current issues with the participation of representative voices from the churches and faith communities. This exercise has been carried out in the spirit of Article 17, Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union. Reports from a number of such multi- stakeholder consultations will be shared at a joint meeting in Brussels in 2025. The Centre for Religion, Human Values, and International Relations at Dublin City University was asked to take responsibility for the topic ‘AI and its ethical implications,’ against the background of the coming into force of the European Union’s AI Act. Meetings on other topics were held in other EU member States and in Britain. The Centre was supported in preparing and guiding the meeting by Onesto Consulting.
The underlying premise of the initiative is that it is useful for a diverse group of ‘social friends’ to arrive at some tentative conclusions, or to ‘disagree better,’ on a difficult topic such as AI. The aim was to produce a consensus-based document as a contribution to public debate. This document is attached here.
The Lord Mayor of Dublin Daithí de Róiste gave us the use of the Oak Room at the Mansion House for our meeting, which took place over a full day on Friday 19th April 2024 with more than 60 in-person participants including distinguished international speakers; nominees of churches and faith communities; representatives of government departments and EU institutions; leading academic experts on AI in Ireland/Northern Ireland; civil society actors, including the European Movement, the National Economic and Social Council (NESC), and the Think-tank on Action for Social Change (TASC); and prominent figures from the cultural world, business, and law. The event was hybrid, allowing other attendees to participate remotely. The day consisted of a combination of keynote presentations, interactive panel discussions, breakout sessions, and real time polling activities using a mobile device (Mentimeter).
Seán Ó Fearghaíl, the Ceann Comhairle (Speaker of the Lower House of Parliament), made a keynote speech. A video message of support was received from the First Vice-President of the European Parliament, Dr. Othmar Karas. Axel Voss, MEP, rapporteur for the AI Act, contributed to the deliberations on-line.
In addition to the ten high-level conclusions, the report offers eight examples of practical steps that can be taken here and now by the European Union and other public authorities, by individual businesses, or by the leading corporations engaged in the development of AI.