Researchers at Glasgow Caledonian University are leading a major international initiative that aims to transform how artificial intelligence serves society
The new Datavysts programme, funded by the EU, brings together 13 PhD fellows from across the world to explore how data and AI can be developed responsibly – helping communities, improving lives, and driving social progress.
Based at Glasgow Caledonian, TU Dortmund University, Ghent University, Politecnico di Milano and the Jožef Stefan Institute, the fellows will work together to explore how AI can be used to solve real societal challenges.
They have a bold but simple mission – they want to make data and AI more inclusive, responsible and beneficial to everyone. The Datavysts will combine academic research, advanced technology and community-led projects to rethink not just how AI is built, but why, and who it truly serves.
Over the next four years, the group will create new tools and frameworks to help social enterprises, health organisations and environmental groups use AI to expand their impact. They also plan to co-design apps with community partners and launch a free Academy of AI for the Common Good to share knowledge and training resources.
Dr Niamh Smith, part of the Datavysts supervisory team at Glasgow Caledonian’s School of Health and Life Sciences (SHLS), said: “We need to make data less intimidating and more useful to the people who are already improving lives and protecting our planet.”
Ultimately, the Datavysts hope to spark a global movement – one that uses AI not as a tool of power, but as a force for fairness, democracy and social progress.
“Tech-for-good has become a convenient truth – easy to endorse, harder to deliver,” said Professor Sebastien Chastin, who co-leads the SHLS Research Centre for Health (ReaCH) Data for the Common Good Research Group.
“People are spending heavily on AI, but most projects are designed to make money or boost efficiency, not to make a real difference for society. We need to look beyond symbolic gestures and start asking what good actually means, who benefits from it and on whose terms, then act with a clear purpose on what’s needed,” he added.