The implementation of the project “Digital Transformation for Building Democratic Resilience” (DIGI-ENLARGE) has launched at the Batumi Shota Rustaveli State University. DIGI-ENLARGE is Funded by the European Union under Horizon Europe Grant Agreement No. 101286675 (DIGI-ENLARGE) and studies how digital transformation is reshaping democracy in the EU and its candidate countries, builds a multilingual platform for citizens to take part in the enlargement debate, and turns the evidence into education and policy that institutions can use.
The project has three interconnected objectives addressing the institutional, technological and societal dimensions of enlargement in a digital era:
1. Comparative research and evidence base
Study the 2004, 2007 and 2013 enlargements as a comparative baseline, then map the digital preparedness of candidate and potential candidate countries across democratic institutions, legal frameworks, media ecosystems and civic culture. Datasets are published openly under FAIR principles.
2. Innovation in civic engagement tools
Co-design, build and pilot the E-Democracy Hub, a multilingual digital participation platform with debate support and disinformation resilience tools, designed with the groups usually absent from enlargement debates rather than for them.
3. Capacity building and policy uptake
Develop civic education and media literacy modules with educators and civil society, pilot them in schools, universities and community settings, and consolidate the findings into a policy toolkit of recommendations, legal templates and engagement strategies.
The project is implemented by an international consortium consisting of 10 partner organizations from EU member states and candidate countries, with Tallinn University of Technology serving as the project coordinator. The implementation involves Jean Monnet Professors and experts specializing in EU affairs from the academic, research, and non-governmental sectors.
From Georgia, the partner institution of the project is Batumi Shota Rustaveli State University (BSU), where the project is being carried out by the Jean Monnet Chair (EUCONST) within the Faculty of Law and Social Sciences. The project coordinator at Batumi Shota Rustaveli State University is Professor and Jean Monnet Chair, Malkhaz Nakashidze, Project staff: Giorgi Chakhvadze, Doctor of Law, Junior Researcher, Magda Japaridze, PhD student, Visiting Lecturer, Junior Researcher.
On October 12-13, 2026, the project coordinator, Professor Malkhaz Nakashidze, participated on behalf of BSU in the project consortium kick-off meeting, which was held in Istanbul, Turkey.
For detailed information about the project, please visit the website: https://digi-enlarge.eu
Please also visit the Jean Monnet Chair website: https://jeanmonnetchair.edu.ge/digi-enlarge
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