TRACE EAB Meeting

The third Ethics Advisory Board (EAB) meeting was held on Thursday 23rd June 2023. 

The EAB plays an important role in projects supported by the European Commission program Horizon Europe. This body helps to ensure that applicable legal and ethical standards are met. Thus, when a project funded by EC has societal implications, the question of ethics arises, and in these cases, the EABs are asked to make the appropriate assessments. More information about the EAB can be found here.

The meeting was held virtually. Present were the external EAB members as well as representatives of the project coordinator, the project partners involved in the work package on ethical, legal and societal impacts and representatives of the technical partners working on the development of the TRACE tool.

The meeting began with a presentation on the progress of the project. It was given by representatives of the project coordinator. It was reported that all ethics deliverables were accepted. It was also suggested that the mid-term report be sent to EAB members for further information on the project's progress. The follow-up presentation was given by the legal and ethical work package leader who explained the progress in this work package. During this presentation, the external EAB members discussed the strengths of the implemented methodology in terms of the preliminary investigation phase when AI is used. In addition, the external EAB members were interested in the opinions of the project partners on whether all areas were adequately covered.

The following presentation by the representative from technical partners provided insights into the TRACE tool. The external EAB members were interested in LEAs' feedback on the use of the tool and the data related to the use of the tool. Thus, the usefulness of the tool and its reliability and adaptability were discussed.

Finally, it was reiterated that project partners should establish contacts with national data protection authorities and LEA representatives to obtain expert feedback on compliance and its usefulness.

The next EAB meeting is planned for autumn 2023.