ColibrAI: Research Lab and Network for Coliberative Development of AI

The ColibrAI seed fund project aims to lay the foundation for a long-term research agenda on community-centric AI by fostering interdisciplinary collaboration and cultivating a culture of critical engagement with AI development.

The project seeks to challenge dominant AI narratives, which often reinforce power imbalances, by focusing on practical interventions that empower marginalized groups to actively shape AI policies, practices, and governance.

At its core, ColibrAI envisions a participatory AI framework that integrates principles of justice, equity, and co-liberation into AI research and education. Instead of allowing AI development to be dictated by centralized corporate or state-driven power structures, the project explores ways in which communities can engage meaningfully in the development, auditing, and governance of AI systems. This requires rethinking AI not as a neutral technology but as a social and political tool that must be designed and deployed in ways that are transparent, accountable, and aligned with democratic values.

Through Unite! University , ColibrAI will launch a collaboration between researchers and institutions to:

• Facilitate interdisciplinary knowledge exchange by uniting expertise in AI, participatory design, and decolonial perspectives to explore alternative AI frameworks.
• Investigate ethical AI governance models, examining how decentralized, community-led decision-making can replace top-down AI policy structures.
• Strengthen the Unite! research network by fostering new collaborations between KTH, Aalto, and TUDa, integrating technical and social science perspectives on AI. As the ColibrAI project marks the first collaboration among its PIs, Unite! seed funding plays a crucial role in building a sustainable interdisciplinary network.
• Empower researchers, students, and practitioners with the tools to critically analyze and reshape AI systems through education, workshops, and collaborative research.
• Lay the groundwork for long-term research and funding, positioning ColibrAI for larger-scale initiatives beyond this initial seed phase.

By taking a community-centric and justice-oriented approach, ColibrAI aims to fundamentally rethink how AI is developed, who gets to participate in its design, and how its impacts are distributed.

The goal is not just to critique existing AI paradigms but to actively create new, participatory models that challenge exploitation and democratize AI governance.

Existing AI initiatives within Unite! primarily emphasize technological innovation and interdisciplinary research but do not explicitly center on participatory AI frameworks, decolonial perspectives, or community-driven governance models.

This makes ColibrAI a strategic and timely initiative that can bridge this gap by bringing together KTH (Sweden), Aalto (Finland), and TUDa (Germany) in an interdisciplinary research collaboration. Each partner contributes unique expertise, making this a strong foundation for participatory AI research:

• KTH brings expertise in AI justice and data feminism, focusing on bias, fairness, and power structures in AI systems.
• Aalto contributes knowledge in participatory design and community-centered creative practices that challenge instrumentalist uses of AI, offering methodologies for community-driven technology development and governance.
• TUDa provides a decolonial perspective on AI, digital technology, and pedagogy, ensuring that the research challenges dominant Western-centric AI narratives and centers marginalized voices.

By leveraging this combination of technical, creative, and social expertise, ColibrAI will establish a novel interdisciplinary research network capable of critically engaging with AI’s societal impact and creating alternative frameworks for just and community-driven AI design and development.

Phase 1: Establishing Collaboration and Knowledge Exchange

• Organization of online meetings to align expectations, define common research goals, and capture the expertise of the partners.
• Conduct a literature and initiative review to assess existing community-centric AI research and identify gaps, published through a collaborative and public platform.
• Host online sessions for knowledge exchange.
• Develop a public research gap report summarizing key insights from the literature review to establish a shared foundation for future work.
• Define a preliminary funding roadmap, identifying key grant calls and aligning research priorities for later stages.
• Establish a shared research repository for findings and references to facilitate collaboration (repository structure will be defined based on partner needs).

Phase 2: Research Agenda Development and Public Engagement

• Integrate discussions on participatory AI, co-liberation, and ethical AI governance into partner universities' courses through guest lectures and online discussions.
• Organize a one-day online workshop on participatory AI, labor rights, and decentralized decision-making, engaging researchers, civil society groups, policymakers, and industry representatives.
• Identify potential joint research projects and interdisciplinary synergies.
• Begin drafting initial research concepts, integrating knowledge exchange activities and stakeholder feedback.

Phase 3: In-Person Workshop and Research Planning

• Host a two-day in-person workshop at KTH, bringing together researchers, PhD students, and external experts to refine research directions and strengthen collaboration.
• Finalize at least two joint research concepts to be developed into larger grant applications.
• Develop small collaborative publications (e.g., blog posts, essays, or short research papers) to increase ColibrAI's visibility and attract broader participation.
• Produce a white paper on participatory AI governance, summarizing workshop findings and research directions intended for policy and research dissemination.

Phase 4: Proposal Development and Future Funding Strategy

• Identify and assess potential funding opportunities, with an emphasis on Horizon Europe, ERC, MSCA, and NordForsk grants.
• Draft joint research proposals, ensuring a clear division of writing responsibilities among partners.
• Develop a risk mitigation plan, identifying alternative funding sources (e.g., smaller grants, industry partnerships, or pilot projects).
• Finalize a roadmap for the continuation of ColibrAI, ensuring long-term research sustainability beyond the seed funding phase.

Expected Outcomes

• Established a research network on participatory AI, fostering interdisciplinary collaboration across KTH, Aalto, and TUDa.
• Engaged researchers, students, and community members through online sessions, workshops, and teaching activities.
• Developed a formal research roadmap, integrating AI, participatory design, and decolonial perspectives.
• Produced blog posts and white paper on participatory AI governance to inform future research and policy discussions.
• Finalized joint research concepts for larger-scale funding applications.
• Strengthened Unite!’s research capacity in community-centric AI, establishing new academic and policy collaborations.
• Positioned the project for future large-scale funding, ensuring long-term sustainability.