Partners & Collaborations

Partnership opportunities

The Centre for Innovation, Technology, and Ethics (CITE) actively seeks partnerships with organizations committed to responsible technological innovation. As a Research Centre of the University of Groningen's interdisciplinary faculty Campus Fryslân, we bridge academic expertise with real-world applications, creating impact through collaborative innovation.

Why partner with CITE?

Our partnerships combine academic dedication with practical innovation, offering:

• Access to cutting-edge research in speech technology, AI ethics, and digital governance
• Collaboration with interdisciplinary experts from our Speech Tech Lab and Tech Governance Lab
• Support in developing ethically-sound technological solutions
• Opportunities to participate in funded research projects
• Connection to a growing network of innovation partners in the Northern Netherlands and beyond

Current success stories

• AI-COMPASS: Collaborating with industry partners on ethical AI decision-support systems
• Ransomware Resilience: Building regional networks for cybersecurity awareness
• Data Autonomy Index: Developing frameworks for responsible data governance
• Fryske Akademy: Creating speech technology solutions for the Frisian language

Partnership models

Research collaboration

• Joint research projects
• PhD research sponsorship
• Participation in academic-industrial consortia

Knowledge exchange

• Workshops and training programs
• Guest lectures and expert sessions
• Advisory board membership
• Knowledge-sharing networks

Innovation projects

• Proof-of-concept development
• Pilot studies
• Technology evaluation and ethical assessment
• Custom solution development

Focus areas for collaboration

Speech Technology Lab

• Support for small languages
• Voice interface design and testing
• Speech synthesis (artificial voices) and speech recognition
• Ethical AI in speech applications

Tech Governance Lab

• Digital ethics frameworks
• Technology policy development
• Cybersecurity governance
• Data protection strategies

Support and funding

CITE participates in various funding schemes and can support partner organizations in:Grant proposal developmentProject consortium formationAccess to regional and European funding opportunitiesCo-funding arrangements.

Getting started

We welcome discussions with potential partners about collaboration opportunities. Our flexible approach allows us to tailor partnerships to mutual interests and objectives.

Partners

• Z-inspection: CITE is affiliated with Z-inspection®. The initiative is a holistic process for evaluating the trustworthiness of AI-based technologies at different stages of the AI lifecycle. In particular, it focuses on identifying and discussing ethical issues and tensions through the development of socio-technical scenarios. The process has been published in the IEEE Transactions on Technology and Society and it is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons License (Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike CC BY-NC-SA).

Contact information

- Speech Tech Lab: Dr. Vass Verkhodanova

- Tech Governance Lab: Taís Fernanda Blauth