De Facto partners gathered for the first time in Sofia on October 15-16, giving a start to the project. NTCenter, the coordinator, hosted the intensive meeting with day one dedicated to the scientific base of the De Facto concept. Andy Stoycheff, the project initiator, made an introduction to relevant subject matter coming from the fields of Neuroanatomy, Neuroscience and Cognitive Science.
Building on top of major scientific concepts and discoveries with regard to the cognitive processes, the partners discussed the draft methodology documentation and action plans during the second day of the meeting. There is now a clear timetable and task allocation, with several working groups working in parallel and in close coordination. Given the tight timetable, expedience will be of paramount importance for the project, while all partners recognise the importance of meticulous precision and accuracy in the delivered results. One of the first tasks of the consortium is to draft a classification of disinformation types in the form of a framework document. For this and other purposes throughout the project, a Europe-wide survey of educators’ practices will be designed, focusing on learning assignments, research- and project-based learning. The survey will focus on the countries represented on the project’s board — Bulgaria, Belgium, Slovenia, Italy, Poland, United Kingdom, Czech Republic — but we will also attempt to widen our data-gathering perimeter to other European countries. The partners who spoke at the formal opening expressed their shared understanding of the difficulty of the tasks ahead. This is an uncharted territory and we are approaching it with little or no tools at all. Therefore the partnership remains committed to the challenge ahead and to the success of the agreed methodological approach which, unlike a typical Erasmus+ project, would have to shift and evolve as we gather more data and inform our next steps by the sound analytical work. We invite you to follow us along the way – and to make this easier, it was agreed that all future communications and releases related to the project shall carry the hashtags #DeFactoSpace and #DeFactoProject.
