Four Sub-Grants Awarded to Strengthen Information Integrity in the Global South

From 26–30 January 2026, CINIA held a five-day convening with members of its IDRC project network. Drawing on the conversations, documentation, and analysis generated during the convening, eight research themes were identified.

Militarised AI, and technology actor chains and accountability
The Global South as a “testing ground” for new technologies and platforms, and invisibilised conflict harms
Fragmented policy-change ecosystems and intermediary roles
Physiological and psychosocial harms of technology-facilitated violence
Democratic resilience under shrinking civic space
Influencer economies and narrative warfare
Platform regulation effectiveness in a “moving target” environment
Sustaining Global South research ecosystems: funding, data access, and a “network of networks”.

Subsequently, a call for data-driven research proposals covering these themes was launched on 15 April. CINIA is pleased to announce and congratulate the following research teams, which have been awarded full grants for their proposals.

1. Country: South Africa
Organisation: UCT/Global Risk Governance Programme/African Hub for AI Safety, Peace, and Security
Project title: Smart city, hard policing: actor chains, militarised AI assemblages, and invisibilised harms in Cape Town
Research Theme: Platform regulation effectiveness in a “moving target” environment

2. Country: Sri Lanka
Organisation: LIRNEasia
Project Title: The Use of Generative AI to Analyze the Political Economy of YouTube Content in Sri Lanka
Research Theme: Influencer economies and narrative warfare

3. Country: Egypt/USA
Organisation: Open Transformation Lab Inc
Project Title: Manufacturing Consensus Against Rights: Coordinated Influencer Economies and the Delegitimisation of Civil Society Voices in the Arabic-Language Information Space
Research Theme: Influencer economies and narrative warfare

4. Country: Brazil
Organisation: InternetLab
Project Title: Regulating GenAI in Brazil’s Electoral Information Ecosystem: Evidence from User Perceptions and Model Behavior
Research Theme: Platform regulation effectiveness in a “moving target” environment

CINIA is excited to partner with the awardees to advance empirical research across these priority tracks.