The DE-BIAS project, promoted a more inclusive and respectful approach to the description of digital collections and the telling of stories and histories of minoritised communities. DE-BIAS took a bottom-up approach working with marginalised communities to improve the representation and participation of people who feel that museums and archives don’t speak of them or, worse, are not for them.
Focusing on the themes of migration and colonial history, gender and sexual identity, and ethnicity and ethno-religious identity, DE-BIAS has created a variety of resources, including a set of recommendations to represent diversity in cultural heritage metadata; a replicable methodology for cultural heritage institutions to engage with communities; several capacity building materials to follow yourself or to apply to your own context; the DE-BIAS vocabulary (covering terms in five languages) combining offensive language with contextual information and suggestions for appropriate terms; and the AI-powered DE-BIAS tool for use as a stand-alone application or for integration into existing workflows.
Project goals
- Built an AI-supported tool to detect and flag problematic or harmful terms in cultural heritage metadata.
- Created a multilingual vocabulary of contentious terms with context and alternative suggestions
- Established a community engagement methodology to work collaboratively with marginalised groups and ensure inclusive co-creation.
- Developed a framework for analysing bias types and patterns in collections (e.g., around migration/colonial past, gender/sexual identity, ethnicity).
- Supported capacity-building in the cultural heritage sector so institutions can better represent diversity and reduce bias in metadata.
Project partners
- DFF - Deutsches Filminstitut & Filmmuseum (coordinator) - Germany
- Europeana Foundation - The Netherlands Datoptron - Greece
- European Fashion Heritage Association - Italy
- Thinkcode - Cyprus
- Michael Culture Association - Belgium
- Centro Europeo per l’Organizzazione e il Management Culturale - Italy
- Katholieke Universiteit Leuven - Belgium -Stichting Archives Portal Europe Foundation - The Netherlands
- Ministère de la Culture et de la Communication - France
- Stichting Nederlands Instituut Voor Beeld En Geluid - The Netherlands
Funding information
| Funding stream | The Digital Europe Programme (DIGITAL) (opens in new window) |
| Contract number | 101100744 |
| Funders | |
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Key project impact
| Community engagement methodology | 1 |
| DE-BIAS Tool | 1 |
| Multilingual vocabulary | 1 |
| Framework for analysing bias types and patterns | 1 |
Project reports
| files Europeana Professional Projects debias DE-BIAS D2.1 TypologyAndVocabulary v1 | (opens in new window) |