PAIA hosts its first Prototeam meeting
The PAIA project hosts its first Prototeam meeting together with its partners to reflect on the project, explore mutual research themes and plan for the next phase of the project.
In June 2026, PAIA hosted its first Prototeam meeting. The 3-day gathering, which was held at AIAS, was a key milestone for the project, bringing together the project team and its partners to review past and ongoing project activities, explore mutual research themes and outline future plans. Associate Professors Rachel C. Smith and Rikke Jensen, together with PostDoc Chris Muashekele, represented Aarhus University. They were joined by Professor Heike Winschiers-Theophilus from the Namibia University of Science and Technology and Professor Gertraud Koch from the University of Hamburg.
During the gathering, the team outlined project milestones, presenting key interventions and actions taken, such as the development of the Energy Encounters platform, associated research activities in Denmark and Namibia and publications. Additionally, the team and project partners discussed a wide variety of topics and concepts such as poor and rich data, meaning-making and simulation, as well as pluriversity within the context of AI. The perspectives emerging from the discussions allowed the team and project partners to frame the project and identify new research possibilities and activities that contribute to the project objectives.
One of the highlights of the gathering was the discussions about participatory and pluriversal AI. The discussions were extensive and insightful, providing new perspectives, including data categorisations, levels of interpretation and socio-tech foundations, which directly contribute to the development of a shared framework for alternative sustainable futures across Namibian and Danish contexts. The framework is a key deliverable for the project. Therefore, these discussions were an important step, providing the foundation for a substantive approach that guides the design, development and deployment of AI technologies in global north and south contexts.
The team also identified different project activities and publication possibilities across multiple conference avenues as part of the next phase of the project. These include the refinement of the Energy Encounters platform and the broader involvement of students in Namibia and Denmark through associated projects that advance the project’s research objective as well as provide tangible impact within the involved communities.