On 18 May 2026, Liudmila Zavolokina, Zoya Katashinskaya and Gianluca Miscione presented the findings of the “Government as a Platform” project. When many Ukrainians were forced to flee following Russia’s attack in 2022, Switzerland responded quickly but in an uncoordinated manner. Between 2022 and 2026, the project team investigated how… Read More »Final presentation: Government as a Platform
From October 30 to November 1, 2025, a hackathon at the DSI brought together people from tech, design, and humanitarian practice to work on digital solutions for crisis response. The focus was on the Government as a Platform (GaaP) approach, developing modular and scalable digital foundations to enable faster and… Read More »Digital solutions for crisis management
The article ‘Listening to Refugee Voices by foregrounding their Ethical Dilemmas in Digital Platform’ was nominated for the Best Paper Award at the International Conference on Information Systems (ICIS) 2025. ICIS is the world’s leading conference in the field of information systems. The paper was presented in the track ‘Information… Read More »Best Paper Nomination at ICIS 2025
During a crisis, a flood of uncoordinated digital tools from government, NGOs, and volunteers often creates more confusion than clarity. This phenomenon is examined in a new paper, referred to as the “solution trap.” Drawing on a two-year case study of the digital response to the Ukrainian refugee crisis in… Read More »Mind the “GaaP”: Identifying and Solving Solution Traps in Crises
Access to relevant information is often a major challenge for refugees. The research paper “From Information-Seeking to Information-Asking: Designing RefuGPT, a Chatbot for Ukrainian Refugees in Switzerland” was published in the journal “Digital Government: Research and Practice”. RefuGPT helps Ukrainian refugees to better understand and navigate the complex bureaucratic processes… Read More »Designing RefuGPT
In his article DSI Insights on Inside IT, Kilian Sprenkamp sheds light on the potential of large language models (LLMs) such as GPT-4 for the public sector, particularly in the areas of refugee aid and propaganda detection. Using concrete applications, he shows how AI-supported chatbots and analysis tools are already… Read More »How AI Technology Supports Refugees and Detects Propaganda
A new publication in Government Information Quarterly (GIQ) explores how advanced technologies, including large language models, can support refugee management during crises. Titled “Data-driven intelligence in crisis: The case of Ukrainian refugee management,” the paper was authored by Kilian Sprenkamp, Mateusz Dolata, Liudmila Zavalokina, and Gerhard Schwabe. This study explores how… Read More »Enhancing Refugee Management with Data-Driven Intelligence
Alexandra Garazha, along with Gerhard Schwabe, Liudmila Zavolokina and Cédric Merz, recently published a paper at the International Conference on Information Systems (ICIS) titled “Resilience in Times of Crisis: Empowering Refugees with Self-Sovereign Identity”. The paper was nominated for the best paper award. ICIS is the biggest international conference on… Read More »ICIS’24 Best Paper Nomination for the Publication on Digital Identity for Refugees
In March, Dr. Liudmila Zavolokina (UZH) and Cédric Merz (Ergon AG) had a chance to present their work “Resilience in times of crisis – electronic identities for refugees from Ukraine” at the monthly E-ID Participation meeting of Federal Office of Justice FOJ. Currently, in Switzerland a work on the e-ID… Read More »eID solution presented at Federal Office of Justice
Late August “Government as a Platform” research group has held a presentation of a pilot project on the potential usage of SSI technology for issue of digital IDs for the refugees in Switzerland. The results were presented to the practice partners from the Swiss software companies Ergon Informatik AG and… Read More »Digital ID for refugees based on the Self-Sovereign Identity (SSI)