On the opening night of the CPDP conference, Europe’s leading data protection conference, Prof. Mantelero received the AI Policy Leader in Academia award from the Center for AI and Digital Policy Europe. Other awards went to the Italian Data Protection Authority (AI Policy Leader in Government), the NGO European Digital Rights (AI Policy Leader in Civil Society), and journalist Luca Bertuzzi (AI Policy Leader in Business).
Prof. Mantelero received the award together with Prof. Gianclaudio Malgeri (Leiden University) “for promoting human rights impact assessment in the governance of AI”, referring to their work in favour of the introduction of the FRIA-Fundamental Rights Impact Assessment in the AI Act (now Article 27 of the Act) through active engagement with the team of the EP Rapporteur on the AI Act, Brando Benifei, and their public appeal, signed by more than 150 university professors, asking the EU institutions to include the FRIA in the AI Act.
Upon receiving the award, Prof. Mantelero said that “this award is not for me, but for all academics who have chosen to remain independent, because as academics we cannot be involved in policy activities without being independent”. He expressed his gratitude to the Center for AI and Digital Policy Europe for this award and dedicated it to the younger generation of researchers, saying that this proves that it is worth working on policy advice for the benefit of society.
