Transforming Housing Policy and Democratic Governance
The THRIVE project explores how participatory democracy can strengthen citizens’ influence on housing and urban policy. Working with policymakers and communities, we are developing a computational approach to analysing public consultation submissions, highlighting distinctive ideas and specific concerns that might otherwise be overlooked. By connecting citizens’ contributions with policymaking, THRIVE aims to make participation more inclusive and meaningful, strengthen transparency and public trust, and support fairer policies that better reflect people’s diverse needs and aspirations.
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Four phases, ensuring scientific rigor and utilizing local knowledge.
State-of-art
We bring together research on participatory and deliberative democracy, public consultations, urban and housing policy, and artificial intelligence. This literature review explores how citizens’ contributions are processed and used, identifying challenges and opportunities for making participation more meaningful. Find our library to access the large corpus of publications on this topic all around the world.
Developing research criteria with participants
Through structured interviews and surveys, we gather perspectives from government and local authorities, charity and industry representatives, policy experts, and citizens to understand what makes consultation contributions relevant. These insights inform criteria for recognising detailed concerns, communication, and new ideas, grounding our approach in policy expertise and practical experiences.
Analysing public consultation submissions
Researchers apply these criteria to a diverse sample of consultation submissions, examining their structure, style, and content. Researchers then annotate a large subset of existing submission data. This dataset will support the development and evaluation of computational methods that recognise important details within citizens’ contributions.
Developing and evaluating computational supports
We develop and test AI methods to help public authorities identify specific concerns and ideas across consultation submissions. To be used by local authorities and policymakers, this tool is designed to support human judgement and help citizens’ contributions inform housing and urban policy.
An interdisciplinary research project
THRIVE brings together researchers in social science and data science to examine how citizen submissions are processed, interpreted and applied in housing policy in Ireland.
Led by Dr Valesca Lima (PI) and Dr Lili Zhang (Co-PI) at Dublin City University, funded by Research Ireland Coalesce.
Leading expert in democratic governance and housing policy with extensive experience in citizen engagement research.
Specializing in data science, advanced analytics, and innovative information processing technologies.
Human rights specialist and researcher working at the intersection of law and policy, with expertise in evidence-based legal and policy reform.
Computational scientist with expertise in complex systems. Responsible for technical implementation of the THRIVE pipeline.
Specialist in AI and machine learning and communication networks.
Leading authority in machine learning and data analytics.
Lima, V. (2026). How public consultations can spark local innovation.
Lima, V. (2026). ‘Co-Creating the Housing Ecosystem: The Deliberative System and the Power of Good Ideas’.
Access for public bodies and research collaborators
Accounts are provided on request. Contact the project team at project-thrive@dcu.ie or +353 1 700 5000, Dublin City University.