On 4 - 5 June, 2025, a workshop on the use of data in global governance was held in Geneva, jointly organised by the Hoffmann Centre for Global Sustainability and the Global Governance Centre at the Geneva Graduate Institute, with funding from the SNF project led by Professor James Hollway, “PANARCHIC: Power and Networks and the Rate of Change in Institutional Complexes”.
International scholars from various disciplines gathered at the Villa Barton on Lake Geneva to discuss the use and collection of data on international agreements and actors, best practices in this process, and the future evolution of our relationship with data as advancements are made in artificial intelligence. Apart from identifying areas for collaboration in building datasets and enhancing their accessibility, the group also engaged in discussions about concerns in using artificial intelligence for coding and building datasets.
In relation to these discussions, the group also benefited from a visit to CERN’s data centre hosted by Ricardo Rocha and his colleagues, learning about the feasibility of applying machine learning to the processing and use of data, and reflecting on the reproducibility of research that uses machine learning as well as the practical and environmental considerations of using and collecting data on a larger scale.
