The Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB) is one of the major public universities in Spain, and it is in Cerdanyola del Vallès, near the city of Barcelona in Catalonia, Spain. The university consists of 57 departments in the experimental, life, social and human sciences, spread among 13 faculties/schools. All these centres together award a total of 85 qualifications in the form of first degrees, diplomas, and engineering degrees. Moreover, almost 80 doctoral programs, and more than 80 others postgraduate programs are offered. UAB has more than 40,000 students and more than 3,600 academic and research staff. The UAB is a pioneering institution in terms of fostering research. There are many research institutes in the campus, as well as other research centres, technical support services and service-providing laboratories, and the ALBA (synchrotron) located in the Barcelona Synchrotron Park is very close to the UAB.

The UAB Institute of Law and Technology (IDT), housed at the Faculty of Law of the Autonomous University of Barcelona, is a research center promoting cutting-edge research on Law, Ethics and Technology from a multidisciplinary perspective. The IDT-UAB has extensive experience as ethical and legal partner of EU funded research projects. It is internationally renowned for its expertise in legal and ethical compliance of data-driven technologies in different domains. Research areas include ethical AI, data protection and privacy and algorithmic legal and ethical governance.

The IDT role in EU Projects entails: (i) identifying the ethical and legal framework; ii) defining the ethical and legal requirements that must be observed in all research activities; (iii) assessing the legal, ethical and societal risks of the technologies and providing technical and organizational mitigation measures; (iv) assisting Consortium partners with legal and ethical issues; (v) setting up a robust monitoring strategy to ensure compliance, involving independent experts as members of the Independent Ethics Board.

IDT researchers also contribute significantly to the organization of specialized workshops, and the dissemination of the project findings and results through scientific publications and presentations in the main Data Protection and Law & Technology Conferences and Workshops (e.g. IVR, Jurix, ICAIL, and AICOL).

The IDT is a Consolidated Research Center recognized by the Catalan Government. 

Law & Ethics

Human Rights, Data Protection & Ethics

  • Legal and Ethical Compliance of Data-Driven Technologies
  • Identification of Legal and Ethical Frameworks
  • Assessment of Legal and Ethical Risks
  • Robust Legal and Ethical Monitoring Strategy

Social Acceptability

Technology Acceptance & Trust

  • Individual and Societal Well-Being
  • Human-Centered Technologies
  • Digital Literacy, Awareness Raising and Citizens’ Empowerment
  • Environmental Friendliness and Sustainability

Responsible Research & Innovation

Research, Innovation & Society

  • Integrity: Reliability, Honesty, Respect and Accountability
  • Diversity and Inclusion
  • Anticipation and Reflection
  • Openness and Transparency
  • Responsiveness and Adaptive Change

News & Events

  • 38th Annual BILETA Conference
    Today, IDT researcher Andrea Guillén participated in the 38th Annual BILETA Conference at the Amsterdam Law & Technology Institute (ALTI) with the presentation “Automated Decision-Making under the GDPR: Towards the Collective Dimension of Data Protection.”
  • 4th OPTMAI Plenary Meeting
    This week, IDT researchers Emma Teodoro and Andrea Guillén attended the 4th OPTIMAI Plenary Meeting at Televés Headquarters in Santiago de Compostela
  • ITFLOWS 5th Steering Committee & General Assembly
    IDT researchers Emma Teodoro and Andrea Guillén attended the ITFLOWS project 5th Steering Committee & General Assembly in Florence past February 4th.
  • ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE GOVERNANCE WORKSHOP
    Next Monday 19 December, we will hold the AIGEL full-day scientific workshop with the collaboration of the IIIA-CSIC, from 9am to 6.45pm CET. A panel of twenty-three international speakers will offer a multidisciplinary approach to Ethics and AI.  The event will take place at the Sala de Graus of UAB […]
  • The fifth AIGEL session at the UAB Faculty of Law
    On Wednesday 14 December, we held the fifth AIGEL session at the Faculty of Law of the UAB. We would like to thank Professor Nardine Osman (IIIA-CSIC) for her great conference “Value Engineering in AI”, as well as Professor Enric Plaza (IIIA-CSIC) for chairing such an interesting and enlightening discussion. […]
  • ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE GOVERNANCE: ETHICS and LAW (5th Session)
    Next Wednesday 14 December at 2.30pm, we will hold the 5th AIGEL session. Professors Carles Sierra and Nardine Osman (IIIA-CSIC) will be our main speakers with the conference “Value Engineering in AI”. The open discussion will be chaired by Professor Enric Plaza (IIIA-CSIC).  The session will be held in the […]
  • The fourth AIGEL session at the UAB Faculty of Law
    On Wednesday, 30 November, we held the fourth AIGEL session at the Sala de Graus of the UAB Law Faculty. We would like to thank Nadia Pocher (IDT-UAB) for her insightful conference “Detecting Anomalous Cryptocurrency Transactions: AML/CFT/CPF applications of Machine Learning-based Forensics”, as well as Professor Carles Górriz (IDT-UAB) for […]
  • ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE GOVERNANCE: ETHICS and LAW (4th Session)
    Next Wednesday 30 November at 2.30pm, we will hold the 4th AIGEL session. Nadia Pocher (IDT-UAB) will be our main speaker with the conference “Detecting Anomalous Cryptocurrency Transactions: AML/CFT/CPF applications of Machine Learning-based Forensics”. The open discussion will be chaired by Professor Carlos Górriz (IDT-UAB).   The session will be […]
  • The third AIGEL session at the UAB Faculty of Law
    Last Wednesday 16 November we held the third AIGEL session. We would like to thank our speakers, Professors Pablo Noriega and Enric Plaza (IIIA-CSIC), for their inspiring conference: “Policy Simulation as an Instance of the Value Alignment Problem”. And special thanks to Professor Nardine Osman (IIIA-CSIC) for chairing such an interesting discussion. Next session will […]
  • ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE GOVERNANCE: ETHICS and LAW (3rd Session)
    Next Wednesday 16 November at 2.30pm, we will hold the 3rd AIGEL session. Professors Pablo Noriega and Enric Plaza (IIIA) will be our main speakers with the conference “Policy Simulation as an Instance of the Value Alignment Problem”. The open discussion will be chaired by Professor Nardine Osman.  The session […]

How to reach us

Faculty of Law, B Building, Department of Political Science and Public Law, Campus UAB, 08193 Bellaterra, Barcelona (Spain)

IDT @ Google Maps