“la Caixa” Foundation funds two LIP projects to promote a fairer and more democratic society
EQUI-PHARM and INVIS_AI were selected in the 2026 edition of the Social Research Call. The projects apply data science to two contemporary challenges: inequalities in access to medicines and the impact of artificial intelligence on access to political information.
Two LIP projects have been selected for the 2026 edition of the Social Research Call of the “la Caixa” Foundation’s Social Observatory, an initiative supporting research aimed at understanding and addressing some of today’s major social challenges.
EQUI-PHARM and INVIS_AI focus on different areas but share a common approach: using data science methods to make inequalities visible, generate knowledge that is useful to society, and contribute to evidence-based public policy. EQUI-PHARM will be funded by the Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT), under its partnership with the “la Caixa” Foundation.
When having a prescription does not mean having access to medicine
Despite the universal coverage provided by Portugal’s National Health Service, inequalities in effective access to medicines persist. This is the starting point for EQUI-PHARM – Quantifying Socio-Economic Barriers to Pharmaceutical Access in Portugal Using Digital Records, led by Lília Perfeito, a researcher at LIP.
The project will use national electronic prescription and medicines dispensing data to identify and measure economic and geographical barriers to accessing medicines. Among other factors, the team will analyse patterns of prescribed medicines not being obtained, possible delays associated with income cycles, and geographical differences in access to pharmacies.
One of the project’s outputs will be the EQUI-PHARM Monitor, a decision-support tool for health authorities and policymakers that will help identify situations of vulnerability and support more targeted interventions.
“The first step in tackling inequalities in access to healthcare is identifying who the populations at risk are and where they are. The EQUI-PHARM project aims to analyse access to medicines among the Portuguese population, using administrative and demographic data combined with models informed by clinical practice,” explains Lília Perfeito.
The project also involves collaboration with healthcare professionals, helping to bring research results closer to the practical needs of citizens and the healthcare system.
What do we see when we search for political information online?
Every day, search engines and artificial intelligence-based language models select, organise and prioritise the information we access. But what happens when that information is political?
INVIS_AI, led by Joana Gonçalves-Sá, a researcher at LIP, will investigate how these systems organise political information, whether they introduce biases, and how these may affect the visibility of political parties and issues in Portugal and Spain.
The team will combine large-scale automated audits with experimental studies, following the process from the information presented by digital platforms through to its potential impact on citizens’ perceptions.
Expected outputs include an open infrastructure for auditing digital platforms and a new pluralism indicator, the Pluralism Gap, which will make it possible to compare the political visibility promoted by search engines and language models with independent indicators of the political landscape.
Developed in partnership with Pedro Magalhães, from the Institute of Social Sciences (ICS), and the Portuguese Regulatory Authority for the Media (ERC), the project will adopt a comparative approach between Portugal and Spain.
“Algorithmic systems play an increasingly important role in shaping how we access information. Understanding rigorously how they organise that information, and how this process varies across countries, languages and contexts, is essential to supporting public policy and regulation,” says Joana Gonçalves-Sá.
Data science for new social challenges
The selection of these two projects strengthens the interdisciplinary dimension of research at LIP, bringing complex systems and data science closer to fields such as health, the social sciences and artificial intelligence, in collaboration with public institutions and civil society organisations.