Clear
Structure complexity without flattening it. A synthesis that hides the disagreement is not a synthesis.
A European public intelligence initiative
Europe already has the knowledge. What is missing is the route through it.
UNDERSTAND connects public reporting, research and civic record across languages — and keeps every source visible and every claim traceable.
Status: in development Worked examples: available on request Languages: multilingual by design
The gap
Information is not yet understanding
Three newsrooms can each do their work well and still leave the citizen with three partial accounts.
An event is announced in the morning and reported in Dutch, German and French before the night is out. Nothing is missing from the record as a whole. What is missing is the connection between the accounts — and almost nobody reads across all of them.
The accounts rarely disagree on the facts. They diverge on which voice anchors the story, what is foregrounded and what is left out. That choice determines what the reader is left believing, and it is invisible from inside any single account.
So the shortage is not reporting. It is a route through the reporting.
Definition
What UNDERSTAND is, and what it is not
It is
- A layer on top of published work. Every claim carries the outlet that reported it, with the link intact.
- A method for showing divergence. Where accounts share a record, and where framing pulls them apart.
- Multilingual by construction. Reading across languages is the point, not a later feature.
- Open about its own method. Sources, dates and process are published alongside the output.
It is not
- A replacement newsroom. It commissions no reporting and competes for no byline.
- A truth score. Divergence is measured as distance from the shared record, never as a judgement of quality.
- A black box. No output appears without the trail that produced it.
- Proprietary by default. Knowledge held in public should stay inspectable in public.
Principles
Four qualities guide every expression
Credible
Evidence before assertion. Provenance, precise language and restraint in what is claimed.
Connected
Show relationships across sources, languages and perspectives — connections made visible.
Public
Open, useful and accountable. Plural by design, never proprietary in posture.
Method
Four steps, each one inspectable
01
Gather
Assemble what was published on an event across outlets, languages and public record. Each item keeps its outlet, timestamp and link.
02
Establish the shared record
Identify what every account agrees on, arrived at independently. This is the factual core the rest is measured against.
03
Surface the divergence
Set out what each account anchors on, foregrounds and omits — as distance from the shared record, not as a ranking.
04
Publish with the trail
Release the synthesis with its sources, dates and method attached, so any reader can walk back to the original.
Who it is for
Built with the institutions that already hold the knowledge
Public broadcasters and newsrooms
Reach readers beyond your own language without surrendering attribution. Your reporting stays yours, named and linked, wherever it appears in a synthesis.
Institutions and funders
Infrastructure for a plural European information space, built to be audited rather than trusted on assertion. Method and provenance are part of the deliverable.
Researchers and press
A traceable record of how an event was framed across outlets and languages, with the underlying material intact for your own analysis.
Citizens
One route through an event, in your own language, with every source a click away — and no requirement to take our word for anything.
Contact
We are looking for partner newsrooms, archives and funders for early pilots.
If you hold public-interest material in Europe, or fund the infrastructure that carries it, we would like to talk. Worked examples are available on request.
Response: within five working days