New international project to track and counter digital gender-based violence affecting forcibly displaced people
A new three-year research project led by the University of Birmingham is building the first evidence base about how technology-facilitated gender-based violence is experienced by people living through conflict, displacement and refuge.
TRACE (TRAcking and Countering Technology-Facilitated Gender-Based Violence through Evidence-based Approaches across the Conflict–Refuge Continuum in Europe) brings together fifteen partners across eight countries, including universities, legal practitioners, humanitarian actors and survivor-led organisations. The project has been funded by Horizon Europe for more than €3 million and will run from October 2026 to September 2029.
Technology-facilitated gender-based violence refers to acts of gender-based violence committed, assisted or aggravated through digital technologies. For forcibly displaced people, technology can be both a lifeline and a source of danger, yet how digital infrastructures amplify these harms across borders and over time remains poorly understood.
This project will give policymakers, courts and platforms the evidence they need to recognise this violence for what it is and to act on it.
TRACE will examine how perpetrators weaponise digital tools to target, harm and control displaced populations, and develops methods to prevent, recognise and respond to that abuse.
Professor Heather Flowe, who leads TRACE at the University of Birmingham said: "Displaced women and girls are among the most exposed to digital abuse, and among the least protected by the systems meant to keep them safe. This project will give policymakers, courts and platforms the evidence they need to recognise this violence for what it is and to act on it."
The project combines research using AI-enabled pattern recognition and survivor-centred qualitative, as well as legal analysis across multiple conflict, transit and refuge settings.
TRACE introduces a new model for understanding technology-facilitated gender-based violence based on two related measures. The first is a conflict–displacement–refuge continuum that traces digital harms across time and space, and the second is an online–offline continuum that captures how virtual and physical violence intersect. Jointly, the research team can use this model to create a much more accurate picture of the range of experiences and harms that vulnerable women and girls face.
The consortium comprises fifteen partners:
The findings from the TRACE project will support EU implementation of the Istanbul Convention and Directive (EU) 2024/1385, producing early-warning typologies, survivor guidance and frameworks for institutional and platform reform.
For media enquiries please contact Tim Mayo, Press Office, University of Birmingham, tel: +44 (0)7815 607 157.
TRACE (Grant Agreement No 101287413) is a Horizon Europe Research and Innovation Action funded under the call HORIZON-CL2-2025-01, topic HORIZON-CL2-2025-01-TRANSFO-01, "Tackling gender-based violence in different social and economic spheres". It is coordinated by the University of Birmingham and runs from 1 October 2026 to 30 September 2029.
Funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the European Research Executive Agency (REA). Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them.
Professor of Psychology
Professor Heather Flowe is a leading expert in episodic memory, focusing on memory retrieval processes in legal contexts.
