DANUBE SMALL PROJECT FUND
Learning the use of AI to foster the communication between Danubians
Young people from different Danube countries explored how digital tools and artificial intelligence can help overcome language barriers and strengthen international communication.
22–24 July 2025
Three-day workshop in Ulm
19 students
From schools in Odessa and Sofia
Ulm · Odessa · Sofia
International cooperation
AI & digital tools
Communication beyond language barriers
PROJECT OVERVIEW
Using digital tools for communication across borders
In July 2025, 19 students from German-speaking schools in Odessa, Ukraine, and Sofia, Bulgaria, met in Ulm, Germany, together with German pupils and volunteers.
During a three-day workshop, they learned how to conduct effective interviews with experts on five selected sustainability goals and how to use new digital tools, especially AI, to make the content engaging and to translate it into other languages.
The aim was to ensure that the interviews could be discussed without language barriers.
KEY GOAL
Communication without language barriers
Raising awareness of sustainability goals and equipping students with AI skills to break language barriers and foster international dialogue.
THE WORKSHOP
Three days of learning and collaboration
DAY 1
ViMA Danube & digital tools
Introduction to ViMA Danube and other useful digital tools.
DAY 2
Interviews with experts
The students worked in mixed-nationality groups to conduct five-minute video interviews with experts in Ulm and share their findings.
The experts came from politics, municipalities, business, and the social and cultural sectors.
DAY 3
Editing, AI & translation
The students learned how to edit videos and use AI tools such as subtitles and avatars to make the content accessible in English, Bulgarian, and Ukrainian.
They used HeyGen for processing video sequences and generating multilingual subtitles.
They presented their AI-enhanced interviews and discussed the results with teachers and other students at Schubart Gymnasium, demonstrating how AI translation can help share valuable insights on the SDGs across the Danube region.
After the summer break, the students from Odessa and Sofia will present the project in their home schools. The interviews will be uploaded to the ViMA Danube platform and discussed in the forum “Implementing sustainability goals in daily life to promote democracy?”.
PROJECT SUPPORT
Danube Small Project Fund
The project is sponsored by the DANUBE SMALL PROJECT FUND funded by: The Ministry of Science, Research and Arts Baden-Württemberg, the Federal Ministry for European and International Affairs of Austria, the Arbeitsgemeinschaft (ARGE) Donauländer / State of Lower Austria, the Provincial Government of the Autonomous Province of Vojvodina within the Republic of Serbia, the City of Regensburg, the Danube Office Ulm / Neu-Ulm and the Volksbank Ulm Biberach.
LEARNING & QUALIFICATION
Workshops and online qualifications
02.10.2025
Fake News in the Political Discourse
Online lecture with Prof. Dr. Marten Risius.
09.09.2025
Democracy as Self-Government
Online lecture with Prof. Dr. Brigitte Geißel on democratic innovations by and with citizens.
23.07.2025
Workshop: “Clips become a Story”
Workshop with David Fichtner on editing rough cuts and using tools including CapCut.
22.07.2025
Storytelling techniques
Workshop with Sabine Geller using the practical example of “Danube Confluence”.
10.04.2025
Getting Started with ViMA Danube
Online platform qualification for active participation.
PROJECT RESULTS
Interviews with stakeholders from Ulm
These interviews were made by students from Sofia, Odessa and Ulm in the frame of the Danube Small Project Fund. The original videos were made in German and translated with AI into Bulgarian, Ukrainian and English.