Experts call for fairer AI recruitment during BIAS Project panel at CPDP
Members of the Horizon Europe BIAS Project participated in the Conference CPDP 2026 (Computers, Privacy and Data Protection) to discuss how AI systems used in recruitment and workplace contexts can be made fairer, more inclusive, and more accountable.
AI systems are increasingly used to support hiring, candidate screening, employee evaluation, and other Human Resources processes. While these tools can streamline decision-making, they also raise serious concerns about trustworthiness, accountability, and discrimination. In employment contexts, biased AI systems can directly affect people’s access to work, career progression, economic security, and equal treatment.
The Horizon Europe BIAS Project joined a panel on 'Toward a Standard for Fair AI-driven Recruitment', bringing together experts from academia, policy, industry, and standardisation. The panel explored how standards, the EU AI Act, and interdisciplinary governance can help address diversity bias in AI systems used in the labour market.
The panel was moderated by Frida Englund Sandvik from Norwegian University of Science and Technology and featured contributions from Eduard Fosch-Villaronga of Leiden University, Rania Wazir of Leiwand.ai, Adam L. Smith of the AIQI Consortium, and Irene Kamara of Tilburg University. Together, the speakers examined how harmonised standards under the EU AI Act can help translate broad principles such as fairness, transparency, non-discrimination, and fundamental rights protection into concrete governance practices for AI-driven recruitment.
The discussion focused on the role of harmonised standards in promoting trustworthy AI and mitigating diversity biases in the labour market. Speakers considered both the promise and the limitations of standardisation, asking how standards can move beyond technical benchmarks and meaningfully embed normative principles such as fairness, diversity, and non-discrimination.
A key message from the panel was that bias in AI-driven recruitment is not only a technical issue. It is also shaped by organisational cultures, historical inequalities, labour-market structures, and assumptions about what makes a candidate suitable or successful. For this reason, the speakers highlighted the need for interdisciplinary and participatory approaches to AI standardisation, involving legal experts, technical experts, social scientists, worker representatives, equality bodies, civil society, and affected communities.
What is the BIAS Project?
BIAS: Mitigating Diversity Biases of AI in the Labour Market is a Horizon Europe project that investigates how AI systems used in recruitment and HRM may reproduce or amplify bias, and how these risks can be identified and mitigated. The project develops knowledge, methods, and tools to support fairer AI in the labour market, including a proof-of-concept based on Natural Language Processing and Case-Based Reasoning for recruitment use cases.
At Leiden University, the BIAS Project contributes to understanding and addressing the legal, ethical, and social implications of AI in employment, with particular attention to trustworthiness, diversity, and fundamental rights.
What is CPDP?
The conference on Computers, Privacy and Data Protection (CPDP) is a world-leading, annual, three-day multidisciplinary conference held in Brussels that brings together academics, lawyers, policy-makers, industry leaders, and civil society advocates to discuss emerging trends, laws, and technologies surrounding privacy and AI. eLaw–Center for Law and Digital Technologies is a partner and always participates.
LDT Attends CPDP every year
CPDP is also an important part of the Advanced LL.M. in Law and Digital Technologies (LDT) at Leiden University. Each year, eLaw brings the LDT students to the conference to engage directly with current debates on privacy, data protection, AI, and technology regulation. The conference enables them to see how the legal and technological questions examined in the classroom are debated and addressed in practice across policy, research, industry, and civil society. It also offers valuable opportunities to meet researchers, policymakers, practitioners, civil society representatives, and industry experts. These exchanges help students build professional networks and explore possible directions for their future careers once the program finishes.
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