WHAT-IF colleagues from Work Packages 3 and 5—Andreu Casas (UK) and Sílvia Majó-Vázquez (Spain)—have established a strategic partnership with two leading Spanish organizations at the forefront of combating disinformation: the media literacy initiative Learn to Check! and the fact-checking organization Maldita.

This collaboration represents a very good example of bridging the gap between academic research and practical application, as both partners contribute their expertise to an experimental study examining how various interventions influence citizens’ attitudes toward misinformation.

Learn to Check!, established in 2020, is a renowned actor in Spain’s media education landscape and already a member of the WHAT-IF Advisory Board. The organization has conducted hundreds of educational workshops nationwide, partnering with the European Commission, European Parliament, UNICEF Spain and more than 70 other international and national entities to deliver practical knowledge and verification tools directly to citizens. Their mission centers on empowering individuals to navigate the complex terrain of digital content and identify misleading information before it spreads.

Maldita, Spain’s leading fact-checking organization since 2018, brings established credibility as a member of the International Fact-Checking Network. The organization’s daily operations involve systematically debunking false narratives across critical social issues, making them an invaluable research partner for the WHAT-IF project.

The partnership extends beyond theoretical collaboration into practical content development. Learn to Check! is currently curating a comprehensive collection of visual graphics, videos, and textual resources designed to enhance participants’ ability to detect misinformation. Meanwhile, Maldita is contributing carefully selected content from their ongoing fact-checking work, focusing specifically on three particularly contentious areas: climate change, immigration, and gender issues.

This targeted approach will ensure that the experimental conditions reflect real-world misinformation challenges while maintaining scientific rigor. The success of this collaboration stems from both organizations’ genuine commitment to academic research and their recognition that advancing our understanding of media literacy requires scientific investigation.

By examining when and how citizens become better equipped to navigate the online media ecosystem through this partnership, this study will exemplify how academic research can benefit from real-world expertise while contributing actionable insights to the fight against misinformation. This partnership with Learn to Check! and Maldita not only strengthens the experimental design but also demonstrates the vital role that established media literacy and fact-checking organizations play in developing evidence-based solutions to one of our era’s most pressing challenges.