< Back Towards Adaptive Mixed-Initiative Media Recommender Systems with LLMs Ulysse Maes. 2026. Towards Adaptive Mixed-Initiative Media Recommender Systems with LLMs. In Companion Proceedings of the 31st International Conference on Intelligent User Interfaces (IUI '26 Companion). Association for Computing Machinery, New York, NY, USA, 231–233. Recommender systems (RS) increasingly shape how people encounter digital media, but often leave users with limited understanding of why items are recommended and few ways to influence them. Existing user interfaces (UIs) typically offer static, one-size-fits-all explanations and controls that do not reflect users’ dynamic needs, limiting user agency. My research investigates how mixed-initiative recommender interfaces, enabled by large language models (LLMs), can adapt explanatory and interactive elements to users’ dynamic needs. I plan to develop a conceptual model that links situational media needs to requirements for information (understanding) and interaction (control). Building on this model, I will design and experimentally evaluate adaptive UIs that combine personalized explanations with interactive controls, measuring their effects on user understanding and perceived control. Through this doctoral consortium, I seek feedback on my research plan and guidance in designing effective experiments on adaptive mixed-initiative RS. Previous Read the article Next

< Back FIRE: A Modular Framework for Prototyping and Evaluating Interactive Recommender Explanations Ulysse Maes, Cedric Waterschoot, Francesco Barile, and Nava Tintarev. 2026. FIRE: A Modular Framework for Prototyping and Evaluating Interactive Recommender Explanations. In Proceedings of the 34th ACM Conference on User Modeling, Adaptation and Personalization (UMAP '26). Association for Computing Machinery, New York, NY, USA, 484–486. Explanations in recommender systems are important for enhancing transparency, trust, and system understanding. However, as research interest in interactive and chat-based explanations grows, the absence of standardized, reusable interface components limits their systematic evaluation. We introduce the Framework for Interactive Recommender Explanations (FIRE) to bridge this gap. FIRE provides an open-source library of modular explanation styles with varying levels of interactivity — spanning from static lists and draggable charts to conversational agents. To test these modalities in online user studies, FIRE integrates a supporting serverless experiment engine equipped with dynamic routing, crowdsourcing integration, and complete interaction logging. Currently configured for group recommenders but built for broader applicability, FIRE helps to standardize the evaluation of the explanation layer, thereby driving reproducible experimental design. Previous Read the article Next

< Back LLMs and Recommenders Ulysse Maes PhD Researcher My four-year PhD investigates how large language models are reshaping recommender and content-discovery interfaces. Rather than focussing on the underlying recommendation algorithms, I'm exploring how the interfaces around them can contributes. The aim throughout is to bridge new possibilities with generative AI with genuinely user-centric design. My central research question focuses on composing an interface (its layout, its components, what it foregrounds) to match a reader's actual, evolving information need, and proving that this match matters. The first phase of my research will map where LLMs can most usefully shape recommender and content interfaces, and just as importantly, where they shouldn't. That work will produce a validated taxonomy of what readers actually need from a complex, evolving story (a quick check-up versus broad exploration, for instance). I love building prototypes for mobile news reading, that compose interface components (timelines, actor maps, comparison views) to match the user need rather than defaulting to one layout for everyone. Some pressing ethical questions are importznt here: the guiding measure is whether the interface helps someone actually explore and understand — not how long it keeps them engaged. I'm also exploring how to turn tat taxonomy into an evaluation: a controlled comparison of interfaces that match a reader's need against interfaces that don't, alongside a generic relevance-only baseline and the plain article as it exists today. Recommender systems are usually evaluated by whether people click, not by whether the presentation actually served what they came for — this phase is built to answer the second question directly, on mobile, where interface real estate is scarce and the design trade-offs are sharper due to limited screen size. Positioned at the intersection of two research lines — the long-running academic tradition of adaptive interfaces and the fast-moving, industry-driven push toward generative UI — the project's contribution is the piece the second line is currently missing: a validated theory of which interface structures actually serve which reader needs. The goal: making sure that as recommender and content interfaces get rebuilt around generative AI, they stay accountable to the people using them, not just to engagement metrics. Publications Let Me Introduce You: Stimulating Taste-Broadening Serendipity through Song Introductions 08/06/2026 Not One News Recommender To Fit Them All: How Different Recommender Strategies Serve Various User Segments 22/09/2025 GenUI(ne) CRS: UI Elements and Retrieval-Augmented Generation in Conversational Recommender Systems with LLMs 08/10/2024 Supervisors Annelien Smets Research Professor Tim Raats Associate Professor Related news 2 Impressions of IBC 2025 Ulysse’s Impressions of the International Broadcasting Convention 2025: Shaping The Future. 2 Looking back at IUI 2025 Ulysse attended the conference and presented at the AXAI workshop 2 Looking back at RecSys 2024 Sharing our reflections on the ACM RecSys Conference 2024 Previous Next

Research Team Tim Raats Associate Professor Annelien Smets Research Professor Jeroen Peeters Senior Researcher Manager Pieter Van der Elst PhD Researcher Brett Binst PhD Researcher Pieter Ballon Full Professor Heritiana Ranaivoson Research Professor Adelaida Afilipoaie Postdoctoral Researcher Hanne Vandenbroucke PhD Researcher Dongxiao Li PhD Researcher Wendy Van den Broeck Associate professor Catalina Iordache Guest Professor Lien Michiels Postdoctoral Researcher Ulysse Maes PhD Researcher Aina Errando PhD Researcher

Publications Filter by Tags Select Tags Let Me Introduce You: Stimulating Taste-Broadening Serendipity through Song Introductions Brett Binst, Ulysse Maes, Martijn Willemsen, and Annelien Smets. 2026. Let Me Introduce You: Stimulating Taste-Broadening Serendipity through Song Introductions. In 34th ACM Conference on User Modeling, Adaptation and Personalization (UMAP ’26), June 08–11, 2026, Gothenburg, Sweden. ACM, New York, NY, USA, 10 pages. https://doi.org/10.1145/3774935.3806164 Read More You Might Also (Not) Like … : Newsroom Wariness to News Personalisation? Errando, A., Afilipoaie, A., & Ranaivoson, H. (2026). You Might Also (Not) Like … : Newsroom Wariness to News Personalisation? Journalism Practice , 1–20. https://doi.org/10.1080/17512786.2026.2682271 Read More Frustrations with Access to Preferred Content: User Experiences with Bilibili’s Recommender Systems Reflected on Weibo Li, D., Ranaivoson, H., & Ballon, P. (2026). Frustrations with Access to Preferred Content: User Experiences with Bilibili’s Recommender Systems Reflected on Weibo. International Journal of Human–Computer Interaction , 1–34. https://doi.org/10.1080/10447318.2026.2669039 Read More Multistakeholder challenges and opportunities of news recommender systems in newsrooms: a comparative systematic literature review Errando, A., Vandenbroucke, H., & Kulig, M. (2026). Multistakeholder challenges and opportunities of news recommender systems in newsrooms: a comparative systematic literature review. Annals of the International Communication Association Read More Beyond rational choice: A typology of urban discovery Binst, B., Michiels, L., & Smets, A. (2026). Beyond rational choice: A typology of urban discovery. Tourism Management , 113 , 105327. Read More Not that personal: A qualitative study of personalization practices on six European public streaming service Münter Lassen, J., Iordache, C., Martin, D., Bruun, H., Świtkowski, F., Nucci, A., & Johnson, C. (2026). Not that personal: A qualitative study of personalization practices on six European public streaming service. Television & New Media , 1–19. https://doi.org/10.1177/15274764251415356 Read More Understanding user preferences in recommender systems: A systematic review with a user-centric perspective in the audiovisual domain Li, D., Smets, A., & Ranaivoson, H. (2026). Understanding user preferences in recommender systems: A systematic review with a user-centric perspective in the audiovisual domain. International Journal of Human-Computer Studies , 103741. Read More Dubbing wars: localisation strategies of transnational streaming services for Spanish ‘original’ works Gallo, P., & Iordache, C. (2026). Dubbing wars: localisation strategies of transnational streaming services for Spanish ‘original’ works. Convergence: The International Journal of Research into New Media Technologies , 1-17. https://doi.org/10.1177/1354856526141627 Read More Welcome to the Metrics Jungle: Organizational Stakeholder Perspectives on Evaluation of News Recommender Systems in Industry Vandenbroucke, H., Michiels, L., & Smets, A. (2025). Welcome to the Metrics Jungle: Organizational Stakeholder Perspectives on evaluation of news recommender systems in industry. ACM Transactions on Recommender Systems, Highlights of RecSys ’24. https://doi.org/10.1145/3778173 Read More From Experimentation to Strategy: The Ambidextrous Balancing Act of Developing News Recommender Systems Vandenbroucke, H., & Smets, A. (2025). From experimentation to strategy: the ambidextrous balancing act of developing news recommender systems. Journal of Media Business Studies , 1–28. https://doi.org/10.1080/16522354.2025.2590880 Read More Not One News Recommender To Fit Them All: How Different Recommender Strategies Serve Various User Segments Vandenbroucke, H., Maes, U., Michiels, L., & Smets, A. (2025). Not One News Recommender To Fit Them All: How Different Recommender Strategies Serve Various User Segments. In 19th ACM Conference on Recommender Systems Proceedings . ACM. Read More Interface real estate: Amazon Prime and visibility politics van Es, K., & Iordache, C. (2025). Interface real estate: Amazon Prime and visibility politics. Critical Studies in Television , 0 (0). https://doi.org/10.1177/17496020251375211 Read More

Latest updates 1 Jul 2026 Serendipity Cards Want to design for serendipity? Get this practical card set! Read More 16 May 2026 NEW BOOK: Streaming Europe This book presents a comprehensive empirical examination of how global services like Netflix, Disney+, and Amazon Prime Video transform European media streaming Read More 20 Jan 2026 Out now: Handbook of Platform Urbanism Online Book Launch for the Handbook of Platform Urbanism Read More 9 Dec 2025 12 PhD positions available The RePim Doctoral Network is looking for 12 PhD positions Read More 15 Sept 2025 Impressions of IBC 2025 Ulysse’s Impressions of the International Broadcasting Convention 2025: Shaping The Future. Read More 21 Jul 2025 AI Summer School 2025 Aina's recap of the AI Summer School at KU Leuven Read More 15 Jul 2025 Report Published: How to Ensure Visibility and Prominence for Media Services of General Interest in Flanders Commissioned by the Flemish Minister of Media, this research report investigates findability, discoverability, and due prominence for audiovisual and auditive media services. Read More 5 Jun 2025 Ciao from EMMA in Rome! Our presentations at the emma Conference 2025 Read More 22 May 2025 Talking about Stakeholder Perspectives at WMEMC Hanne presented her research on stakeholder alignment for news recommender system development Read More 19 May 2025 Second Annual ALGEPI Workshop Insights on AI, Innovation and Media Regulation Read More 31 Mar 2025 Looking back at IUI 2025 Ulysse attended the conference and presented at the AXAI workshop Read More 27 Mar 2025 Policy Brief on Public Service Media in Belgium Findings and recommendations on the organisational and cultural challenges facing PSM in Belgium Read More 4 Feb 2025 #Etmaal2025 Hanne looking back on her presentation on Stakeholder Alignment for News Recommender System (NRS) Implementation Read More 3 Feb 2025 Call for Papers Special Issue Special Issue on Public Service Media in the Age of Platforms Read More 27 Jan 2025 New Policy Brief: Streaming Public Service Television in the Age of Platforms Evaluating Public Service Media (PSM) in-house video-on-demand (VoD) services Read More 4 Nov 2024 New policy brief: International versus local VOD In a new policy brief and webinar, we present the findings of research on motivations of Flemish viewers Read More 1 Nov 2024 New report of the Fair MusE project New report "From Value Networks for Recorded Music to Music Ecosystem" Read More 28 Oct 2024 Diversity in VOD services: Seminar highlights from Madrid Throwback on the international seminar on diversity and VOD services Read More 23 Oct 2024 Looking back at RecSys 2024 Sharing our reflections on the ACM RecSys Conference 2024 Read More 16 Oct 2024 New research network for VOD research methods A new website with all there is to know about Video-on-Demand (VoD) research methods Read More

Main Research Tracks News Recommenders in Small Media Markets Recommenders Read More LLMs and Recommenders Recommenders Read More Public Service Media and Platformization Platforms Read More Affiliated projects Advancing Media Recommendations through a User-Centric Understanding of Preferences, Experiences, and Agency Recommenders, User studies Read More Revisioning Public Interest Media Platforms, Public Service Broadcasting Read More Serendipity Engine Recommenders, Artificial Intelligence, Smart City, Diversity and Serendipity Read More Streaming Affordances for small media markets Platforms, Public Service Broadcasting, Streaming Read More Understanding Algorithmic gatekeepers to promote Epistemic welfare Artificial Intelligence, Platforms, Regulation, Media Policy Read More All our affiliated projects are part of the Media Economics & Policy unit at imec-SMIT, Vrije Universiteit Brussel . Researchers in this unit work on fundamental and applied research tracks seeking to advance knowledge on how digitalization, internationalization, and platformisation are impacting the business models of traditional media players, how these media players innovate and interact with new players, and how governments contribute to sustaining or strengthening local media ecosystems. The Media Economics & Policy unit is headed by prof. dr. Tim Raats . Click here to learn more about other projects in the Media Economics & Policy unit

Unveiling groundbreaking research, innovative projects, and insights on Streaming, Recommender Systems, and Platformization (SRP) in European Media Markets. Streaming, Recommenders and Platformization in European Media Industries S trategic Research Programme at imec-SMIT, Vrije Universiteit Brussel SRP Media In our digital age, understanding the interplay between technology, society, and economics is crucial. Our research aims to analyze and ensure the economic and cultural sustainability of content production, aggregation, and consumption in an era of streaming, recommenders and platformization in European Media Industries. SRP Media is part of the Media Economics & Policy unit at imec-SMIT, Vrije Universiteit Brussel . Our research Latest news updates NEW BOOK: Streaming Europe Serendipity Cards Out now: Handbook of Platform Urbanism 12 PhD positions available Impressions of IBC 2025 AI Summer School 2025 Report Published: How to Ensure Visibility and Prominence for Media Services of General Interest in Flanders Ciao from EMMA in Rome! More updates Contact us Pleinlaan 9, 1050 Brussels, Belgium Submit Thanks for your message!

< Back 16 May 2026 This book presents a comprehensive empirical examination of how global services like Netflix, Disney+, and Amazon Prime Video transform European media streaming Streaming Europe explores how global streaming services like Netflix, Disney+, and Amazon Prime Video have reshaped the audiovisual landscape across Europe. Since Netflix’s arrival in 2012, the European media environment has undergone a rapid transformation, affecting every level of the industry—from production and distribution to policy and audience engagement. This book offers the first comprehensive, empirical, and comparative examination of these changes across different European markets. Written by a team of leading media scholars, it balances accessible analysis with evidence-based insights to examine how streamers have altered production practices and business models, shifted established power dynamics, and challenged long-standing broadcasting legacies. The book examines global streamers’ market-entry strategies, the use of diversity and inclusion as competitive positioning, and the tensions between producers over rights retention and local authenticity. It analyses how public and commercial broadcasters across large and small European markets have both emulated Netflix and sought to differentiate themselves from US streamers, and how governments have responded with a patchwork of policy tools such as prominence regulation, quotas, and investment obligations, raising questions about their long-term effectiveness. Finally, it explores how different genres—including teen drama, documentary, European film, scripted television, and web series—both shape and are shaped by global streamers’ evolving strategies. With its strong foundation in research and pan-European scope, Streaming Europe goes beyond single-country perspectives to present a timely and nuanced understanding of how the streaming revolution is shaping Europe’s cultural industries. It will be highly relevant to researchers in the field of media industries, media economics, audiovisual industries and media policy. The Open Access version of this book is available at Taylor and Francis . 9781040574577 .pdf Download PDF • 4.76MB Previous Next NEW BOOK: Streaming Europe

< Back Revisioning Public Interest Media RePIM Revisioning Public Interest Media is a four-year Marie Skłodowska-Curie (MSCA) Doctoral Network dedicated to reimagining the role and future of public interest media in a data-driven, platform-dominated environment. RePIM brings together leading European universities, industry partners, and 12 Doctoral Candidates in an interdisciplinary, cross-sectoral training and research programme. The network investigates how public interest media can remain relevant, sustainable, and impactful by transforming how content is produced, packaged, distributed, and supported organisationally and technologically. Through its focus on strategic innovation, organisational change, and media management, RePIM equips its doctoral researchers with advanced analytical and managerial skills to help reshape public interest media across diverse European contexts. Radical market and societal changes challenge existing business models of public interest media, the content they create, the technical infrastructures they employ for distribution, and the governing structures which regulate and support them. The research and trained Doctoral Candidates (DCs) set out to revise the relevance of public interest media, the conditions required to sustain relevance and the ways in which they are produced, packaged, distributed, and the (infra)structures that support them. RePIM does this through a highly ambitious and advanced focus on key strategic transformations across departments, media players and different European contexts, and the managerial skills required to reconfigure public interest media in a radically changed media ecosystem. Researchers on this project Catalina Iordache Guest Professor Wendy Van den Broeck Associate professor Tim Raats Associate Professor Consortium partners VUB logo.png Schermafbeelding 2026-08-06 om 10.33_edited.png Schermafbeelding 2026-08-06 om 10.58.30.png VUB logo.png 1/8 Tags Platforms, Public Service Broadcasting Previous Next

< Back Catching the waves: The case of VRT's digital-first audio strategy Van der Elst, P., Iordache, C., & Raats, T. (2025). Catching the waves: The case of VRT’s digital-first audio strategy. European Journal of Communication . https://doi.org/10.1177/02673231251370877 European public service media (PSM) are increasingly embracing strategies that balance digital platform tactics and meeting the public remit. This article addresses how a small market PSM is repositioning itself in a media landscape dominated by global platforms, streaming services and legacy media adopting platformisation strategies. We examine platformisation at the Flemish broadcaster VRT through the lens of its digital audio strategy. The study combines document analysis and expert interviews. Results show a strategic shift towards more focus on user needs and habits; a branding strategy revolving around the VRT parent brand; a necessary yet precarious presence on third-party platforms; a legacy-driven content offering complemented by online-only commissioning; and a firm editorial grip on content curation. VRT's take on these strategic innovations highlights a series of key dilemmas for PSM to reconcile public remit delivery and competitiveness in a platformised media landscape. Public Service Media Previous Read the article Next

< Back 15 Sept 2023 Exploring Power Dynamics in Digital Platform Markets: A Pragmatic Approach to Normative Recommender Systems We are excited to share that our research team has contributed a paper to the first workshop on Normative Design and Evaluation of Recommender Systems (NORMalize), co-located with the 17th ACM Conference on Recommender Systems in Singapore. Our paper, titled "Towards a Pragmatic Approach for studying Normative Recommender Systems: exploring Power Dynamics in Digital Platform Markets" examines two key economic dynamics prevalent in digital media markets that challenge the development of normative RSs. The first hurdle focuses on the susceptibility of digital platforms to lock-in and monopolization due to network effects, skewing the power balance towards system providers. The second hurdle delves into the "attention economy" and the engagement-centric logic in RS design. This logic, while successful in boosting engagement, might compete with explicit or long-term user objectives We illustrate the real-world significance of these dynamic with insights from the domains of video-on-demand and news media. Furthermore, by offering policy recommendations we wish to address the normative challenges that arise in RS design. PhD researcher Hanne Vandenbroucke will be presenting this paper during the NORMalize workshop on Tuesday, September 19. Previous Next New publication: NORMalize Workshop (@ RecSys23)