About the Digital Society programme & COMMIT/
The Digital Society (DiSa) is a national research programme funded by the fourteen Dutch universities. The programme stimulates multi- and interdisciplinary research and collaborations with societal actors. Through this approach, DiSa seeks to advance sustainable solutions for societal problems, taking into account the perspectives and methods of various disciplines. In this Team Science call, we collaborate with our partner COMMIT/, a public-private ICT research community, to fund innovative research projects in 2022.
The third Digital Society conference (29-30 November 2021) focused on the topic of digitalisation, FAIR data and society. The keynotes and sessions addressed different aspect of fairness in digital societies. Many research challenges in these domains were identified and discussed, including democratic and public values, social inclusion, and environmental sustainability. Researchers from across the disciplines are invited to contribute to follow-up research on these or other topics that relate to fair digital societies.
Team Science in the Digital Society programme
The goal of this Team Science call is to bring together teams consisting of academic, societal, industrial and governmental partners around research challenges that can deliver a concrete result in a period of one year.
The ultimate goal of such team-based research is to generate a deeper understanding of important issues related to fair digital societies. In doing so, they will also produce results that are more readily applicable to the problems faced by society. Our aim is to pursue great research with great impact. Collaborative groups conducting Team Science research may include a wide range of individuals each offering their own unique expertise. Groups should include not only researchers, but also community members, policy makers and industrial stakeholders.
New connections
The Digital Society programme emphasises new connections between disciplines and partners that in everyday practice do not meet. The more creative, the wilder and more unexpected the composition of the Team and of the Science question, the better.
Grant
The grant is 40,000 euros to be spent on the Team Science project for the duration of one year. In addition, 5,000 euros is available for the Team Science project’s dissemination plan. The entire budget must be spent before 1 March 2023.
Process and deadlines
Societal partners, companies, government and the Digital Society programme’s researchers are invited to submit a one-page description of the proposed Team Science project following the template below. The deadline for submitting the one-page description is December 22, 2021, noon. On January 14, 2022, the coordinators of the Digital Society programme will contact applicants with one of the following results:
- Expand your idea to two pages and provide more details on specific aspects.
- Your idea does not sufficiently fit the scope of the Team Science call.
The final proposal of two pages needs to be submitted by February 4, 2022 by a Dutch university as the main applicant of the consortium. The coordinators of the Digital Society programme will decide on the three proposals to fund by February 18, 2022.
Deliverables
Each submitted idea and proposal must include two main deliverables:
- The Team Science result to be presented during the Digital Society Conference in November 2022.
- The dissemination activity to spread the results of the Team Science project to relevant stakeholders. Creative dissemination activities are welcomed.
Other deliverables, such as academic publications or data sets, are also possible.
Requirements for final proposal
- Multidisciplinary by design: each consortium includes at least one scholar from beta-tech and one scholar from the social sciences and humanities (SSH).
- Collaboration by design: each consortium includes at least two Dutch universities and at least one societal partner.
- The final proposal (two-pager) is submitted by a principal investigator from a Dutch university.
Submission
The deadline for submitting ideas (one-pager) is 22 December 2021, noon via digitalesamenleving@unl.nl. Please use the template below for your submission.
Template round 1 (one-pager)
| Project title | |
| Project description | |
| Objective of this project, and relation to fairness | |
| Current team members | |
| Deliverable(s) | |
| Dissemination | |
| Contact person (name, email, phone number) |
