The focus area Applied Data Science (ADS) at Utrecht University (UU) again provides funding to finance research projects within the Special Interest Groups (SIGs) of Applied Data Science.

The aim is to foster the application of data science techniques in research areas where they are not yet applied and to accelerate the development of data science techniques by working in an interdisciplinary way. The present call (deadline 22 November 2024) is intended to financially support interfaculty initiatives (UU and UMC Utrecht) that fit within the objectives of the focus area, such as:

• Interfaculty research projects aimed at applying or developing data science techniques.
• Seed money for the preparation of interdisciplinary (interfaculty) grant applications, for a pilot research in preparation of a grant application.
• Consultation costs when a researcher from one faculty helps a researcher from another faculty to apply/develop data science techniques.

Research IT can offer additional services under certain conditions.

More information and the application form for this call can be found on the ADS website.

Are you conducting collaborative interdisciplinary research in the field of human-centered artificial intelligence, or are you planning to? Then be sure to apply for one of the small grants of the Utrecht University focus area Human-centered Artificial Intelligene (HAI) by 28 October 2024.

Application form

Download the complete call (Intranet login required) for more information, details, and the application form. This document outlines important requirements and deadlines. If you have any questions, feel free to reach out to HAI at hai@uu.nl.

Human-centered Artificial Intelligence call

This is the ninth call for projects to be funded by HAI. Through the efforts of the Special Interest Groups and with help of the past seven rounds of small grants, a promising and growing community has emerged around human-centered artificial intelligence. At this important moment in the development of HAI, they want to reach out to all the collaborations and projects that are currently already underway, and that are shaping the future of Utrecht University as a focal point of AI research.

Therefore, in this round, researchers can apply for grants up to 20,000 euros meant to strengthen existing collaborations. Grants of up to 4,000 euros for small projects and grants of up to 8,000 euros for preparing a research proposal are also available. All proposals should involve at least two researchers from at least two different departments or research centres of Utrecht University. The main applicants should have a position at the UU for the duration of the project.

The focus area Human-centered AI

The focus area Human-centered Artificial Intelligence started in January 2020. It bundles the various AI-activities undertaken at Utrecht University and cuts across many different departments and research groups. By bridging research in computer science, philosophy, media and culture studies, linguistics, psychology, and other disciplines, the focus area’s aim is to foster strong and societally relevant interdisciplinary research in human-centered AI.

The Dutch national programme for Open Sciene (Open Science NL) has opened a call for funding of Open Science Infrastructure. This call focuses on the development of digital infrastructures that support open science practices. It covers the entire spectrum of open science and is deliberately broad in scope to be inclusive of the community’s diverse digital infrastructure needs.

Applicants can focus on specific types of infrastructure (e.g. non-profit, community-led open access publication platforms/infrastructure), specific types of research outputs (e.g. research software, data, publications, hardware, creative outputs, replication studies, etc.) or specific open science practices (e.g. citizen science, societal engagement, reproducibility, preregistration, open peer review, etc.). Furthermore, applications can be generic (domain- and discipline-agnostic), as well as limited to specific domain(s) of research.  

Who can apply

Applicants (main and co-applicants) must have a permanent or temporary contract (that covers at least the project duration) at one of the following organisations: 

• universities located in the Kingdom of the Netherlands;
• university medical centres;
• institutes affiliated to the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW) or NWO;
• Netherlands Cancer Institute;
• the Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics in Nijmegen;
• Naturalis Biodiversity Center;
• Advanced Research Centre for NanoLithography (ARCNL);
• Princess Máxima Center;
• SURF;
• Netherlands eScience Center (NLeSC);
• The National Library of the Netherlands;
• Universities of Applied Sciences, as stated in article 1.8 of the Wet op het hoger onderwijs en wetenschappelijk onderzoek (WHW).

What to apply for

 Within this programme there are two types of applications: 

• Application type 1: small projects for improvements and/or extensions of existing infrastructure, or pilots for setting up new infrastructure. Maximum funding of € 250,000 and maximum project duration 2 years;
• Application type 2: large projects for improvements and/or extensions of existing infrastructure. Minimum funding of € 250,000 and maximum funding € 1,500,000 and maximum project duration of 4 years.

The application must provide a detailed substantiation of all the costs for which funding is being requested. An outline of the different types of costs and an overview of eligible and ineligible costs for funding are given in section 7.1 of the Call for proposals.

1.  small applications of max € 250,000 and 2 years; co-applicants are optional    and/or
2. large applications of max € 1,500,000 and 4 years; co-applicants (at least one other institution) are mandatory 

When to apply

• The deadline for submitting preproposals is 5 November 2024, before 14:00 CET.
• The deadline for submitting applications is 22 April 2025, before 14:00 CEST.

More information

You can find all the information about this call on the Open Science NL website.

A call for abstracts has been published for ‘The Future of Public Values in the Algorithmic Society’, a two-day international conference hosted by AlgoSoc, taking place at Felix Meritis in Amsterdam on 10 & 11 April 2025. The submission deadline is 30 September 2024.

Public Values in the Algorithmic Society (AlgoSoc) is an interdisciplinary research programme which responds to the urgent need for an informed societal perspective on automation and automated decision-making. Grounded in a deep understanding of the systemic changes that automated decision-making systems imply for core public institutions, for society, and for how public values are conceptualised and ultimately realised, AlgoSoc develops solutions for the design of governance frameworks needed to complement technology-driven initiatives in the algorithmic society.

AlgoSoc is a Dutch government funded collaboration between the universities of Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Delft, Utrecht and Tilburg, integrating expertise from law, computer science, the humanities and social sciences.