Preparatory Workshop

On 12 May 2023 the Infrastructure Priority Programme New Data Spaces for the Social Sciences’ workshop took place at the DFG Head Office in Bonn. The workshop was organized in a hybrid format in order to give access to all interested researchers and to be able to serve the high number of submissions.

A total of 92 proposals spread across all four research areas were submitted. After a short outline of the programme line Infrastructure Priority Programme (InfPP) by the DFG, the programme committee illustrated in detail the InfPP New Data Spaces’ aim, belief, mission and scientific gain, as well as its envisioned deliverables. Afterwards the high number of interested researchers was split up into five groups (one of which was online), each one chaired by a member of the programme committee. Short project presentations by individual researchers and brief Q&A sessions followed within each group. The possibility to bilateral in-depth talks among the researchers existed also, ideally to already facilitate networking among potential applicants. A joint discussion of the plenum concluded the workshop.

The fruitful discussions and Q&A sessions between programme committee and potential applicants as well as among them produced and reinforced a range of key points set out by the programme committee that are highlighted in the following, also with regard to the submission of full proposals:

Research

●      Projects should have a clear research focus and question: especially methodological research is envisioned, purely content related one should be exceeded.

●      Projects respectively their research focus/questions and potential outcomes should have a high level of generalizability.

●      Infrastructure development or pure development projects are not envisioned.

Surveys        

●      Projects should have a nexus to survey (research): How useful is the respective initiative for surveys or survey programmes? What has not been possible to achieve/gain with “traditional” data collection methods, yet will be in the future?

●      Research should have a complementary or supplementary relationship to surveys and thus allow different existing or future data collections programs to build the respective results/deliverables.

●      Instead of costly primary data collection, the use of surveys in InfPP (Build on existing panel studies) or other panel studies is recommended.

Collaboration & Commitment

●      The InfPP is designed as a common research and work frame: the organizational structures envisages continuous exchange among the involved researchers.

●      Individually conducted research should be closely paired with collective interaction through various corresponding measures and exchange formats that will be provided. 

●      In preparation of full proposals networking and exchange among the potential applicants and referring to other projects that might tend towards similar directions or do have a common objective is welcomed. 

The deadline for submitting full proposals ends on 20 September 2023 (for more information on Proposal Submission see the website’s section Call and the DFG slides available in the download section). After December 2023 full proposals will be reviewed. Decision on approval of applications will take place in March 2024. The InfPP is expected to start in June 2024.

Please visit the download section for the slides shown during the workshop by the programme committee and the DFG.