NI Research visits


Overview
The Network Institute invites applications for its NI Research visits program. The program offers scholars the opportunity to spend up to one month at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam to conduct research on the themes of digital society in collaboration with researchers from the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam. Research visitors will benefit from Network Institute’s successful tradition of organizing and supporting collaboration between scientists from computer science, social sciences, and humanities, as well as from Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam’s distinct interdisciplinary character which is reinforced by the fact that our faculties are all located on one campus in the heart of Amsterdam’s Zuidas Knowledge District.

The complete call for applications is available HERE.

Who can apply?
Network Institute members can apply and propose candidates for the research visit. The proposed candidates cannot be employed by the VU and all applications have to be written in English.

Important dates
The deadline for applications to the NI research visits program is June 20th, 2024 before 23:59. All required documents have to be sent in one pdf and have to be sent to network.institute.beta@vu.nl

The applicants of the winning proposals will be notified by June 30th, 2024 via email.

The funding is available only for research visits conducted between September 1st 2024 and November 30th 2024.

Due to administrative reasons, all requests for reimbursements must be submitted by December 5th 2024. All requests submitted after that date will not be considered.

Funding
The funding is intended to cover all types of costs of the research visit including: travel, accommodation, meals, public transport, Visa application, use of VU facilities.

The costs of Visa and VU guest status will be settled before the reimbursement of the travel and/or travel expenses. All costs exceeding the predetermined amount of funding granted will be at the expense of the applicant/candidate.

The application should contain a detailed budget estimate of at most 5000 Euros.

How to apply?
A complete application must include:

  • Research plan, including a brief description of the targeted research problem, expected contributions
    during the visit, a plan of activities, and a detailed budget estimate. (max. 2 A4 pages)
  • CV of the visitor (including a list of publications)
  • CV of the Network Institute member (including a list of publications)

In order to be considered eligible, the research plan must follow the template available HERE.

The application have to be sent as one pdf file to network.institute.beta@vu.nl by a Network Institute member before 23:59h, June 20th, 2024.

Each application must be co-signed by a Network Institute member and the visitor.

Selection criteria
Visiting fellows are selected on the basis of:

  • Relevance of the proposed research project to the Digital Society
  • the level of interdisciplinarity of the proposed research project
  • Expected outcomes of the intended collaboration with VU staff
  • The quality of the proposed research project

Note that the CVs of the visitor and Network Institute member are included in the application, but they will NOT be used as selection criteria. They will be used by the selection committee for having a complete overview of the research interests of the applicants, their recent publications, and all required information about the visitor.

Expected contribution
The research visitors are required to:

  1. Actively collaborate with VU staff during their stay
  2. Give at least one seminar on their research project
  3. Add the following acknowledgement to the Network Institute in all the scientific publications resulting from the visit: “This research is partially funded by the Network Institute, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam through the NI Research Visit program”; a copy of such publications should be sent to network.institute.beta@vu.nl and to the head of the department or research group where the visit took place
  4. Within 4 weeks after the end of the visit, submit a short report (up to two A4 pages) describing the progress and outcomes they have achieved during the visit

Further remarks
Potential candidates who are considering a stay at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, are kindly invited to read the brochure Nice to meet you at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam. The brochure provides an overview of useful information on moving to the Netherlands.

Upon acceptance of the research visit, the International Office will do its utmost to assist in finding suitable accommodation for our visiting researchers and fellows.

Visiting researchers can also request access to the research facilities of the Network Institute.

About
The research visits are organized and funded by the Network Institute, the hub for interdisciplinary research on the Digital Society at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam.
The Network Institute studies the interaction between digital technology and society, or what is often called: the Digital Society. For over ten years, the Network Institute has been studying the digital society, in an interdisciplinary approach. The institute brings together a unique combination of scientists from informatics, social sciences and humanities. Further information about the Network institute can be found in its official website: https://networkinstitute.org/mission