[ecrea] Call for research fellowships - Weizenbaum Institute for the Networked Society

The newly founded German Internet Institute, the Weizenbaum Institute 
for the Networked Society, is inviting applications for research 
fellowships for the years 2018, 2019, and 2020. Visiting fellows will be 
hosted at the Institute for a period of from one to three months, where 
they will have the opportunity to conduct research on-site in Berlin.

All details can be found below and on the website: 
https://vernetzung-und-gesellschaft.de/#jobs
;


I. Aim
Our aim is to establish and to cultivate fruitful collaborations between 
the Weizenbaum Institute and researchers around the globe, thus helping 
to position it as a leading research institution world-wide. For our 
visiting scholars, the Weizenbaum Institute offers an inspiring 
multi-disciplinary research environment with access to other leading 
research institutions.

II. Submission of Applications
Researchers are asked to submit their applications addressed to the 
specific research group with which they would like to be associated. A 
list of research groups currently offering fellowships is provided in 
section V below. Applications for fellowships may be submitted over the 
course of the whole year. Please indicate in your application the months 
in 2018, 2019, or 2020, which you would like to spend at the Weizenbaum 
Institute.
Applications must include a curriculum vitae, a publications list, a 
two-page project description, information about previous work, and your 
planned working program for the duration of your research stay. Projects 
resulting in publications are highly encouraged.

III. Selection criteria
The researcher’s visit and proposed work should be related to one of the 
specific areas of focus of the Weizenbaum Institute’s research groups; 
the period of residence is intended to facilitate and prepare 
interdisciplinary collaboration, and to result in publication. 
Applications should define target outcomes clearly (e.g., publications, 
grant proposals, etc.). The applicant’s curriculum vitae and the fit of 
the proposed project to the overall research program and aims of the 
Weizenbaum Institute will be crucial for consideration.

IV. Financial support
The Weizenbaum Institute offers appropriate financial support to 
visiting fellows. This includes a fellowship provided by one of the 
seven founding institutions of the Weizenbaum Institute (details are 
provided below).

V. Research groups offering fellowships and types of contracts
The Weizenbaum Institute offers the following fellowship positions 
(sorted alphabetically by fellowship-providing institution):

Berlin Social Science Center (WZB)
We are accepting applications for fellowships in the following research 
groups:
- “Working in highly automated processes” (please send your application 
to Dr. Florian Butollo, (florian.butollo /at/ wzb.eu))
- “Democracy and Digitalization” (please send your application to Dr. 
Thorsten Thiel, (thorsten.thiel /at/ wzb.eu))
Democratic societies acquire, implement, and adapt to new technologies; 
they are in turn shaped and transformed by digitalization. This group 
examines structural changes in the democratic public sphere, analyses 
new forms of democratic participation, and studies the scope of human 
rights in a digital society.
- “Quantification and social regulation” (please send your application 
to Dr. Lena Ulbricht, (lena.ulbricht /at/ wzb.eu))
This research group investigates the role of automated information and 
decision systems (based on technologies such as big data or artificial 
intelligence) in politics and organizations. Our focus lies on the ways 
in which these systems impact the resources, logics and procedures 
applied in the regulation of individual and collective behaviour.
The WZB will make individual decisions about the form of the fellowship 
contract with these two options: a) the fellow remains a regular 
employee of their home institution, and WZB will reimburse the costs to 
the home institution; b) the fellow will receive a WZB employment 
contract for the project conducted during his/her stay.

Fraunhofer Institute for Open Communication Systems (Fraunhofer FOKUS)
Applications for fellowships beginning November 2018 are open in the 
following research groups:
- “Digitalization and Public Safety” (please send your application to 
Richard Huber (richard.huber /at/ fokus.fraunhofer.de))
- “Digitalization and Science” (please send your application to Dr. Jens 
Klessmann (jens.klessmann /at/ fokus.fraunhofer.de))
Fraunhofer FOKUS is seeking researchers with expertise in relevant 
technologies or relevant, related topics in the social sciences or 
psychology. Beginning late in 2018 affords us the opportunity to embed a 
fellow from four to six weeks in 2018 and the same duration early in 
2019. The goal of the fellowships is to pursue intense research 
collaboration aiming at joint publications in high-profile venues.
For more information on the individual projects and details concerning 
the conditions for the fellowship, please contact the person to whom you 
will submit your application, corresponding to the research group in 
which you are interested.

Freie Universität Berlin (FU Berlin)
The FU fellow receives a scholarship for the stay at the Weizenbaum 
Institute. We are accepting applications from junior and senior 
researchers for the following research groups:
- “Digital Citizenship” (please send your application to Dr. Pablo 
Porten-Cheé, (p.porten-chee /at/ fu-berlin.de))
Many forms of political action beyond voting are spreading in the online 
world. Nevertheless we know very little about whether or how openness 
for alternative forms of political engagement may change what people 
expect from democracy and how they assess it. As a member of our 
research team, you will join us in studying emerging citizen norms under 
conditions of digitization and how these norms affect individual 
political participation and expression of opinion under turbulent 
conditions (e.g., hate speech, incivility).
- “News, Campaigns, and the Rationality of Public Discourse” (please 
send your application to Prof. Dr. Ulrike Klinger, (u.klinger /at/ fu-berlin.de))
Campaigns around the world have presented new challenges for political 
communication, such as "fake news," hate speech, or social bots. As a 
member of our team in Berlin, you will join us in investigating how 
digital communication affects news, political campaigns, and public 
discourse.

Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin (HU Berlin)
The HU Berlin offers fellowship contracts in form of scholarships. We 
are accepting applications for the following research groups:
- „Data as a means of payment”: This research group focuses on the 
conditions under which a market model could be applied appropriately in 
cases where personal data is exchanged in lieu of more conventional 
forms of payment. One of our central questions, in this context, is how 
traditional rules of contract law should be applied, and perhaps 
adjusted, in order to preserve the desired operation of the law and the 
functioning of digital markets.
- “Shifts in norm setting”
- “Trust in distributed environments”: The two above research 
groups—“Shifts in norm setting” and “Trust in distributed 
environments”—investigate significant changes in governance mechanisms 
in the context of the Internet and digitalization. As focus shifts from 
national parliaments to international agreements, multilateral 
conventions, and also technical configurations, standards like “privacy 
by design” in the field of data protection as well as in other 
regulatory contexts are expected to become increasingly important. Smart 
contracts and fully decentralized consensus mechanisms—for instance, 
based on blockchains—open up a new field of automation and a novel basis 
for financial mechanisms and legal agreements.
Dr. Zohar Efroni, (zohar.efroni /at/ rewi.hu-berlin.de), will receive 
applications for all three of the HU Berlin’s research groups.

Technische Universität Berlin (TU Berlin)
We are accepting applications from junior and senior researchers for the 
following research groups:
- “Responsibility and the Internet of things” (please send your 
application to Dr. Stefan Ullrich, (stefan.ullrich /at/ tu-berlin.de))
The Internet of things (IoT) is both a lucrative market and a security 
nightmare. This project seeks to identify and map IoT devices, as well 
as policies and best practices used in developing such highly 
interconnected and ubiquitous IT systems. Ideally, as a member of our 
team, your focus will be on designing case scenarios of 
interdisciplinary use and on consequent policymaking regulations for 
various IoT apparatuses and tools.
- “Criticality of software-based systems” (please send your application 
to Dr. Diana Serbanescu, (diana-alina.serbanescu /at/ tu-berlin.de))
As society’s reliance on autonomous, intelligent, and critical software 
systems increases, new strategies must be found to ensure not only that 
traditional quality engineering aspects such as safety, efficiency, 
reliability and security are preserved, but also that the ethics of 
human-machine interactions and the sociopolitical implications they 
trigger are appropriately addressed. With this scope in mind, as a 
member of our research team, you will join us in scrutinizing critical 
software systems of the future and investigating their ethical 
dimensions and the new challenges they pose.

The fellowship includes the use of Weizenbaum Institute facilities and a 
grant to compensate for expenses incurred regarding travel and 
accommodation. The duration of a fellowship may vary from one to three 
months; it is possible to split a fellowship into several visits.

University of the Arts Berlin (UdK)
We are accepting fellowship applications for the following research groups:
- “Data-based business model innovation” (please send your application 
to Dr. André Renz, (a.renz /at/ udk-berlin.de))
Our research group work on data-based business model innovations. Today, 
humans generate an infinite amount of data that has a lasting influence 
on how business models are set up or designed. The analysis, 
exploitation and use of data has led to many new and disruptive business 
models of startups and also presents completely new challenges to 
established companies, especially with regard to their use for existing 
and potential (sub-)business models. In some sectors, such as the 
automotive sector, the development of digital business models can change 
entire value chains and have a significant impact on employment. 
Business model innovation is therefore also a highly relevant topic for 
corporate practice and politics.
We invite you to join our research team at the Weizenbaum Institute for 
the Networked Society and to investigate together with us data-based 
business models.”
- “Production possibilities of the maker culture” (please send your 
application to Marie Luise Schulz, (marieluise.schulz /at/ udk-berlin.de))
- “Inequality and digital sovereignty” (please send your application to 
Marie Luise Schulz, (marieluise.schulz /at/ udk-berlin.de)
Visiting researchers will receive an UdK fellowship contract for the 
project conducted during their stay.
For more information on the individual projects and details concerning 
the conditions for the fellowship, please contact the person to whom you 
will submit your application, corresponding to the research group in 
which you are interested.

University of Potsdam (UP)
We are accepting fellowship applications from junior (post-doc level) 
and senior researchers (e.g. assistant, associate, full, emeritus 
professors) for the following research groups:
- “Digital technologies and well-being” (please send your application to 
Annika Baumann, (annibaumann /at/ uni-potsdam.de))
Social media, smartphone applications, wearables and other emerging 
technologies are transforming the society we live in today. These 
technologies change the way we develop relationships, communicate with 
one another, work, and spend our leisure time. Because such platforms 
increasingly permeate our daily routines, stakeholders have begun to 
raise issues about the meaning and long-term consequences of the changes 
they are bringing about. Proponents express strong optimism, linking the 
use of these technologies to significant benefits individually and 
socially; opponents raise the specter of increased risk and negative 
consequences like information overload, addiction, growing envy, 
decreased attention span, and loss of privacy. In light of this 
controversy, as a member of our research team, you will join us in 
exploring the impact of these digital technologies, especially social 
media, on individual well-being in a broader sense.
- “Digital integration” (please send your application to Prof. Dr. Hanna 
Krasnova, (krasnova /at/ uni-potsdam.de))
- Social inclusion, a central component of any democratic society, has 
emerged as a particularly critical issue in the face of recent ongoing 
refugee crises. A sudden wave of migration has raised a number of 
challenges including operational ones such as expedient and 
unbureaucratic registration, provision of medical support, 
transportation and housing; as well as more strategic challenges such as 
equal access to education, employment, and housing, to name just three. 
Given the IT-savviness of so many of the refugees at present, social 
media and other information and communication technologies (ICTs) could 
become powerful tools in supporting integration processes. Up to now, 
however, the role of digital technology in supporting social inclusion 
is a research question that has hardly been investigated. As a member of 
our research team, you will join us in exploring the possibilities and 
potentials, as we seek to gain further insights into the role of ICT in 
social integration processes.

-"Education and training in the digital society" (please send your 
application to Dr. Gergana Vladova, (gergana.vladova /at/ wi.uni-potsdam.de))
Digital technologies increasingly place new demands on education, 
vocation, and the required competences of employees worldwide. At the 
same time, the long-term implications of these developments remain 
unclear. In light of the ongoing transformations, there is a growing 
need to consider what kinds of knowledge, education, and competence will 
be crucial for members of the workforce in the new digital age, and how 
this vital information can be effectively communicated. Indeed, how can 
schools integrate digital education into the classroom effectively? How 
do we design digital-competence training? What approaches can be taken 
to counteract the devaluation of occupational skills of some employee 
groups in order to ensure their long-term workforce integration? As a 
member of our research team, you will join us in exploring these and 
other challenges at the intersection of education and digital technologies.
For more information regarding the conditions of the research 
fellowship, please contact the person to whom you will submit your 
application (corresponding to the research group in which you are 
interested). The duration of a fellowship may vary from one to three 
months; it is also possible to split a fellowship into several visits.


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