Sandpit program: New calls for pro­po­sals to explore Big Data

Wübben Stif­tung Wis­sen­schaft will be laun­ching four new calls for its Sandpit program. Having kicked off the program with “Big Data in cli­ni­cal re­se­arch” in 2024, the Foun­da­ti­on’s follow-up calls in 2025 will be looking for in­no­va­ti­ve project ideas on Big Data in the social sci­en­ces, the natural sci­en­ces, en­gi­nee­ring, and the hu­ma­nities.

Suc­cess­ful ap­p­li­cants will receive €50,000 to run a three-day sandpit event, in­clu­ding a work­shop to do­cu­ment the results. They may no­mi­na­te between six and eight sandpit par­ti­ci­pants with whom they have not col­la­bo­ra­ted in the past and select up to eight further par­ti­ci­pants, who will be sug­gested by the Foun­da­ti­on. The aim is to bring tog­e­ther re­se­ar­chers from dif­fe­rent di­sci­pli­nes.

Ap­p­li­ca­ti­ons are open to re­se­ar­chers at all career stages (post-doc onward) who are working at a German uni­ver­si­ty. The key cri­ter­ion is the po­ten­ti­al to develop non-main­stream re­se­arch topics, ap­proa­ches, and in­sights, and to push the bounda­ries of sci­en­ti­fic dis­co­very.

The topics and dead­lines for the new Sandpit calls in 2025 are:

  • Big Data in the social sci­en­ces: Call open from January 1, 2025 to March 1, 2025
  • Big Data in the natural sci­en­ces: Call open from April 1, 2025 to June 1, 2025
  • Big Data in en­gi­nee­ring: Call open from July 1, 2025 to Sep­tem­ber 1, 2025
  • Big Data in the hu­ma­nities: Call open from October 1, 2025 to De­cem­ber 1, 2025

Further in­for­ma­ti­on about the Sandpit program and eli­gi­bi­li­ty cri­te­ria can be found here: https://www.wuebben-stiftung-wissenschaft.org/en/program/sandpit-0