EUROPEAN SCIENCE FOUNDATION
TOWARDS ELECTRONIC DEMOCRACY:
INTERNET-BASED DECISION SUPPORT
| FUNDING FOR WORKSHOPS AND VISITING FELLOWSHIPS |
The European Science Foundation has established the programme TOWARDS ELECTRONIC DEMOCRACY (TED) with the objective of discussing and evaluating how advances in interactive decision analytic tools might help develop inclusive e democratic systems which involve their electorates more fully in decision making. As part of this programme, there is funding available for several research workshops and for a number of fellowships to support short visits between researchers to investigate aspects of e-democracy from a decision analytic perspective. The closing date for the applications for the second round of these is Wednesday 6th August 2003.
Further details are available:
Specifically on the workshop and visiting fellowship funding:
at http://bayes.escet.urjc.es/ted/workshops_and_fellowships.html
and
or
by emailing simon.french@mbs.ac.uk
or drios@escet.urjc.es.
On TED generally:
at http://bayes.escet.urjc.es/ted/index.html
or http://www.esf.org/ted
or
by emailing simon.french@mbs.ac.uk
or drios@escet.urjc.es.
On the ESF:
European Science Foundation
Towards
Electronic Democracy:
Internet-based Complex Decision
Support (TED)
Funding for Workshops and Visiting Fellowships
Further Details
The European Science Foundation has established the programme Towards Electronic Democracy (TED) with the objective of discussing and evaluating how advances in interactive decision analytic tools might help develop inclusive e-democratic systems which involve their electorates more fully in decision making. As part of this programme, there is funding available for several research workshops and for a number of fellowships to support short visits between researchers to investigate aspects of e-democracy from a decision analytic perspective. The closing date for the applications for the first round of these is Wednesday 6th August 2003.
The TED project proposes a timely development of Bayesian methods to support societal decision making via the mechanisms of the WWW: a true step towards e-democracy rather than the e-administration techniques that so far have lain at the heart of e-government initiatives. While our overall objective is clearly too large for a single programme, our specific goals are more focused. We shall seek to develop methodologies and tools to support the analysis at the heart of our vision, specifically:
develop methodologies which enable multiple decision analyses to be communicated, explored and, indeed, built over the WWW, thus providing the mechanism by which stakeholders may be drawn more closely into the decision making process;
address relevant technical issues arising in the application of the Bayesian decision analytic paradigm to e-democracy in areas such as:
problem structuring,
uncertainty modelling,
preference modelling,
expected utility maximisation,
sensitivity analysis;
prototype software and interfaces for achieving this;
evaluate the tools and methodologies in the context of ``hypothetical'' scenarios which exhibit many of the complexities of real issues but are simple enough to be explored within the timescale and resources of the programme;
and, generally,
promote rational, inclusive and participative approaches to societal decision making.
We emphasise that while our tangible goals relate primarily to mathematical, decision analytic and computational developments, we view this project as essentially multi-disciplinary. The tools and methodologies will not work if we lose sight of the political, cultural and social contexts in which they will be used or of the behavioural and cognitive characteristics of the users of the system. Through our programme we expect to:
demonstrate and evaluate more general, web-based decision analytic tools
promote debate on e-democracy methodologies and technologies
develop bridges between several research communities
help educate a generation of young scientists via summer schools and institutional exchanges
maintain Europe's leading role in thinking about the Information Society.
As part of the TED programme which will include 2 general conferences, 2 summer schools and the development of a website and report series, there will be
3 small workshops per year on specialised topics such as:
Structuring decision making problems
Interfacing the software
Developing scenarios
Environmental decision making
Interfacing multi-agent theory and Bayesian methods
Computational methods for complex decision analysis
Risk communication.
Sensitivity analysis for complex decision making.
five 12 days visits per year for exchange of senior researchers between participating institutions.
five 3 months postdoctoral visits at participating institutions per year.
The TED programme will run until the end of 2006.
This call relates to the workshops and visiting fellowships.
Further details are available:
On TED:
at http://bayes.escet.urjc.es/ted/index.html
or http://www.esf.org/ted
or
by emailing simon.french@mbs.ac.uk
or drios@escet.urjc.es.
On the ESF:
There will be 3 workshops per year. A kick-off workshop was held in Dublin in Autumn 2002: see http://www.tcd.ie/Statistics/seminars/semtowards2002.shtml. Another was held in Madrid in May 2003 (Shaping Electronic Democracy: Internet-based Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis). We are thus seeking proposals for a third workshop to be held within the first year's funding, preferably in late 2003, but possibly early 2004. A further call later in the year will be issued for other workshops to be held in 2004.
ESF will provide funding of up to €7,400 to support a 2 -; 3 day workshop. It is expected that the organisers will supplement this funding either through full cost registration fees for some participants or through further sponsorship. In total, we would expect 25 to 30 participants at a workshop with about 15 supported at least partially for travel, registration and accommodation by ESF funds. The ESF will not be liable for any further costs once the level of award is made: it will not underwrite the workshop.
To be eligible for funding the workshop must be held in one of the countries supporting the programme (currently, Belgium, the Czech Republic, Finland, Ireland, Italy, Spain, Switzerland and the United Kingdom: see the list of supporting bodies below).
There is no application form. Applicants should make clear in their proposal:
the title, objective and format of the workshop;
its (provisional) dates and location;
a description of your vision of the event and how it will serve the general aims of the TED programme;
the likely participants;
a rough costing, including registration fee income or other sources of funds;
how the ESF funds will be used;
their institution, which will be the fund-holder.
a short c.v. of the proposer and a brief description of the institution's experience in organising similar events;
Email addresses, fax and phone numbers at which the proposer may be contacted during August and September, 2003.
Note that it is expected that at least one member of the TED steering committee will sit on the programme/organising committee and attend the workshop. This will be a cost on the ESF funds. Also a report (scientific and financial) on the event will be required within 60 days of its final day.
Proposers should also consult the ESF website (http://www.esf.org) for further guidance on allowable costs, etc. While an advance payment will be made, the full ESF contribution will not be available until receipt of the scientific and financial reports.
Applications should be made to arrive by Wednesday 6th August 2003 to Prof. Simon French, Manchester Business School, University of Manchester, Booth Street West, Manchester, M15 6PB, United Kingdom. Email simon.French@mbs.ac.uk. Email applications are strongly preferred, with documents provided in plain text, MS Word, Latex or pdf.
As part of the TED programme, we intend to support up to 5 visits (1 - 2 weeks) of senior researchers and up to 5 postdoctoral (~three months) visits between institutions per year. Note that this support will be partial with contributions of up to €50 per diem for senior researchers or €1000 per month for postdoctoral researchers for subsistence and accommodation and a contribution (on average €250) towards the cost of travel.
To be eligible for funding, either the visitor's institution or the institution visited must be held in one of the countries supporting the programme (currently, Belgium, the Czech Republic, Finland, Ireland, Italy, Spain, Switzerland and the United Kingdom: see the list of supporting bodies below).
There is no application form. Applicants should make clear in their proposal:
the objective and purpose of their visit, an indication of the work that they will do and how it will contribute to the work both at the visitor's and host institution;
the (provisional) dates;
a rough costing, including travel;
short c.v.'s of the proposed fellow and key researchers at the institution visited;
Email addresses, fax and phone numbers at which the proposer may be contacted during August and September, 2003.
Note that a report (scientific and financial) on the visit will be required within 60 days of its final day.
Proposers should also consult the ESF website (http://www.esf.org) for further guidance on allowable costs, etc. Payments will generally be made direct to the visiting fellow in two instalments: 80 per cent before the visit takes place and 20% on submission of a scientific and financial report.
Applications should be made to arrive by Wednesday 6th August 2003 to Prof. Simon French, Manchester Business School, University of Manchester, Booth Street West, Manchester, M15 6PB, United Kingdom. Email simon.French@mbs.ac.uk. Email applications are strongly preferred, with documents provided in plain text, MS Word, Latex or pdf.
TED is funded by the following members of the European Science Foundation:
The Fonds National de la Recherche Scientifique (FRNS), Belgium
The Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic
The Grant Agency of the Czech Republic
The Research Council for Natural Sciences and Engineering of the Academy of Finland
Enterprise Ireland
The Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche, Italy
The Cconsejo Superior de Investigaciones Cientificas (csic) Spain
The Oficina de Ciencia y Technologia (OCyT) Spain
The Schweizerischer Nationalfonds zur Förderung, Switzerland
The Economic and Social Research Council (esrc), UK
The Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (epsrc), UK
Institutions seeking funding under TED must be eligible for funding by one of these bodies. In the case of visiting fellowships, either the host or the visiting institution, but not necessarily both must be similarly eligible. Note: None of these research bodies should be contacted directly. All matters relating to TED funding should be directed to Professors Simon French (simon.french@mbs.ac.uk) or David Rios Insua drios@escet.urjc.es.