Through this second Call for Proposals for Midsize Projects, researchers are encouraged to form interdisciplinary groups in partnership with non-academic stakeholders. They can apply for projects with a maximum budget of € 200k. The grant can be spent on hiring new, temporary staff, such as research assistants, postdocs, and data scientists for the duration of the project (up to two years) and additional project costs. Two or three grants will be awarded for each theme. Midsize Projects contribute to UvA’s strategic objective of inspiring generations through interdisciplinary research. Submit your proposal no later than 31 October 2024, 11.00h CET.

The call is open to all tenure-track, assistant, associate and full professors, as well as professors by special appointment at the University of Amsterdam. We invite passionate researchers to propose projects that align with one of the four IP Themes.

Additional information for applicants Responsible Digital Transformations theme

To enhance the effectiveness of the RDT theme, the steering group has decided to implement campaigns focussed on specific topics. Therefore, in this call for Midsize Projects (Instrument II, to a maximum of € 200k) we invite research groups that work together with external partners on a topic that fits into the topic of Creativity & Generative AI:

Generative Artificial Intelligence (AI) is radically changing how we perceive the relations between humans and machines. For the first time in history, humans are not the only ones anymore to make coherent readable text, generate images that we like to look at or finish the music of the last Beatles song. Consumer AI has become a focus of companies worldwide for new forms of creative production and consumption, raising old questions of what defines creative practices and how their future might look like. Users of AI have become makers through prompting as a new form of interacting with machines, which can lead to new well-paid job opportunities for people generally not associated with AI developments like language majors. But generative AI has created maybe even more low-paid jobs and will also put pressure on (already precarious) creative jobs, which were supposed to be immune from technological innovations. Because of the investments necessary we are in danger of reproducing and fostering global labour imbalances.

Other creative work like programming will never be the same again, as prompting enhances but also replaces coding. Similarly, and depending on one’s perspective, research is either better or worse if writing up results is supported by GPT. Classical teaching assessment forms like the essay are challenged. Generative AI will make it easier to produce large amounts of marketing content, which can also be used to mislead and deceive us. If Cambridge Analytica had these capabilities its reach and impact could have been much wider. Generative AI has made it harder for us to believe our own eyes and ears. We can expect new forms of governance to emerge to address these challenges.

1. (Re-)defining creative practices. Can we speak of a new form of creativity with Generative AI? What kind of new creative practices might emerge in the collaboration with humans and machines?
    
2. Generative Modelling. Existing options for steering Generative AI approaches are aimed at post-hoc restrictions and regulations, with a lack of technological measures. Develop methods to explore and model the alignment between generative models and cultural, ecological, legal, and human values. 
    
3. Research and teaching practices with generative AI. Investigate new research methodologies and technologies. Develop policies and shared understandings to address their potentials and dangers.
    
4. Future of creative work. Explore the impact of Generative AI on creative work, focusing on markets, labour relations, and the shifting balance between varying levels of job opportunities. Investigate how these changes influence organizational structures, innovation processes, and the broader economic ecosystem within creative fields.
    
5. Generative AI governance. Examine how new policies and regulations, such as the EU’s landmark Artificial Intelligence Act, address the risks and opportunities of  Generative AI. Explore how the governance and regulation of generative AI could affect how creative content using generative AI is created, distributed and consumed.
    
6. Expanding Interactions with GenAI. Analyse the multifaceted ways Generative AI is transforming interactions across various groups including users, citizens, creators, businesses and educational entities. Delve into the implications for content creation, societal engagement and the evolving relationship between technology and diverse communities.

For this call, we invite proposals that spur the dialogue between technical and social research, between the arts and the sciences. We explicitly encourage interdisciplinary co-creation methodologies that integrate the voice of non-academic stakeholders into the research design, and by that facilitate new dialogues between these project partners. We are especially interested in building upon existing research within the UvA to continue excellent research and provide it with a more long-term basis.

Please contact theme manager Christine Erb, of any member of the steering group, for more information about this campaign.