Sandpit

Wübben Stif­tung Wis­sen­schaft sand­pits invite re­se­ar­chers to work outside their comfort zone in un­con­ven­tio­nal group con­fi­gu­ra­ti­ons in order to give shape to an over­ar­ching topic and develop fresh ap­proa­ches and re­se­arch ques­ti­ons that promise to deliver in­no­va­ti­ve in­sights. The program wel­co­mes re­se­arch topics that are not covered by the main­stream of exis­ting funding op­por­tu­nities and thus promise to break new ground. The format re­qui­res all par­ti­ci­pants to be out­stan­ding, in­tel­lec­tual­ly open-minded team players so as to create a setting in which es­tab­lished tra­di­ti­ons of thought and di­sci­pli­na­ry bounda­ries can be called into ques­ti­on. Par­ti­ci­pants should not have col­la­bo­ra­ted or pu­blished tog­e­ther pre­vious­ly. The goal of the program is to ge­ne­ra­te un­or­tho­dox ideas for pro­jec­ts that set out to tackle highly re­le­vant chal­len­ges in today’s society.

Ar­ti­fi­ci­al in­tel­li­gence is chan­ging the way people learn, produce know­ledge, solve pro­blems and make de­cisi­ons. This raises the prac­ti­cal ques­ti­on of how AI can be used in schools, uni­ver­si­ties and other edu­ca­tio­nal set­tings. At the same time, and more fun­da­ment­al­ly, we need to examine what edu­ca­ti­on will mean in a society in­crea­singly shaped by AI.

What do people need to know and be able to do when in­for­ma­ti­on can be ge­ne­ra­ted, pro­ces­sed and eva­lua­ted au­to­ma­ti­cal­ly at any time? Which skills are be­co­m­ing more im­portant in order to assess AI systems and their outputs cri­ti­cal­ly and use them re­spon­si­b­ly? How does in­ter­ac­ting with AI affect at­ten­ti­on, memory, lan­guage, crea­ti­vi­ty, mo­ti­va­ti­on, in­de­pen­dent thin­king and human in­ter­ac­tion? And how must tea­ching, lear­ning and as­sess­ment evolve when human and machine con­tri­bu­ti­ons are be­co­m­ing in­crea­singly dif­fi­cult to dis­tin­guish?

At the same time, AI raises ques­ti­ons about edu­ca­tio­nal equity, par­ti­ci­pa­ti­on and re­spon­si­bi­li­ty. Who be­ne­fits from its use, and who is dis­ad­van­ta­ged? What are the con­se­quen­ces of unequal access, biased data, new forms of de­pen­den­cy and the growing im­por­t­an­ce of private tech­no­lo­gy pro­vi­ders? What in­sti­tu­tio­nal, legal and ethical frame­works are needed to ensure that AI is used trans­par­ent­ly, fairly and re­spon­si­b­ly?

The Wübben Stif­tung Wis­sen­schaft invites re­se­ar­chers from all di­sci­pli­nes to explore the re­la­ti­ons­hip between edu­ca­ti­on and ar­ti­fi­ci­al in­tel­li­gence from a range of per­spec­tives. We are looking for theo­re­ti­cal, em­pi­ri­cal or com­pa­ra­ti­ve ap­proa­ches and project ideas that go beyond short-term ques­ti­ons of ap­p­li­ca­ti­on, cross di­sci­pli­na­ry bounda­ries, and open up new re­se­arch ques­ti­ons or new formats and con­cepts for edu­ca­ti­on.

Wübben Stif­tung Wis­sen­schaft is making avail­ab­le €50,000 for a three-day sandpit event plus an ensuing work­shop to do­cu­ment the results. The sandpit will be or­ga­ni­zed by the re­se­ar­chers who have been awarded funding for the event. Funding can be used fle­xi­b­ly to cover costs for travel, ac­com­mo­da­ti­on, ca­te­ring, the event lo­ca­ti­on, and other ex­pen­ses. The do­cu­men­ted results will be pu­blished by Wübben Stif­tung Wis­sen­schaft. 

Re­se­ar­chers who are awarded funding may no­mi­na­te 6–8 par­ti­ci­pants them­sel­ves and choose an ad­di­tio­nal 6–8 par­ti­ci­pants in a next step from a pool of po­ten­ti­al can­di­da­tes to be drawn up by a group of experts con­sul­ted by the Foun­da­ti­on. Wübben Stif­tung Wis­sen­schaft will also no­mi­na­te the work­shop fa­ci­li­ta­tors. 

Re­se­ar­chers at all career levels (post-doc and above) and from all di­sci­pli­nes working at a German uni­ver­si­ty

Your ap­p­li­ca­ti­on should contain three se­pa­ra­te do­cu­ments:
 
A. Re­se­arch topic
In­di­vi­du­als or groups of up to three re­se­ar­chers may submit an ap­p­li­ca­ti­on by pre­sen­ting a two-page (max.) outline of the spe­ci­fic re­se­arch topic they wish to focus on in the sandpit. Groups are re­quested to de­si­gna­te a spo­kes­per­son. Explain which di­sci­pli­nes are es­sen­ti­al for the sandpit. Ap­p­li­cants are en­cou­ra­ged to think outside fa­mi­li­ar boxes. The iden­ti­ty and in­sti­tu­tio­nal af­fi­lia­ti­on of ap­p­li­cants will not be dis­c­lo­sed until the final review phase, so please do not include details that might enable re­view­ers to iden­ti­fy the re­se­ar­chers in­vol­ved or their in­sti­tu­tio­nal af­fi­lia­ti­on, and do not submit preli­mi­na­ry data, or details related to pu­bli­ca­ti­ons, awards re­cei­ved, patents filed, etc. This ap­proach will help Wübben Stif­tung Wis­sen­schaft to ensure reviews are as un­bia­sed as pos­si­ble, giving prio­ri­ty to the most ori­gi­nal ideas.

B. CVs and budget   
Ap­p­li­cants should include their CVs as well as a short de­scrip­ti­on of the ex­pen­ses to be covered by the funding (€50,000 max. in­clu­ding all costs for a three-day event, travel and ac­com­mo­da­ti­on, re­se­arch ma­te­ri­al, as well as other ne­cessa­ry ex­pen­ses). It is pos­si­ble to include a budget for a follow-up weekend to write up and fi­na­li­ze the results and po­si­ti­ons that have emerged during the sandpit. Funding will be re­leased through the uni­ver­si­ty with which the ap­p­li­cant (or the ap­p­ly­ing group’s spo­kes­per­son) is af­fi­lia­ted. That uni­ver­si­ty will be re­spon­si­ble for dis­bur­sing and ac­coun­ting for funds.

C. Date and po­ten­ti­al par­ti­ci­pants
In do­cu­ment C, please suggest a date for the sandpit and no­mi­na­te 8 sandpit par­ti­ci­pants (with whom you have not col­la­bo­ra­ted or pu­blished pre­vious­ly). A list of names in­di­ca­ting the re­spec­tive subject area and in­sti­tu­ti­on is suf­fi­ci­ent. The sandpit event should take place between the be­gin­ning of January and the end of July of the year fol­lo­wing the ap­p­li­ca­ti­on dead­line.