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Building the Future: Excelling in Computational and Quantitative Social Sciences in Turkey

Project description

A regional hub for sociology research on digitalisation and Big Data

The methods of computational social science (CSS) and quantitative social science (QSS) have rapidly developed to analyse the impacts of digitalisation on social, political and cultural life. The Koç University (KU) in Istanbul has formed the consortium Social ComQuant with the leading institutions GESIS from Germany and ISI from Italy. The EU-funded Social ComQuant project will train early-stage researchers at KU in CSS and QSS, increase the scientific excellence of faculty members at KU and other Turkish institutions, establish a teaching infrastructure for academic curricula in these methods and improve joint research collaborations between the members of the consortium. The project aims to transform KU into a regional hub in Turkey and the Middle East for sociology research on digitalisation and Big Data.

Objective

Digitalization of society characterizes the twenty-first century in many aspects of social, political and cultural life. Computational Social Science (CSS) and Quantitative Social Science (QSS) methods have rapidly developed to analyse these digital human traces, and have become the indispensable core of current high impact scientific research in Social Sciences. However, the widening country Turkey severely lacks scientific expertise and capacity in these methods. Therefore, the Koç University (KU) in Istanbul has teamed up with GESIS- Leibniz Institute for the Social Sciences from Germany and ISI Foundation- Istituto Interscambio Scientifico (ISI) from Italy to form the project consortium Social ComQuant. The leading institutions GESIS and ISI will share their expertise in CSS and QSS and facilitate to build scientific excellence at KU in these fields. The project will (i) train early stage researchers at KU in CSS and QSS; (ii) increase scientific excellence of faculty members at KU and other Turkish institutions in CSS and QSS; (iii) build a teaching infrastructure for academic curricula in CSS and QSS at KU; and (iv) strengthen joint research collaboration between the consortium members. These objectives will be reached through staff exchanges, summer schools, workshops, expert visits and a virtual training platform that will establish a significant human capacity at KU by facilitating faculty members, graduate and undergraduate students to gain utmost experience in CSS and QSS. This will transform the widening institute KU to a regional hub in Turkey and the wider Middle East region for sociology research on digitalization and big data. Social ComQuant will fulfil the objectives of the Twinning Actions by introducing the promising institute Koç University into the closed group of excellent EU institutes in Social Sciences, increasing the participation of Turkey in European projects and establishing Turkey as an equal partner of the European Research Area.

Call for proposal

H2020-WIDESPREAD-2018-2020

See other projects for this call

Sub call

H2020-WIDESPREAD-2020-5

Coordinator

KOC UNIVERSITY
Net EU contribution
€ 447 552,50
Address
RUMELI FENERI YOLU SARIYER
34450 Istanbul
Türkiye

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Region
İstanbul İstanbul İstanbul
Activity type
Higher or Secondary Education Establishments
Links
Total cost
€ 447 552,50

Participants (2)