SSHOC-NL Fellowship Call 2025

SSHOC-NL is a consortium of research infrastructures aimed to create a state-of-the-art ecosystem of services, data, and tools for the social sciences and humanities sector. The project facilitates cooperation between the CLARIAH-NL (Common Lab Research Infrastructure for the Arts and Humanities in the Netherlands) entity and ODISSEI (Open Data Instructure for Social Science and Economic Innovations). This collaboration enables ground-breaking interdisciplinary research that focuses on pressing societal questions such as climate change and political polarization among other topics.

Within SSHOC-NL, the CLARIAH-NL entity warrants the continuity of knowledge, infrastructure, workflows, organization, working relationships and network as a result of previous CLARIAH-supported projects. CLARIAH-NL consists of a wide variety of tools, services and datasets as well as digitized cultural heritage collections and archives. For an overview of CLARIAH-NL resources, please visit CLARIAH.nl or the Ineo platform. Ineo allows users to search, browse, find and select digital resources for humanities and social science research.

CLARIAH-NL opens the Fellowship Call 2025 to further improve the SSHOC-NL infrastructure and encourage its use. Therefore, the CLARIAH-NL board also opens a call for fellowships to specifically encourage cross-, inter-, and intradisciplinary research, or research that is more subject- or tool-oriented and that helps researchers to expand their own research focus. For example, applicants could use the fellowship to explore a dataset or cultural heritage collection using one or more of the CLARIAH-NL tools. Alternatively, applicants could seek out collaborations with researchers from other disciplines to tackle a topic of interest together. For instance, a humanities scholar could form a team with a computer science researcher to investigate how linked open data can support or question digital hermeneutics as a method of interpretation. Two kinds of fellowships are distinguished: Research Fellowships and Teaching Fellowships.

Research Fellowship

In a Research Fellowship, a researcher (the CLARIAH-NL Research Fellow) carries out a focused research project based on an explicitly formulated research question. The research must use data and/or software that is already part of the CLARIAH-NL infrastructure. The Research Fellowship should result in:

1. a research article manuscript about this research submitted for publication,
2. a public presentation at a conference,
3. a workshop for peers, co-organised with the SSHOC-NL team,
4. a list of requirements (a.o. user needs, wishlist, bugs),
5. a web text (e.g., a blog post, a data story, a tutorial) for the Ineo portal that explains the method and approach lucidly to a specific user group,
6. a contribution to an open-access handbook focusing on key outcomes of the SSHOC-NL project.

Teaching Fellowship

In a Teaching Fellowship, a lecturer at a Dutch university (the CLARIAH-NL Teaching Fellow) uses data and/or software that are part of the CLARIAH-NL infrastructure in a Bachelor, Master or Research Master course for an explicitly identified category of students (e.g. defined in terms of presupposed background knowledge). The Teaching Fellowship should result in

educational material including a video lecture (see below for explanation) for the Ineo portal,

1. a research article manuscript about this research submitted for publication,

2. a teaching workshop for peers

3. a list of requirements (a.o. user needs, wishlist, bugs),

4. a blogpost for the Ineo portal on the classroom experience. Note that the post must consist of one or more web pages that explain in detail and with illustrations how and in which circumstances a particular tool feature can be used. This post can be accompanied by additional materials such as exercises, exercise data, relevant documents, etc.. For inspiration, see past examples here: for instance about autosearch in the MasterSearch project, or the Connecting to the network of digital cultural heritage project in which (art)history students are made familiar with Linked Open Data tools.

5. a contribution to an open-access handbook focusing on key outcomes of the SSHOC-NL project.

How do I apply?

You can apply by submitting a proposal in accordance with the Research Fellow proposal template or the Teaching Fellow proposal. The proposal must be written in English. The application deadline is March 3, 2025.

Who can apply?

Anyone who is employed with a contract for the duration of the suggested project period at a Dutch organization that is eligible for funding by NWO can apply.

What and where are the CLARIAH-NL tools, services and datasets?

The proposals should be executed with tools and datasets available in the CLARIAH-NL infrastructure.

What can be applied for?

You can apply for:

• Funding for a maximum of 2 working months for 1 person, in accordance with the standard NWO/VSNU rules and applicable tariffs (see here , and here).
• Budget allocated for small material costs (e.g. for costs for attending a conference or workshop, video or text editing, light programming etc.) not to exceed 2000 euros.

What in-kind contribution is expected?

You are expected to bring in 1 person month of effort as in kind into the project.

How much budget is available for this call?

The total budget for this call is €100K. Each Fellowship can be awarded up to €20.000 euro including research time and material costs. The budget therefore allows for a maximum of 5 projects.

When does the fellowship start?

The Fellowship starts as soon as possible after approval of the project but no later than June 1, 2025.

How long does a Fellowship last?

A Fellowship typically lasts 6 months, but in special circumstances a longer period up to 12 months may be allowed upon request.

What are the evaluation criteria for the Fellowship proposals?

The major criteria:

• Does the proposal aim to achieve what is requested in the fellowship call?
• Have the goals of the project been clearly defined?
• (Interdisciplinarity) Does the project hold the promise of interdisciplinarity and/or cross-fertilization with other disciplines?
• Will this project lead to outcomes that are also useful to other research questions and teaching purposes for which the data and /or software can be applied?
• Are the required deliverables clearly specified and is there a realistic plan for realising them?
• Has a CLARIAH-NL contact person been consulted on the data/software to be used and does the proposal report on this consultation?

For Research Fellowships:

• Has the research question been formulated explicitly?
• Are the suggested data and /or software suitable for addressing the research question?
• Have suitable publication channels (e.g. journals, conferences) been explicitly identified in the proposal?
• (Feasibility) Is the research question focused enough to be carried out in 3 person months with a lead time of 6 months, and broad enough to adequately test the CLARIAH-NL infrastructure?
  

For Teaching Fellowships:

• (User-orientation) Has a clear category of students and/or colleagues been identified for the course and the teaching material?
• (Contextualisation) Has the course context been clearly defined and does the project align with the course learning goals?
• (Feasibility) Is the educational project focused enough to be carried out in 3 person months with a lead time of 6 months, and broad enough to adequately test (parts of) the CLARIAH-NL infrastructure?

Formal compliance:

• Conformance to the prescribed format and proposal template.
• Submission before the set deadline, using the means described.
• Conformance to the prescribed language of the proposal.

Please note that the CLARIAH-NL Board also considers distributing the Fellowship proposals amongst the various data and tools available. This is to ensure involvement from as many parts of the CLARIAH-NL infrastructure as possible.

Who can I approach if I have a question about this call?

Send any questions via e-mail: s.c.sauer@rug.nl and/or liselore.tissen@bb.huc.knaw.nl

Will there be future CLARIAH calls for Fellowships?

This call is the first CLARIAH-NL Fellowship call issued by the SSHOC-NL project. The overarching SSHOC-NL project foresees annual opportunities for a call for Fellowships, for the duration of the SSHOC-NL project.

How do I apply?

You can apply by writing a Fellowship proposal using one of the Fellowship proposal templates, and by submitting your proposal via Easychair before the set submission deadline.