Data science and social science: FGV project awards new scholarships  

Fundação Getulio Vargas’ School of Social Sciences (FGV CPDOC) is starting 2022 with a selection process to award six scholarships for its “Data Science in the Social Sciences Project,” part of the Program to Internationalize Brazilian Graduate Studies, funded by the Education Ministry’s graduate education initiative, CAPES-PrInt.

The Data Science in the Social Sciences Project aims to expand computational approaches to data analysis in the social sciences and history, as well as promoting innovation in education and digital humanities projects. Text documents, photographs, 3D models, audio and video are information sources of relevance to social research. Thus, collaboration between data science and the humanities is a pressing challenge, especially with regard to the scalability of analysis. In this area, FGV is at the frontier of world-class knowledge production.

Applications are open until February 14. The scholarship types include moves to Brazil from other countries (scholarships for visiting researchers, post-doctoral researchers and young talents, aimed at researchers interested in spending time at FGV CPDOC in Rio de Janeiro), and moves from Brazil to other countries (sandwich doctorate scholarships, junior visiting researchers and senior visiting researchers, focused on FGV CPDOC’s internal community).

The project covers computational methodologies such as text mining and corpora studies, artificial intelligence and machine learning, geographic information systems and spatial analysis, databases for historical research, digital collections in the “GLAM community” (meaning galleries, libraries, archives and museums) and digital literacy. In the project’s first three years (2019 to 2021), partnerships were established with 17 foreign institutions in 10 countries, 19 outgoing mobility scholarships were granted and four incoming mobility scholarships were awarded.

The project’s results and products include publications, audiovisual products, courses at FGV CPDOC and courses for the general public. Those involved in the project have also organized and participated in a variety of events. In a 2020 assessment, the project was rated FGV’s most outstanding initiative in the CAPES-PrInt program, due to the results already achieved.

In 2022, the project seeks to strengthen FGV’s position at the forefront of a transdisciplinary and challenging field, responding to pressures imposed by the growth of digital data and barriers involving culture, education and computational infrastructure. Special attention will be paid to promoting academic excellence, reducing inequalities and boosting socioeconomic development.

To find out more about the project, click here.

To see the scholarship application rules, click here.