Starting March 1st, 2022, Utrecht Data School (UDS) will become part of the Centre for Digital Humanities (CDH) at Utrecht University under the joint deanship of the Faculty of Science and the Faculty of Humanities. 

Investigating the implications of AI and datafication for our digital society requires concerted interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary efforts. Over the past years, UDS developed collaborative projects with societal partners and researchers from different disciplines, as well as formats for teaching professionals.  

With UDS positioned at the cross-sections of Humanities and Sciences they can better connect various societal partners to different research disciplines. This new position enables us to contribute to further strengthening collaboration between the two Faculties.

This move coincides with the new position of Mirko Tobias Schäfer at Information & Computing Sciences where he becomes programme manager for the interdisciplinary master Applied Data Science. From this day forward Mirko assumes the position of UDS project lead from the Sciences and Karin van Es UDS project lead from the Humanities, with Iris Muis promoted to UDS lead operations at CDH.

Towards publicly engaged research for the digital society 

Looking forward UDS can seize synergies from both faculties for developing joint research projects, teaching for professionals, and to create learning opportunities for students. This new position also increases the ability to engage effectively with external partners and connect societal challenges to academic research agendas. Their activities with government organizations, companies and NGO’s will continue to focus on online public debates, and responsible AI and data practices. The coming years UDS is committed to expanding socially engaged research and teaching for professionals. In this journey they seek to include their colleagues and relations.