Bielefeld Center for Data Science
Funded Research Projects
Most research projects are data-related in one way or another. Below, we listed projects at Bielefeld University that have a particularly clear data-focus.
BiCDaS supports researchers in applications for third party funding in different ways: i.) We offer expertise on the topics of data, the data life cycle, research data management and different methods of data preparation and analysis. We also have a huge network of experts on different data-related topics. ii.) We can help make contact with researchers from various fields. This is particularly handy for interdisciplinary projects and for getting expertise needed for the project on board. iii.) We can contribute to an application text on topics of data, which can often serve as a trans-disciplinary, integrative element in your project proposal.
We are also constantly looking out for interdisciplinary, data-focused calls that fit the profile of BiCDaS members. When we feel that a specific call might be of interest for a team of BiCDaS members, we actively contact them, offering to coordinate and moderate one or several meetings, aimed at stimulating an application.
Although research funding is important and our main focus, other forms of funding such as teaching grants or travel grants are also considered.
- SOEP@UniBi
Studying Regional Development Dynamics and their Political Consequences
SOEP RegioHub at Bielefeld University
The sources of political polarisation and extremism are manifold. This project particularly aims at identifying those sources which are rooted in the regional structure. The project theirfore aims at developing data on regional indicators quantifying factors such as health care, mobility, education, culture, child care and others on a regional level.
A central part of the project, besides concrete research questions is in establishing a SOEP regio hub: SOEP data can be accessed from Bielefeld, trainings on SOEP data usage are conducted and a specialised training data set will be made available.
BiCDaS is actively involved in this, particularly in sub-project 4 (INF).
- Data Infrastructure and Digital Humanities
SFB 1288 Project: "Practices of comparing. Ordering and changing the world"
The INF subproject is responsible for supervising all data- and information-related activities by providing a collaborative digital work and research environment for the whole CRC. By bringing together experts in the fields of information infrastructure, research data management, and digital humanities, this project contributes to the establishment of new research methods in the field of the humanities that will support research on practices of comparison. At the same time, INF is creating a sustainable basis for ensuring the long-term availability of the research data collected and used in the CRC. This will guarantee the transparency and traceability of research findings, theses, and publications.
Funder: DFG (German Research Foundation)
- D-LOFAR III (Low Frequency Array Telescope)
Radio astronomy in Bielefeld is involved in the LOFAR project, operating one of the largest radio telescopes in operation. We face data management challenges regularly, as we coordinate the six German stations of the LOFAR telescope in our GLOW network, orchestrating observational data flows of 3 Gbps per station. Data is accepted and pre‐processed in near‐real‐time by central facilities like our GLOW cluster. We seek to further automate and consolidate analysis tools, procedures, data formats, and hardware infrastructure for gathering data and analysing it for different science projects. Applying contemporary machine learning approaches is a significant interest of the participants. Future work focuses on an on‐the‐fly detection of significant events in our data streams as well as triggered (i.e., sudden and time‐critical) observations and subsequent resource management. In addition to analysing archival data, we are directly involved in the operation and development of the LOFAR long‐term archive, which archives and serves large amounts of data (currently ~20 PB) for and to radio astronomers world wide. We have several years of experience in the storage backend and metadata management and presentation and we are familiar with the practical challenges of moving large file quantities and sizes between locations.
Funder: BMBF (Federal Ministry of Education and Research)
- Informium
In its first phase (to 2013), the focus of this project was on the development of advisory and publication services in the social sciences. Services were set up, for example, for the BMBF-funded Data Service Center for Business and Organizational Data (DSZ-BO) and the DFG-funded SFB 882 "From Heterogeneities to Inequalities". The DSZ-BO develops services for sociological microdata, whereas the SFB 882—Project INF (Information and Data Infrastructure) aims to construct a virtual research environment composed of a conventional working platform, a research data platform and an interface module.
Funder: DFG (German Ministry of Education and Research) and BMBF (Federal
Ministry of Education and Research)- New Contours of Production and Work
How have the contours of work and production changed after the end of ‘Fordism’? In order to answer this question, the rich corpus of qualitative data emerging from over 40 years of research at leading German institutes of labour sociology will be made accessible, and explored in five pilot studies. This requires new IT-based methods of secondary analysis, which are detailed in close cooperation between sociology, IT and Information Science. Requirements will be clarified, concepts will be developed, and new IT solutions will be tested, in the context of exemplary sociological inquiry. A centre of competence and advice will be established, ensuring the sustainable provision of infrastructure, research data, and IT solutions, thus supporting the dissemination of IT-based secondary analysis as a new approach to qualitative data. The main goals of the subproject DSC-BO are the development and preparation of data for secondary analysis. For the contextualization of these data, relevant para- and meta-data will be outlined. A further goal is the creation of standards and the development of routines for the anonymization of qualitative data. A final goal of the Subproject DSC-BO is the establishment of an interdisciplinary centre of competence and advice.
Funder: BMBF (Federal Ministry of Education and Research)
