JTS Early Career Researcher Prize

To stimulate smaller and short term activities within the UG that are linked to the Jantina Tammes School of Digital Society, Technology and AI, the JTS office reserved a budget for the  JTS Early Career Researcher Prize. 

The budget is €13.500 per year, which will be divided into 5 grants of € 2.500, and a bonus of €1.000 for the winner of the Early Career Researcher Prize to spend on a short movie/vlog that creates awareness of the winning topic.  The theme for 2025 is “Collaborative Innovation”.

Why do we organise this Prize?

• To provide a stage for young researchers working on JTS-related themes
• To stimulate UG early career academic staff and PhD’s on further developing their research projects on JTS-related themes
• To stimulate knowledge development and exchange between UG academic staff & students on JTS-related themes
• To stimulate the dissemination of the work of the UG and relevant stakeholders on digital challenges related to societal challenges
• To brand the UG in terms of its JTS activities in a positive way

Ideas for the activities financed by the prize could be:

• Knowledge development and exchange: to further stimulate the JTS themes within the UG, the grant can be used to organise academic activities or sponsor parts of it
• Workshops / seminars / webinars
• Small conferences: essentially, the costs of conferences should be covered by the fees of participants. The grant intends to upgrade the quality of the initiative by, for instance, making a high level 'keynote speaker’ possible.
• Dissemination and branding: the societal impact of UG research and teaching activities can often be strengthened by forms of visualisation of research
• Outreach activities
• Communicating research findings to societal partners in a booklet
• All other ideas are welcome

Committee

Proposals will be judged by a small standing committee. The committee consists of members of the Advisory Group of JTS, and members of the JTS Management Team.

Conditions/Criteria

• The activity fits the JTS theme clearly. This means that it addresses a well-described challenge within the sub themes of Digital Society, Digital Technology or Artificial Intelligence. Digitization affects all aspects of our everyday lives. It influences how we work, how we connect to society and politics, how we communicate, and how we stay healthy. A digital society has enormous potential to solve complex societal issues, such as the energy transition, generating economic growth, improving the quality of education and our overall well-being. Therefore, our goal of ‘digital prosperity for all’ is not limited to one of these aspects.
• The grant must be used for an activity interdisciplinary by its nature, allowing for the transcendence of the disciplinary borders of faculties.
• The activity should include some public engagement aspects.
• The JTS Early Career Researcher Prize is especially meant to make a difference in making an activity happen. 
• The applicants are obliged to mention JTS in their communication and outreach related to their activity (by for example showing JTS’s logo). 
• The applicant has to fill in a form to submit a proposal for the Prize.
• Applicants who receive a Prize will be asked to submit a short report which features the impact of the JTS Prize. This report will be used by JTS for communication purposes. Furthermore, they will be asked to give a short presentation on how the Prize helped their work at the ceremony the following year.
• The Prize can only be used for an activity in the near future (within 6 months)

Procedure

• Applications must be submitted through this application form.
• Application deadlines for 2025 will be May 7, 2025.
• The selection committee will select 5 applications for the JTS Early Career Researcher Prize. These 5 applications will all receive € 2500. 
• The JTS Early Career Researcher Prize & Honouring Ceremony will be held on May 28, 2025, during the JTS Birthday Party. The winner will receive a bonus of €1000, as stated in these guidelines.
• The payment will take place via the standard UG methods and guidelines. 

If you have any questions about the ECR prize, do not hesitate to contact us via:  jtschool rug.nl