Organisation profile

The objective of Science, Policy and Information Studies is to develop knowledge about scholarship and informational dynamics in all their forms and configurations. The knowledge group combines studies of academic and societal networks of humanities scholarship and beyond with research on intelligent access, prediction, analytics and ethics of information in the face of large amounts of data.

The central task of the knowledge group is to develop methods to understand, analyse and reflect upon the co-production of impact of scholarly activities and understanding their value in society as well as to produce actionable insights from the analysis of information and the practices surrounding it.

The most important activities of the knowledge group are to:

• Build the meta-research field and catalyse new research to help develop the scientific and societal understanding of humanities.
• Provide policymakers, foundations and research leaders with the skills and knowledge needed to support the development of high-quality humanities research
• Facilitate and study how the humanities influence the wider society and examine opportunities and barriers for cross-fertilization and collaboration.
• Capture the nonlinear chains of causation in the way humanities impact society, including the development of new impact metrics that reflect the dynamic nature and complex interdependencies of humanities and society.
• Derive actionable insights from large-scale user behaviour data.
• Study the information (seeking) behavior and user experience of users of complex information systems
• Improve user experience in digital interactive information-heavy environments, such as domain-specific information retrieval or recommender systems
• Carry out predictive analytics and visualization of high-dimensional complex datasets in new forms of community knowledge creation such as ‘smart citizen’ participation, energy use, and research participation.
• Develop timely, accurate and context-aware access to large information collections
• Improve bibliometric indicators
• Online/offline behaviour and decision making
• Study ethical aspects of ‘Big Data’ research, AI and Internet behaviour

The Science, Policy and Information Studies Group will explore the possibilities for setting up novel educational programmes and elements within topics such as science advice, science communication, science studies and data-driven decision-making.