COST Action DATAMIG
The COST Action CA 22135 DATAMIG (Data Matters: Sociotechnical Challenges of European Migration and Border Control) is a four year COST Action running between 2023 and 2027. DATAMIG focuses on the datafication of migration and border control, which cannot be understood merely as a technical matter. It reconfigures practices and rationalities of migration and border control, it fosters new transnational alliances between academics and civil society actors, and it raises contentious issues linked to datafied migration and border control, such as transparency and accountability. DATAMIG builds on an extensive body of scholarship, insights and experiences. It sets up an integrated research framework, ensures up-to-date research, it keeps track of the highly dynamic and increasingly transnational field of datafied migration and border control, and it fosters research strategies and methodologies that engage critically with securitized, racialized and increasingly violent datafied borders. For further details, see the Memorandum of Understanding – MoU and the Action DATMIG website.
The activities in DATAMIG are structured in three Working Groups (WGs):
WG1: Inventory, WG2: Observatory WG3: Laboratory
Short Term Scientific Missions (STSMs) are exchange visits between DATAMIG members who can visit an institution in another COST Member state participating in DATAMIG. STSMs may last from 5 days up to six months. Applicants can be researchers (we are encouraging applications from early career researchers, doctoral students or postdoctoral researchers) but also actors from civil society organizations. Up to a maximum of EUR 4000 in total can be afforded to each successful applicant (see details below).
WG related topics for STSMs
The following topics indicate areas of research of high relevance at the current stage of the Cost Action. This does not preclude applications with other topics, or related topics. However, applications for one or several WG related topics will be prioritized in the selection of STSMs.
WG1
STSMs in the realm of WG1 welcome work that contributes to the WG1 goals outlined in the Memorandum of Understanding: WG1 will critically discuss data matters concerning accountability, transparency, data justice, discrimination, exclusion, inequality, datafication from below, counter-surveillance, data solidarities, and more. Moreover, WG1 will engae with the datafication of migration and borders from various angles, particularly feminist, post- and decolonial studies, as well as historical research.
This includes, among other things, reviewing research on historical, feminist and decolonial epistemologies regarding the knowledge-production around technology, datafication, and migration or the the development of potential syllabus for teaching, potential WG1 events, research agendas, and literature overviews.
WG2
WG2 focuses on mapping and monitoring arenas of datafication in migration and border control. Our work includes: collaboratively mapping regulatory frameworks and infrastructures shaping datafication, tracing emerging transnational and international infrastructures-in-the-making, and engaging with counter-surveillance and monitoring practices.
The Observatory is developing a theory-methods package called Data Palimpsest(ing).
A palimpsest is traditionally a manuscript page—often made of parchment—that has been written on, scraped or washed off, and then used again for writing. It can also be thought of as a tool that has multiple layers beneath the surface—like a city built on top of older ruins, or a text, memory, or identity that carries traces of what came before. It’s often used to describe complex historical or cultural phenomena where past layers are still perceptible within present structures. Datafication processes at borders, for example, continuously overwrite personal narratives and agency while retaining structural biases and former inscription practices. These infrastructures often function like palimpsests: past categories, colonial legacies, and technical configurations remain readable beneath new digital layers.
As per MoU, we welcome applications for STSMs that explore the above mentioned themes in Europe and non-EU sites.
WG3
STSMs in the realm of WG3 welcome work that engage with collaborative interventions that bring together knowledges of researchers, activists, lawyers, journalists, artists. In this sense, we invite submissions that suggest short term stays at institutions of DATAMIG members and in geographies that enable such exchange. STSMs shall contribute and align with ongoing work in WG3, see DATAMIG Memorandum of Understanding.
The STSM shall result in a text draft on “resisting datafication of the border: A collaborative critique”. A contribution to the book project “Resisting datafication of the border: A collaborative critique”, and/ or case collection to be published on the DATAMIG website (see previous calls on Book & Case collection/online repository shared on September 3) and that fits into the themes/book sections a) epistemic interventions, or b) methodologies of change, or c) sites of collaborative interventions. The text shall reflect and benefit from engagements with the host institution and possibly interactions with other actors such as activists, journalists, artists, researchers. For the application we ask for an abstract of max. 300 words.
Application process
Each STSM applicant will have to hand in an estimated budget including travel costs and daily allowance for their expected stay at the time of application. The calculation of the financial contribution for each STSM must respect the following criteria:
- A maximum of EUR 4000 in total can be afforded to the grantee
- Travel expenses: maximum of EUR 1500
- Daily allowance for accommodation and meal expenses: country specific (link)
During the STSM, neither the COST Association nor the Grant Holder may be considered as an employer. The grantees must make their own arrangements for all health, social, personal security, taxation and pension matters.
All applicants must carefully read the funding rules detailed in the Annotated Rules for COST Actions and the Q&As.
All applicants must have an e-COST profile and be a member of the respective Working Group. In case you are not yet a WG member, please apply here and wait for approval. In the meanwhile, email your application (see below) and indicate that you have not been approved on e-cost yet.
Please submit your application by 06/10/ 2025:
- online via e-COST:
- Data entry: Basic information (grant title, amount requested, start and end date (latest end date: October 23rd, 2025), host institution name, host contact person name)
- Additional upload: Application form (find attached) indicating the goals, a description/work plan, the expected outcomes and the contribution to the overall Action objectives.
- Letter of invitation from a researcher affiliated to the Host institution
- CV uploaded to the applicant’s e-COST profile.
Please also email the application form, the letter of invitation, the CV and your budget calculation to the responsible for STSM, Prof. Vasilis Galis ([email protected]), as well as to the respective WG leaders (WG1: [email protected]; WG2: [email protected]; WG3: [email protected]).
Acceptance notifications will be sent out by 08/10/ 2025.
You find the call also online here: https://data-mig.eu/stsm-datamig-call-2025/
