DATAMIG Core Group 2026 Short Term Scientific Missions — Call

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. For this Call, STSMs may last from five days up to one month. 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). This Call focuses on activities of relevance to all DATAMIG WGs and to the DATAMIG research agenda as a whole. 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. 

Topics:

1. Research on the connection between technology-borders/migration, the environmental crisis (including climate change) and the rest of the existential risks (e.g., AI, pandemics) and their localization, to inform/enrich the DATAMIG research agenda.
2. Research on the connection between technology-borders/migration and the emergence of platforms, including state platforms, focusing on the issue of interoperability, to inform/enrich the DATAMIG research agenda. 
3. Research on the connection between technology-borders/migration and public discourses/rhetoric/ideology on data, AI, algorithms, to inform/enrich the DATAMIG research agenda.
4. Research on technology-borders/migration through the study of seas and maritime regions as spaces of mobility, control, logistics and digital governance, to inform/enrich the DATAMIG research agenda.
5. Research on how dynamically emerging versions of data-based technologies, most notably LLMs, are being used and encountered in migration and border control contexts, to inform/enrich the DATAMIG research agenda.

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 26 August 2026:

• online via e-COST:
  • Data entry: Basic information (grant title, amount requested, start and end date (latest end date: September 30^th, 2026), 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 DATAMIG Action Chair, Prof. Aristotle Tympas ([email protected]).

Acceptance notifications will be sent out 28 August 2026.

SHORT TERM SCIENTIFIC MISSION (STSM) Grant

• APPLICATION FORM
  This form is part of the application for a grant to visit a host organisation located in a different country than the country of affiliation. It is submitted to the COST Action MC via-e-COST. The Grant Awarding Coordinator coordinates the evaluation on behalf of the Action MC and informs the Grant Holder of the result of the evaluation for issuing the Grant Letter.

Action number: 

Applicant name: 

Details of the STSMTitle:Start and end date: DD/MM/YYYY to DD/MM/YYYY

Goals of the STSM Purpose and summary of the VM.

(max.200 word) Applicant enters max. 200 word summary here.

Working Plan of the STSMDescription of the work to be carried out by the applicant.

(max.500 word) Applicant enters max. 500 word summary here.

Expected outputs and contribution to the COST Action DATAMIG objectives and activities (see call). Main expected results and their contribution to the progress towards the Action objectives (either research coordination and/or capacity building objectives) and deliverables.(max.500 words) Applicant enters max. 500 word summary here.