Call for 2025 Short Term Scientific Missions (STSM)
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).

The current call focuses on activities of relevance to WG1 and WG3

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

Topic 1: Reviewing existing research on feminist and decolonial epistemologies regarding the knowledge-production around technology, datafication, and migration; creating a reading list with key publications and a summary of main themes and strands of research. The review contributes to the WG1 goals to engage with the datafication of migration and borders from various angles, particularly feminist, post- and decolonial studies, as well as historical research and to develop a research agenda for an integrative and bottom-up constructively critical engagement with datafication. DATAMIG members are invited to reach out to institutions with a focus on migration and borders from the angle of feminist, post- and decolonial studies, historical research and related disciplines.

Topic 2: Participating in the Working Group 1 Workshop “How to know technology and migration otherwise: engaging with feminist and decolonial epistemologies“, taking place at the London School of Economics, 24-26 September 2025, and writing a reflection paper about it. The reflection paper summarizes main points, central research questions and promising lines of future research. It is recommended to apply for an STSM at LSE (Dr. Philipp Seuferling ([email protected]).

Topic 3: Drafting a proposal for a publication project on “How to know technology and migration otherwise” in collaboration with Dr. Philipp Seuferling (London School of Economics) and colleagues. It is recommended to apply for an STSM at LSE (Dr. Philipp Seuferling ([email protected]).

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 and in geographies that enable such exchange. STSMs shall contribute and align with ongoing work in WG3, in particular with the book initiative “Resisting datafication of the border: A collaborative critique” (see topic 1 and 2 below, see current call of WG for book project “Resisting datafication of the border: A collaborative critique”) or with the upcoming planning of a scenario workshop or an exhibit or a documentary (see topic 3 or 4 below, see DATAMIG Memorandum of Understanding).

Topic 1: 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 and that fits into the 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 at the specific geographic site of where the institution is located. For the application we ask for an abstract of max. 500 words. The final draft shall have a length of 3.000 – 4.000 words.

Topic 2: Interview collection: Imagining Otherwise. 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 which moves beyond critique and assembles propositions of how things could be otherwise, imagining alternative juster futures of the (undoing of) datafication of migration and border control, based on 3 – 5 short interviews with activists, journalists, artists, researchers, visionaries engaging with the datafication of migration and border control. For the application we ask for an abstract of max. 500 words. The final draft shall have a length of 3.000 – 4.000 words. 

Topic 3: Concept for a scenario workshop methodology and design. Based on acceptance of the concept, the event shall be held between January and September 2026 that speaks to the work of the Laboratory and inquires about possible collaborators. (See in the DATAMIG Memorandum of Understanding, p. 12-13, Laboratory Task 3.6 Preparation of three scenario workshops with (1) civic actors, (2) multi-modal and artistic interventions, and (3) regulators and policy makers (one at Southern borders, one at Eastern borders, one linked to EU regulators), and Deliverable D3.3 Scenario-based, policy-relevant recommendation report and practice guidelines, based on the scenario workshops and with policy roundtables as forums on the governance of human mobility and datafication.) For the application we ask for an abstract of max. 500 words. The final draft shall have a length of 1.000 – 2.000 words.

Topic 4: Concept and prototype for an artistic exhibit or a documentary linked to the previous and ongoing work of WG 3. Based on acceptance of the concept, the artistic exhibit or documentary shall be then produced between January and September 2026 (Task 3.9 Creation of an artistic exhibit or a documentary, and deliverable D 3.4 (See in the DATAMIG Memorandum of Understanding, p. 12-13). For the application we ask for an abstract of max. 500 words. The final draft shall have a length of 1.000 – 2.000 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 August 25, 2025:

  • online via e-COST:
    • Data entry: Basic information (grant title, amount requested, start and end date (latest end date: October 7, 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]; WG3: [email protected]). 

Acceptance notifications will be sent out by September 1st, 2025.