Call for projects 2023 CROSS: Collaborative Research on Science and Society

For 2023, the theme of the CROSS call for projects is “Crisis”, whether in reference to the climate and natural disasters, political conflict and humanitarian aid, digital security and privacy, finance and socioeconomics, or even our physical and mental health.

Researchers at EPFL and the University of Lausanne are invited to submit proposals for joint projects that bring the natural sciences and engineering together with the social sciences and humanities to address some of society’s most urgent challenges. For example, how can different technologies be used for crisis management, and what are their limits? Do emerging technologies have the potential to create their own crises, and if so, how can we identify and avoid them? How have societies historically resolved crises, and how does this knowledge impact the crises that we are living – and creating – today?
A multi-disciplinary perspective is also key to perceiving the nature of crisis itself: how does a phenomenon go from being a problem to a crisis? How can the incremental nature of scientific research and innovation be reconciled with the urgency of a crisis? How are data and information – or disinformation – about crises produced and disseminated?

Proposals must come from joint UNIL-EPFL teams, which bring together specialists in the human and social sciences on the one hand, with specialists from life sciences, natural sciences or engineering on the other. Up to six projects will be selected, with a maximum of CHF 60,000 awarded per project.

Deadline for submission: Thursday 25 August 2022

Call page, application form and guidlines.