About the project
Objective
The overall objective of this project is to promote deeper, sustained research engagement between Digital Futures members, both within the Learn Working Group and within Digital Futures as a whole. The Research Sparks program accomplishes this by introducing a framework for fostering long-term collaboration and knowledge exchange that solidifies the working group structures as attractive and co-dependent research environments. Research Sparks will stimulate long-term engagement through a careful combination of guided activities that will help researchers demystify their research for others, encourage hands-on and interactive learning, boost research productivity and increase the visibility of Digital Futures research activities.
Background
The project was motivated by the feedback obtained from participants in the Learn Working Group’s 2026 kick-off event on 3 March 2026. The participants requested more activities that deepened their understanding of the research of other Digital Futures members and their newfound connections, with an eye towards opportunities for organized research collaborations.
Cross-disciplinary collaboration
The Research Sparks program is specifically designed to stimulate cross-disciplinary collaboration. It is a semester long program that begins with a series of kick-off lectures that “demystify” a research topic of active focus within the Digital Futures community. These lectures aim to answer the questions, “What is this field and its driving goals? Why are there researchers at Digital Futures studying it? How does it connect to my own research?” Following these lectures, interested researchers will have the opportunity to participate in hands-on learning a
ctivities to deepen their understanding of the topic, as well as to participate in research collaborations run by experts in the topic. These ongoing activities will be supported by seminars and workshops that help the participants showcase their work and connect with international experts on the topic. Participants will learn about the new field through their engagement in these research activities, which help them broaden their own research and connect it with a research topic at the heart of Digital Futures activities.
PI: Liam Solus
Co-PIs: Kathlén Kohn, Iolanda Leite, Henrik Boström, Sebastian Dalleiger
