As part of the workshop ICT with Industry, the organizing committee is seeking for challenging and industrially relevant case studies on ICT topics, applications and tools. Large companies and/or SMEs and public organisations are invited to submit a proposal for a case study in collaboration with ICT researchers.
Why should you apply?
- If you belong to a company/public organisation: the workshop offers you one week to collaborate with a team of dedicated researchers from various ICT disciplines on the problems in your proposed case. The goal is to come to a concrete practical solution or develop new horizons and new insights, e.g. a spin-off or a prototype implementation of a new method.
- If you are an ICT researcher: the workshop offers you one week to explore your research ideas in collaboration with the external partners. You will have a team of dedicated researchers from various ICT-disciplines to work with. The goal is to come to concrete ideas which can be used for e.g. a scientific paper or a proposal to be submitted to NWO or Horizon Europe.
Application procedure
You can submit a case proposal by sending an email to the chairs, onder.babur@wur.nl or b.vanwerkhoven@esciencecenter.nl. A total of five use cases will be selected by the organizing committee, with leading experts from different fields of ICT. The main selection criteria are:
- Scientific relevance/challenge – Is the use case scientifically interesting, particularly also from an ICT point of view?
- Urgency – Is the use case urgent for both researchers and practitioners?
- Feasibility – Is it likely that a solution or significant steps towards a solution to the use case can be obtained within the timeframe of one week?
- Commitment – Can you commit to your involvement as stipulated below?
In order to increase the chances of being selected, it is recommended that your proposed case study involving both the participation of a senior academic researcher and a company/public organisation’s representative.
The Steering Committee and workshop chairs can help companies/public organisations without active research collaborations to connect with academic researchers with the right expertise related to the case study.
Please note
- The information in this proposal may be used as input for public discussions during the workshop ‘ICT with Industry’. If you think this information cannot be used for outreach and promotion activities regarding the workshop, please let us know.
- Applicants will be expected to attend the workshop held January 2024.
- Applicants are expected to recruit participants for the workshop. It is the aim to compose a team of approximately 4 – 8 people (including a partners’ representative in the company/public organisation and a senior academic researcher).
If you have any questions about the submission procedure, please contact onder.babur@wur.nl or b.vanwerkhoven@esciencecenter.nl.
Important Dates:
- Submission deadline first idea: 30 May 2023 – contact us if you need an extension
- Submission deadline fully worked out case: around October 2023
- Workshop ICT with Industry: 15 – 19 January 2024
Preparation for the workshop
If your case study is selected, then:
- You can propose an academic team leader for your case. If you do not do this, the organizing committee will assign a team leader. Generally, the researcher who submits the case study will be asked to fulfil this role.
- You will be invited for an intake meeting to discuss the preparations.
- Your proposed case study will be used to recruit participants, e.g. PhDs and postdocs.
- You will provide any (anonymised) data to be used during the workshop around December 2023
Outline of workshop programme
The workshop starts on Monday morning with a plenary presentation of the case studies by a partners’ representative. In the afternoon the teams split and start to work on the individual cases. There will be daily sessions where each team shares its provisional findings. On Friday, each team presents their final results to the entire group. In addition, there will be informal evening sessions which provide ample opportunity to meet with the participants of the other teams and to exchange ideas.
Schedule
Deadline for first ideas of case studies: 30 May 2023 – contact us if you need an extension
Notification selection of case studies: 28 June 2023
Deadline for fully worked out case studies: September/October 2023
Selection of use cases and assignment of team leader: September/October 2023
Publication of cases and call for participation: September/October 2023
Intake meetings: September/October 2023
Composition of Teams: December 2023
Finalization of preparation material: December 2023
ICT with Industry 2022: 15 – 19 January 2024
Costs
The workshop is funded by NWO Science (NWO ENW) and NWO Applied and Engineering Sciences (NWO TTW), and the participating companies/public organisations. However, to cover all expenses of the workshop participating companies/public organisations are requested to contribute: small companies (less than 50 employees) have €500 registration fees (excl. VAT) and large companies (50 employees or more) have €2500 registration fees (excl. VAT)*. The contribution includes full participation in the workshop, food and drinks, work office facilities and hotel accommodation for one representative during the week.
Results of the workshop, confidentiality and intellectual property
The main purpose of the workshop is to transfer knowledge between industry and academia. Generated results are intended to be public. However, if before or during the workshop the need arises to protect knowledge or generated results, NWO ENW and NWO TTW will be able to facilitate the making of suitable arrangements with the owner(s) of the intellectual property** according to the current IPR-policy. In order to allow for this, we have a Code of Conduct, which can be adapted as required.
Links
https://ict-research.nl/ict-with-industry/
NWO Exacte en Natuurwetenschappen
NWO Toegepaste en Technische Wetenschappen
Scientific Chairs for 2024
Dr. Ben van Werkhoven (e-Science Center Netherlands)
Dr. Önder Babur (Wageningen University & Research)
Contact
For questions, e-mail onder.babur@wur.nl or b.vanwerkhoven@esciencecenter.nl.
Format use case proposals workshop ‘ICT with Industry’
The deadline for submitting use case proposals (by emailing onder.babur@wur.nl or b.vanwerkhoven@esciencecenter.nl) is:
- 30 May 2023 for proposals – contact us if you need an extension
The proposals have to be structured according to the format below. The language should be English and the exact titles of the paragraphs should be used. The proposal should have a maximum length of 2 pages in the A4 format.
An example of a use case proposal can be found here.
1. Title: The title is short, but clear; no elaborate description.
2. Applicant(s): Name(s) of the applicant(s) and company/public organisation as well as address, email and phone number.
3. Suggestion for academic team leader: Give possible name(s) of senior academic researcher(s), including contact information. This senior scientist will be a sparring partner during the preparations of the workshop and s/he will be the team leader during the workshop. As applicant, you can suggest yourself as team leader. In case you don’t have an academic leader to suggest, you can submit your proposal earlier to allow the organizers to assist in finding an academic team leader for your proposal.
4. Company/public organisation information: Brief introduction (max. 100 words) on your organisation (mission, size, turnover, R&D activities, sales area).
5. Use case: Description of the ICT related use case (about 500 words) that could be discussed at the ‘ICT with Industry’ workshop. Please include the following aspects:
- the background and urgency of the use case;
- how the ICT research community will contribute to solving the use case;
- which sub-disciplines you expect to be relevant for this use case;
- illustrative graphs, images and/or references;
- possible solutions or directions of solutions to the use case;
- boundary conditions (e.g. technical, organisational, or budgetary requirements).
Please note that the participants of the workshop will have different backgrounds and come from various disciplines (such as data mining, security & cryptography, performance analysis, software engineering, distributed systems, visualization, HCI) and experience (PhD student to professor).
6. Input for workshop participants: Describe to what extent you will provide workshop participants with details (numbers, experiences, models, software etc.) and to what extent details are confidential. In general, the more information you provide, the higher your ‘return on investment’.
Please note
The information of this proposal will be used as input for public discussions during the workshop ‘ICT with Industry’. It may also be used for outreach and promotion activities regarding the workshop.
* In case you are in doubt about which category your company/organization is in, please contact the organizing committee.
** Sometimes it is appropriate to protect the generated results by intellectual property rights. According to the current IPR policy of NWO ENW and NWO TTW the intellectual property rights will be owned by the employer(s) of the person(s) generating such intellectual property. Any arrangement should be made in writing with the owners of the intellectual property.