NISTH
Seed Grant: ‘Where Tech meets Humanity’:
How
Humanity Survives COVID-19
NTU Institute of
Science and Technology for Humanity (NISTH)
Launched in March 2019, NTU’s Institute of Science and
Technology for Humanity offers a platform for interdisciplinary collaborative
research into disruptive materials and technologies, data analytics and AI for
the benefit of humanity.
NISTH is an interdisciplinary centre of excellence that
seeks to make sense of how technological advances impact societies, cultures
and human behaviour. The Institute will bolster NTU’s ability to contribute
towards Singapore’s vision of becoming a Smart Nation and will focus
particularly on the impact of the fourth technological revolution on urban
Asia. The Institute adopts a thematic approach that cuts across broad subject
areas such as artificial intelligence, big data and health sciences.
The theme is ‘20 years from 2020’ where we imagine a time
period of 20 years to find solutions to the challenges Singaporean society and
people globally are facing today. NISTH brings together key scientists,
scholars, industries and leaders to execute change for the benefit of humanity.
We seek to support interdisciplinary cutting-edge research
that is designed to positively impact society while also leading to strong
scholarship that results in leading peer-reviewed outputs and successful
follow-up grants.
Background of the grant
Viral outbreaks have shaped the course of human history,
irreversibly influencing human behaviour and impacting cultural norms. In the short period since
COVID-19 became a pandemic, people are showing resilience, humor, creative ways
of communicating, educating and caring for each other as governments,
businesses and healthcare institutions globally struggle to respond.
In order to prepare Singapore and societies globally for the
longer term ramifications of COVID-19 and future infectious diseases, we must
understand the different responses people have had toward infectious diseases
globally and historically, and also develop deep insights into and measurements
of the economical, environmental, political, social and psychological impact of
the COVID-19 pandemic.
The virus has provided new opportunities to deploy
technological interventions for detection and surveillance, ensuring continuity
of work and education, supporting healthcare providers, and adopting safe
social behaviour (such as social distancing). In Singapore, for instance, we
see the use of the voluntary bluetooth-based app TraceTogether, messaging
systems for Stay Home Notices, and many
online resources and support systems. Globally, we see novel and interesting
deployments of information technology and AI-based systems in relation to the
COVID-19 pandemic that warrant further investigation and evaluation to assess
the many impacts this technology may have on people and society.
Overview of the grant
The current grant seeks interdisciplinary collaborative
projects that measure, adopt, deploy, evaluate or develop AI, data science,
robotics and autonomous systems and software combined with social science and
humanities approaches to uncover deep insights into:
1) how people respond to infectious diseases across
time and culture;
2) the social and psychological consequences as
well as the
3) economical consequences,
4) global political ramifications of COVID-19 and
5) the conceptualization and validation of technology
supported interventions to facilitate the rebuilding of society during and post
COVID-19.
We especially seek to provide seed funding for
collaborations between fellows from Science/Engineering/LKC and fellows from
Humanities/Social Sciences/Business. Aim of the grant is to gain deep insights
into the societal, economic, environmental and socio-cultural consequences of
COVID-19 and to design and evaluate beyond state-of-the-art interventions to
mitigate the ramifications of COVID-19 on Singaporean Society (and globally).
Objectives
Support Interdisciplinary collaboration between the
technical and social sciences and humanities that have a high potential to lead
to findings with societal impact.
Support feasibility studies that lead to larger scale
Academic-Industry-Government collaboration aimed at the assessment and adoption
of technological interventions that support countering the consequences of
infectious diseases generally and COVID-19 specifically.
Support the development of a larger grant proposal in the
direction of the proposed research.
Eligibility
A team of at least 2 PI’s can apply to this
interdisciplinary collaborative research program.
The team should have at least one full-time faculty member from either the College of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences, National Institute of Education or Nanyang Business School AND at least one full time faculty member from LKC School of Medicine, College of Science or College of Engineering.
Eligible PI or Co-Pricipal Investigator(s) should be NTU full-time faculty who are ‘NISTH Societal Impact Fellows’ or interested to become one.
Please see this webpage for details: https://blogs.ntu.edu.sg/nisth/fellows.
Each project must have an industry, government agency,
non-profit or NGO partner affiliate who will contribute in at least one of the
following ways:
·
provide access to their data
·
provide access to their daily work environment
·
provide access to relevant study
participants
·
provide access to their technology
·
contribute a minimum of $5,000 in kind or in
cash.
Funding Details
Use of the grant funding can include but is not limited to:
·
Developing, deploying and evaluating a novel
technology-based intervention
·
Developing or validating a new method or impact
measurement instrument
·
Collecting a dataset
·
Developing a case study or conducting a study
· Multi-method or longitudinal approaches to
gaining insight into ethical, social, political, legal, psychological,
economic, educational and healthcare consequences of infectious diseases and
COVID-19 in particular
Applications will be considered for funding in the range of
$10,000 to $50,000 (excluding the contributed >$5,000 in kind or cash from
external partner affiliates) over a period of 1 year, or for longitudinal
studies, 2 years.
Application Details
NTU Faculty may submit their application via the following
link by 30 April 2020, 5pm Singapore local time.
Online Seed Grant Application Form
Only submissions with a fully completed application form and
CVs will be accepted for evaluation and assessment for awarding of grants.
After an initial review, a subset of applications will be selected to provide
additional detail (e.g., budgeting, project timeline, etc.).
For queries email to: D-NISTH@ntu.edu.sg