This panel discussion will explore the future of digital research infrastructure and how analytical tools shape the kind of research questions we ask and the imaginaries we build. The speakers represent a fascinating range of approaches to the topic, from the Molecular and Material Design (MMD) Tech Hub and how computational infrastructure is changing the work of experimental scientists to computational social science, and ways to transform our knowledge tools towards more just and inclusive outcomes.

Speakers

Anne Beaulieu

Anne Beaulieu is Professor of Knowledge Infrastructures for Sustainability at the Copernicus Institute for Sustainable Development at Utrecht University. Between 2021 and 2025, she held the Aletta Jacobs Chair of Knowledge Infrastructures at the University of Groningen. Beaulieu’s research focuses on diversity and complexity in knowledge infrastructures, with particular attention to digital data assemblages and interfaces for the creation and circulation of knowledge on climate and biodiversity.

Alfons Hoekstra

Alfons Hoekstra is a full professor in Computational Science & Engineering at the Computational Science Lab of UvA’s Informatics Institute. His research focuses on modelling and simulating complex systems, with an emphasis on multiscale models of human physiology and pathology. Hoekstra is editor of the Journal of Computational Science.

About the organiser: the UvA Data Science Centre (DSC)

The Data Science Centre (DSC), part of the University Library, is a coordinating hub and facilitator for data-driven research within the University of Amsterdam. The DSC funds and supports a range of initiatives with the aim of strengthening data science expertise across all faculties, and propelling greater innovation, diffusion and cross-pollination of data science across the university.

The DSC community consists of data scientists, data engineers, researchers, and data stewards across all UvA faculties. The Centre maintains a weekly bulletin and organises events, workshops, and more.