Call for partners 2023

Applications are now open for 2023 fellowship. Applications close on 6th of May 2023.

Apply now

Data Science for Social Good fellowship in Germany is looking for project partners who want to tackle critical social challenges and believe that data can improve their operations and interventions with tangible social impact. If you’re a non-profit or government organisation with a data science challenge, you can apply to become a project partner. We’re seeking projects that aim to tackle an important problem with high social impact that can be addressed with data and expertise provided by our partners.

An opportunity for your organisation

As a project partner, you get:

a strong data science team that cares about your challenges, working on your challenge for 12 weeks
a prototype solution (report, predictive model and software) that helps solve your problem using data science tools
exposure and training — for the project at hand but also how to tackle these projects technically as well as through validation. All of this comes free of charge (although running DSSG Germany is costly, and we would appreciate a voluntary contribution).

How does this work?

Each non-profit organisation is matched together with a data science team of 3-4 outstanding international students (undergraduate to PhD) who will develop a tailored approach to the organisation’s challenge over the summer. Their academic strength is complemented by professional technical mentors and project managers. The latter ensures that the time is used efficiently, the deliverables for each week are achieved and that the organisation’s goals are met.

The aim overall is to combine the training of students and recent graduates with the delivery of tangible data products that can help the third sector embed AI and data science into their operations.

What we need from you during the summer

In addition to data from your organisation that would be needed to create a solution (as we agree with you during the scoping process), we ask our project partners to commit 1 hour per week for a call with the fellows working on their project. In the first and last week of the project we will need more of your time - to understand the problem, and to best transfer the solution to your team.

How to apply

You can apply to be 2023. project partner by filling out this form.

If you are considering participating with a project but don’t have a clear idea, we will be glad to help you work with you on your idea and a project outline. We will also be happy to assist you with your application. Just write to us at team_dssgx@dfki.de with 2-3 three sentences about the goals of your organization or a possible project and briefly outline how you use the already existing data so far and what data you hold.

Deadline for project applications is usually in February of each year, but this shouldn’t stop you from reaching out early. We like to commit to partners that are right for the programme as early as possible. A good guilde on what makes a good project can be found here.

What can be done in 12 weeks?

To get an idea of the projects we do and what can be achieved in the summer, watch the project presentations from the final event of the 2022 fellowship: