Projects in the areas of migration, Big Data and computational social science

Interface Demography (ID), founded in 1977, is the research unit for population studies at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel. It is a reference centre for fundamental and applied demographic research in Belgium and the only research group in Flanders that deals with demographic issues in a global and integrated approach. The strength of ID is its multidisciplinary and strong empirical approach to population research, which allows it to collaboratively tackle core demographic research questions using concepts and approaches from demography, sociology, epidemiology, geography, history, and macroeconomics, while applying a wide range of quantitative and also qualitative empirical methods. The main objective of ID is to enhance the scientific understanding of the determinants and consequences of population change, driven by i) changes in household formation and fertility, ii) health and mortality in an ageing society, iii) migration and ethnic minorities. The theoretical and empirical knowledge generated in these areas feeds a transversal research focus on iv) specific (regional) population dynamics, while v) another crucial transversal research focus concerns the data infrastructure underlying our empirical work in each of the mentioned research topics.

The main aspiration of ID is exploring other forms of variation in migration, health and mortality, fertility and households with an intersectional angle. Especially, migration and integration issues are one of the main components of the ID’s work. Currently, fundamental research at the ID is principally empirically driven which is based on Belgian census data, administrative data, large-scale European surveys and the use of big socio- demographic data.

Dr. Bircan is currently a member of the Research Group Interface Demography (ID) and her lines of research are focused on Big Data and machine learning applications for migration research, evidence-based policymaking, equal opportunities, how to study hard-to-reach groups, migration, diversity, refugees, perception and interdisciplinary studies. She is currently the scientific coordinator of the Enhanced Migration Measures from a Multidimensional Perspective (HumMingBird) Project Funded by the European Commission (H2020 programme. She also participates as a researcher in the European project Enhanced migration measures from a multidimensional perspective (HumMingBird), funded by H2020.

MSCA-IF proposals should be centred on one or preferably several of the following topics:

• Migration
• Big Data and AI applications in social research
• Computational methods
• Vulnerable groups
• Equal opportunities

Specifically, the researcher should have a background in the area of computer/data science, social sciences or both.

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