In an era of digital transformation, welfare states are incorporating data tools, ranging from basic e-portals to sophisticated AI-driven systems. While potentially improving service delivery, concerns are being raised about intrusive surveillance, especially among marginalized populations. JUSST seeks to expand on the co-productionist framework to go beyond limited interpretations of data ethics. Its main objective is to provide a comprehensive analysis of sociotechnical systems, examining the interplay between human actors, technology, culture, and institutions. The core focus lies in understanding how sociotechnical imaginaries interact with digital tool applications within welfare services and how they affect digitally monitored welfare recipients (DMWR) across different societal structures. It will furthermore look into potential for good uses of data tools and digital technologies. JUSST utilizes a qualitative, international comparative appproach to examine the impact of surveillance on welfare recipients, comparing income support recipients with offenders under electronic monitoring. JUSST aspires innovative theorization by adopting an interdisciplinary approach, integrating insights from Science and Technology Studies (STS), Social Policy Studies, and Sociology of Punishment. Besides its theoretical significance, this project seeks to provide policy recommendations for the good use of data tools within an inclusive social and economic framework that caters towards the needs of all stakeholders involved. The collaboration between the researcher, who has a background in Criminology and Sociology of Punishment, and the Research Centre for Digitalisation of Public Services and Citizenship (CEDIC) at OsloMet University in Norway will facilitate a valuable exchange of expertise, relevant for theory building, developing well-informed policy recommendations and career enhancement.

Infertility is estimated to affect an average of 14% people worldwide. It is an issue that affects equally both men and women, although it is often associated with a women’s social burden and the case of Islam is not an exception. While religion influences Muslims’ health beliefs, behaviours and decisions, health providers are not always aware of cultural and religious preferences and norms. Thus, Islamic norms on health treatments can result in Muslim’s exclusion from the health care system, especially affecting Muslim women. This can especially impact issues on infertility and reproduction, which holds exceptional moral and social significance across religions. Through an innovative focus, this project aims to advance scientific knowledge about how Sunni Muslims in a minority context in Europe navigate between the authority of medical science and the authority of religion, and to what extent this affect their access to health care.. The project will provide empirical data and develop a theoretical framework based on gender studies, sociology of religion and anthropology of health literatures. This will be achieved by applying intersectional perspective and qualitative methodologies, consisting of semi-structured interviews with Health Professionals and Muslims who have had fertility treatments. The research will be conducted in two European cities: Oslo and Barcelona. Both cities have experienced a rapid increase in religious diversity in last decades but are different in their organisation of religious communities and of health systems. The comparison between the two cities will provide insights into differences among Sunni Muslims around negotiating health, religious and gender issues. This project will contribute to new avenues of investigation concerning the life conditions of Sunni Muslims in Europe and will develop new knowledge on health inequality that may be adapted for future research on other religious minorities or vulnerable groups.

The employment rate of persons with disabilities across Europe is much lower than of the general population and the disability employment gap has remained considerable, independently of labour market policies. Over time different approaches to work inclusion of persons with disabilities have been developed, where support-side approaches, especially supported employment methods, that are using the workplaces as instruments of inclusion, have been shown effective. The collaboration between employer and the support system is crucial when using the workplace as an arena for work inclusion, but there is a lack of research on employer-support system relations and how they can be formed to facilitate increased employment of persons with disabilities. Using theoretical frameworks from the field of sociology and psychology, and by drawing conclusions from qualitative data, this project addresses successful collaboration between employers and support systems in work inclusion of men and women with disabilities. Results from observation/interview studies in Norway and Sweden and insights from a literature review will inform support-side approaches and facilitate work inclusion. During the fellowship will benefit from the expertise of the INTEGRATE core research group, at OsloMet - Oslo Metropolitan University and its international expert network and from short visits to other European excellence research centers in work inclusion. Building on my previous work and skills in labour market and disability research, the project activities will lead to further development of my professional maturity as a researcher, while the results will have a key impact on the development of effective support-side methods and as called for in EU policies, on the labour market participation of persons with disabilities.

The functioning of the European patent system has been called into question from many different angles. The criticisms range from discontent with low patent quality and with backlogs in patent examination to ethical concerns about ‘patents-on-life’, and from accountability/legitimacy problems of the European Patent Office (EPO) to fundamental doubt about whether patenting fits the current research and innovation models, especially in emerging technologies such as for example biotechnology. The current European patent system is however a rather closed system (that primarily services patent applicants) and it is not inclined to take on board such criticisms and/or considerations that are relevant to society at large. Put differently: the system is currently not aligned with the main principles of Responsible Research and Innovation (RRI). Research in this field seems however to be stuck in –very similar- diagnoses of what is wrong with the system. The project takes the analysis an important step further by looking at changes needed in the governance of the European patent system in order to substantially enhance its responsiveness to societal stakeholders. It tries to explain the limited actual use of inclusive mechanisms that are currently available in the European patent system. It assesses similar mechanisms that are used by other regional patent systems and could potentially be transferred to the European patent system. It looks at changes needed in the institutional set-up of the European patent system in order to enhance responsiveness. The project also analyses changes needed in European patent law that could open up the patent system to more inclusive IP rights, and it addresses the likely impact the new EU Unitary Patent will have on the responsiveness of the European patent system.

Bridge infrastructure in Europe has great economic, social and cultural value. Nevertheless, many of the assets which are part of this network are in poor condition, which has been recently evidenced by the collapse of several bridges. The available human and economic resources are simply not enough to repair, maintain or replace all bridges - part of the European network. Therefore, improvements on the current bridge management and operation system is urgently needed. During this fellowship an open-source digital twin anomaly detection decision-making (DTADD) tool will be developed to support the preventive conservation of existing bridges in Europe. This innovative tool will improve the bridge management by aiding the implementation of a reliability-based bridge management approach (RBBMA), thus contributing to bridge cultural heritage (CH) conservation and sustainability by extending their service life and reducing management costs. The DTADD fellowship has two specific objectives. The first objective is to build digital twin (DT) models of heritage/conventional bridges to assess and identify the highest performing anomaly detection algorithm (ADA) for damage and/or significant decay detection. Its second objective is to develop an ADA-informed open-source decision-making tool based on a RBBMA, to assess the need for bridge intervention while explicitly considering the bridge’s CH value. This fellowship will be carried out mainly at OsloMet, Norway, with a six-month secondment at TU Delft, Netherlands. The research experience, skills and knowledge obtained during the fellowship will help the experienced researcher to become a leading international expert on the conservation of bridges and will aid him to achieve his goal of becoming an independent researcher and obtaining a tenure track position. Furthermore, this fellowship is aligned with the Transport action of the European Green Deal as well as with the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).