ColLaboratoire 2020

Research Residency on Cognitive Innovation for Sustainable Development

27 January - 2 February 2020, Siargao, Philippines

ColLaboratoire 2020 is a week-long Research Residency program in multiple-disciplinary research and sustainability, especially in the context of Philippines. During the residency, ColLaboratoire Fellows will explore applying imaginative, methodologically innovative, and radically multiple-disciplinary approaches to six Research Challenges related to the UN Sustainable Development Goals. For one week on the island of Siargao, ColLaboratoire Fellows will look at innovative ways to address the Research Challenges that combine teaching with applied and multiple-disciplinary research practice.

Inspired by the successful ColLaboratoire 2016 research summer school, ColLaboratoire 2020 is a collaboration between the University of the Philippines Open University, the University of Plymouth, the CogNovo Foundation for Cognitive Innovation, and local and international partners from industry and civic society.

Benefits of becoming a ColLaboratoire Fellow

As a Fellow, you will participate in an exciting week of activities and receive the following benefits:

  • A week of intensive, collaborative, and creative activities with other Fellows, facilitators, and mentors;
  • An opportunity to stay and do research on Siargao Island, a Protected Landscape and Seascape that is home of the largest marine protected area in the Philippines and is famous for its surfing.
  • An opportunity to attend and present your work at Off the Lip 2020 Conference on Cognitive Innovation for Sustainable Development ;
  • Funding and mentoring to help you develop your ideas for another six months after ColLaboratoire so that you can work with other Fellows to develop potentially high-impact, research-driven project proposals or full-blown projects;
  • A chance to have the outcomes of your ColLaboratoire initiatives published;

Your participation in ColLaboratoire will also help the development of a new PhD program in Sustainability Science at the UP Open University.

The Research Challenges

Research Challenge 1
Research Challenge 3
Research Challenge 4
Research Challenge 6

Eligibility

We are looking for 30 enthusiastic early career researchers, critical thinkers, artists, and professionals with an interest in multiple-disciplinary research and sustainability—especially in the context of Philippines—and who can contribute perspectives from a wide range of disciplines, fields, and areas. (See the list below on this page, or refer to the individual Research Challenge descriptions.)

For example, you might be a current Master's or PhD student or a postdoc with specialized expertise from one discipline and interested in using methods from other disciplines to answer complex questions related to sustainability. Or you might be a recent graduate of a research-training program with some work experience, but are curious about using and applying methods from other disciplines. You might also be a professional in industry, government, or nonprofit work, or an independent consultant or artist, who wants to pursue more research-driven work, and are open to using interdisciplinary methods to address certain issues or questions that you have faced.

Whatever the case, you should...

  • ... be (or can demonstrate potential to become) future research leaders.
  • ... embrace openness, multiple-disciplinarity, and collaboration as fundamental organizing principles in your research or practice.
  • ... be passionate about creating positive change through innovative, high-impact, research-driven projects.

Ideally, you should also be free to attend ColLaboratoire 2020 partner event, Off the Lip 2020.

Feel free to contact us if you find ColLaboratoire 2020 exciting but are not sure whether you fit our recruitment criteria.

We welcome perspectives from (but not limited to) the following disciplines, fields, and areas:


  • Advocacy, activism, and community organizing (e.g., indigenous issues, human rights, grassroots organizing)
  • Anthropology
  • Arts (e.g., literature, theater, visual arts, new media art, performance arts, narrative arts, dance, movement and somatic studies)
  • Communication and media (e.g., development communication, social media studies)
  • Computer science and engineering (e.g., data science, artificial intelligence, communications and multimedia engineering, virtual and augmented reality, educational technologies)
  • Design (e.g., service design, speculative design, game design, architecture)
  • Development studies (e.g., social work and community development, urban and regional planning)
  • Economics
  • Education
  • Environmental science
  • Geography
  • Geology
  • Healthcare (including counseling, nursing, medicine, geriatric medicine)
  • History
  • Humanities (e.g., performance studies, philosophy, science and technology studies, art studies)
  • Management and governance (including technology management, policy-making)
  • Political science
  • Psychology and neuroscience (e.g., personal psychology, social psychology, cognitive neuroscience)
  • Social sciences and social studies
  • Space science

Costs and scholarships

Participation in Collaboratoire costs 300 USD and covers local travel to and accommodations for the Off the Lip 2020 conference in Los Baños, round-trip tickets to Siargao Island, board and lodging for a week on Siargao, travel insurance, and other administrative and incidental costs.

Full scholarships are available for participants from or based in Philippines and from countries in this list. You will need to demonstrate that you have strong ties to the eligible country when you apply. In exceptional circumstances, this might be extended to other groups . Please contact us if you feel that you are eligible for other reasons or you want to discuss your eligibility to the selected countries. Please note that scholarships do not cover international travel expenses; only local travel within the Philippines can be covered.

Important dates

14 October 2019, 11:59 pm AoE (Anywhere on Earth): Deadline for application

21 October 2019: Notification of acceptance

24-25 January 2020: Off the Lip 2020

27 January - 2 February 2020: ColLaboratoire 2020