Combatting Bias
| Duration: | September 2024 - September 2025 |
| Subsidy provider: | NWO (through the TDCC-SSH) |
| Subsidy size: | €150,000 |
| Remarkable: | The Combatting Bias project pioneers the integration of ethical considerations into the widely used FAIR data principles to create the FAIR+ framework. This framework, in the form of guidelines, will encourage creators of datasets in the humanities and social sciences to ensure that their datasets are not only technically sound but also inclusive and reflective of diverse perspectives. |
| Valorisation: | The Combatting Bias project creates guidelines to help researchers apply the FAIR+ principles in their projects. These guidelines will be formed and tested through interviews with researchers, workshops and presentations. While the project does not directly involve public engagement , the broader public will benefit as users of the enhanced datasets (that reflect more diverse and equitable historical perspectives) which the project’s guidelines strive to encourage the creation of. |
How can we create historical datasets that reflect a more inclusive and equitable understanding of the past? The Combatting Bias project addresses this crucial question by developing ethical, sustainable, and transparent standards for data creation and use in the social sciences and humanities. The project redefines best practices for dataset creation, promoting the FAIR+ principles: Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, Reusable—and critically, navigates biases inherent to historical datasets.
A Mission for Inclusive Data Practices
At the heart of Combatting Bias is the commitment to tackle the skewed narratives often embedded in historical datasets. These datasets, shaped by the perspectives of those in power, can perpetuate inequalities and silence marginalized voices. By establishing robust guidelines, our project empowers researchers to critically examine the origins and structure of their data, making it both technically sound and ethically responsible. We do this by combining the FAIR principles for data creation, with critical questions about biases present in a historical dataset lifecycle. This initiative ultimately aims to promote more inclusive and nuanced interpretations of the past.
Collaboration Across Disciplines
We can create more equitable and inclusive guidelines by integrating insights from various perspectives. The project therefore works together with a wide network of four partner projects and ten advisors. The partner projects are each working with digital infrastructures, with a shared focus on data related to colonialism and slavery.
- Slave Voyages: A comprehensive database documenting the transatlantic and intra-American slave trades.
- Historical Database of Suriname & the Caribbean (HDSC): A resource focused on the lives of formerly enslaved persons in the Dutch colonies of the Americas.
- Exploring Slave Trade in Asia (ESTA): A project reconstructing the dynamics of the slave trade in the Indian Ocean and Maritime Asia.
- GLOBALISE: A project that develops a digital infrastructure providing access to the extensive archives of the Dutch East India Company (VOC).
Our advisors are all experts in their fields, ranging from (digital) heritage, decolonisation, fair data, and DEI. The collaborative network also spans diverse regions, including the Netherlands, South Africa, and the United States. These partnerships exemplify our mission to collaborate across domains and regions, advancing inclusive research practices.