GRASIA: Research Group on Agent-based, Social and Interdisciplinary Applications

Our multidisciplinary research project is P2P Models, an ERC 1.5M¤ to build blockchain-based collaborative economy platforms which are decentralized, democratic and distribute their profits: "Decentralized Blockchain-based Organizations for Bootstrapping the Collaborative Economy"<br /><br />We are part of the GRASIA research group (Group of Agent-based, Social and Interdisciplinary Applications), doing interdisciplinary research to build free/open source web tools, with a focus on using decentralized technology and tackling social problems with a strongly applied approach. The group has researchers from computer sciences, social sciences, design, journalism, pharmacy, or gender studies.<br /><br />GRASIA has researched and built tools for social movements and the commons (http://teem.works), collaborative writing (http://jetpad.net), development of federated collaborative apps (http://swellrt.org), fast development of distributed intelligent systems (http://ingenias.sf.net), distributed energy (http://grasia.fdi.ucm.es/energy/), ubiquitous computing (http://grasia.fdi.ucm.es/sociaal/). These tools are being applied in domains such as online communities, social movements, sustainable development, sociology, economics and organisational science.<br /><br />We are at the Complutense University of Madrid, the largest university in Spain and one of the oldest universities in the world, consistently ranking as one of the top universities in Spain.

P2P Models is a multidisciplinary research project to build decentralized, democratic & economically sustainable Collaborative Economy organizations, using decentralized technologies such as blockchain. The project is EU-funded (ERC grant of 1.5M¤), based at the Universidad Complutense de Madrid (Spain), with Principal Investigator and advisors from Harvard University. <br /><br />The project follows a practical approach, aiming to maximize our social impact through both our socio-technical research and the building of free/open-source software co-designed with communities. Thus, this is an interdisciplinary research project integrated by computer scientists, social scientists, digital designers, and communication specialists. We hold a critical stance towards blockchain while exploring its potential for commons-oriented communities.<br /><br />The principal investigator is Samer Hassan (http://samer.hassan.name), faculty associate at Berkman Klein Center at Harvard University and Associate Professor at Complutense University of Madrid. We are a flat organisation and we have a strong commitment to diversity to strengthen our network. <br /><br />The project has multiple lines:<br />- Developing and experimenting with blockchain prototypes, codesigned with real case study communities<br />- Data Science on blockchain-based Decentralized Autonomous Organizations to understand the ecosystem<br />- Social research (mixed methods, both quali and quantitative) on large communities or co-ops<br />- Testing innovative governance models and economic models using decentralized technology<br /><br />We have already hired a former MSCA fellow, and are open to postdocs on Computer Science, Data Science and Social Sciences (Sociology, Political Science, Economics, Gender Studies, Anthropology...) and related disciplines.

We are open to applications from Computer Science, Data Science and Social Sciences (Sociology, Political Science, Economics, Gender Studies, Anthropology...) and related disciplines. <br /><br />Please submit your CV and a short motivation letter, with the email subject including "MSCA-PF".