Tuba Bircan

Talks & impact

Open science & impact

We read and hear about open science everywhere, yet there is still no consensus on how to make it work. As a researcher and mentor, I aim for transparency, accessibility, fairness and reproducibility in my research and teaching: publishing open access wherever possible, sharing preprints, and bringing research to the people it concerns.

To bring science to other stakeholders, I try to build synergies and collaboration, and I have held advisory and consulting roles at numerous national and international institutions.

I value public engagement highly and try to accept invitations to scientific and public events, not only in Europe but also in the Global South. If you are interested in my work, please get in touch.

  • COVIDiSTRESS global survey I–II OSF
  • HumMingBird public attitudes towards immigration and media dataset CESSDA
  • MIrreM public database on irregular migration flow estimates Data (zip)
  • Interface Demography data portal, built with Statbel, the Belgian statistical office Portal
  • Women in Big Data Brussels: Data, humanitarian aid and migration Listen
  • Borders and Belonging (CERC Migration & openDemocracy): The use of AI in migration governance Listen
  • BIRMM Migration Talks: Big data and artificial intelligence for migration research Listen
  • Big data, AI and society: An ethical deep dive. Keynote, ComQuant Summer School in Computational Social Sciences, Milan, 27 July 2023. PDF
  • Promises and perils of big data to study migration: The case of Sub-Saharan Africa. Keynote, Workshop on the Future of Human Mobility (BD4M: IOM, JRC, GovLab), Brussels, 20 April 2023.
  • Mixed blessings: Big data and AI for migration. Webinar, VAIA – Flanders AI Academy, online, 15 November 2022. PDF
  • Migration Dialogue on female researchers in transnational academic mobility. IMISCOE Standing Committee GenSeM, online, 10 November 2022.
  • Computational social science and interdisciplinary empirical research. Computational Social Sciences Summit, Bilkent University, online, 12 December 2021. Recording
  • Realising the premises of big data and AI for migration. Keynote, FARI – AI for the Common Good Institute, Brussels, 7 December 2021.
  • Ethical principles and fundamental rights considerations in data innovation for migration policy. Moderator, BD4M expert-level event, Berlin, 29 November 2021. Recording
  • Strengthening the EU–Turkey migration cooperation: The way forward. Dialogue for Europe, Brussels, 15 October 2021.
  • Big data for studying human migration. Guest lecture, SICSS-Istanbul, online, 18 June 2021. Recording
  • Big data for migration statistics: The HumMingBird project. Guest lecture, Swedish Demography Foundation, online, 26 May 2021.
  • Using big data and mixed methods in migration studies. Keynote, Migration Academy, SGDD-ASAM, online, 5 May 2021.
  • Kimin için R? (R for whom?). WhyR? Turkey Conference, online, April 2021. Recording
  • Big data and artificial intelligence for social sciences. BireBir webinar series, Bahçeşehir University, online, 30 March 2021. Recording
  • Reflections on gender-biased AI. Guest lecture, Gender, Technology & Law Sessions, VUB, online, 23 March 2021.
  • Big data and migration nexus: Opportunities and challenges. Guest lecture, New Technologies and People on the Move, University of Oxford, online, 11 March 2021.
  • What can satellites bring to social sciences? Webinar, Remote Sensing Image Analysis Group, TU Berlin, online, 19 January 2021.
  • AI and big data analytics in migration studies. Keynote, Jean Monnet Chair on Migration in EU–Turkey Relations, Yaşar University, online, 17 December 2020.
  • Big data for migration studies. Expert webinar, Centre of Migration Research, University of Warsaw, online, 27 October 2020. Recording
  • Big data and labour migration. Keynote, InGRID-2 Expert Workshop ‘Big data and labour markets’, online, 26 October 2020.
  • Can big data bridge gaps in migration statistics? SoBigData++ Migration Studies webinar, online, 28 September 2020. Recording
  • Will AI be still “intelligent” without social sciences? Seminar, European Social and Population Issues, Brussels, 4 March 2020.
  • Philosophical practices of the Turkish diaspora in Western Europe. Seminar, Actuele Welzijnsproblemen, Brussels, 4 March 2020.
  • Big data for migration measures. Keynote, Future Values training, Brussels, 30 October 2019.
  • Why do AI and big data need social sciences? Plenary, DiSummit ‘Being Human in the Age of AI’, Brussels, 26 June 2019. Recording
  • How well do we know about the migrants’ well-being? Representation of migrants in large-scale surveys. Keynote, InGRID-2 Summer School, Berlin, 22–25 October 2018.
  • Micro data for quality of life indicators and their representativeness for migrants. Plenary, InGRID-2 Expert Workshop, Budapest, 25–27 April 2018.
  • Data gaps in poverty research. Plenary with I. Nicaise, InGRID Final Conference, Brussels, 17 January 2017.
  • Reaching out to hard-to-survey groups among the poor. InGRID Summer School, Leuven, 30 May – 3 June 2016.
  • “Making the most of mobile phone data to map migration”. HumMingBird Expert Workshop, Istanbul, 17–18 November 2022. With Albert Ali Salah.
  • “New data and methods for migration studies: Going beyond traditional data sources”. Expert Workshop, Paris, 9–10 October 2022. With HumMingBird, SoBigData++, Paris School of Economics and Sorbonne University.
  • “Big data analytics for migration indicators”. 19th IMISCOE Annual Conference, Oslo, 29 June – 1 July 2022.
  • “Policy as a temporal force on gendered migration”. 19th IMISCOE Annual Conference, Oslo, 2022. With Sinem Yilmaz.
  • “Mind the gap: Critical perspectives on migration theories and data”. HumMingBird Expert Workshop, online, 3–4 December 2020. With A. W. Ahmad Yar.
  • “Human migration: Potential areas for combinations of big data”. Workshop at SocInfo 2020, Pisa, 6–9 October 2020. With C. Arcila Calderón, J. Kim and A. Sîrbu.
  • “Big data and new methodologies: Public perception and attitudes towards migration”. Panel, 73rd WAPOR Conference, Salamanca, 6–9 October 2020. With C. Arcila Calderón.
  • “Mobilities and immobilities in pandemic times”. Panel, 17th IMISCOE Annual Conference, online, 1–2 July 2020. With A. A. Salah.
  • “Old definitions and new methodologies: Migration and big data”. Panel, International Forum for Migration Statistics, Cairo, 19–21 January 2020.
  • “Rights of migrants”. InGRID-2 Expert Workshop, Leuven, 23–25 January 2019.