Research projects

On this page, you can find an overview of the Centre for BOLD Cities' current projects. Please visit the project pages for more detailed information on the projects and team members.

Digital literacy in the public library (© Geralt/Pixabay)

Digital literacy in the public library (Completed)

The Dutch government and public libraries collaborate closely in projects to enhance people’s digital skills. With 2,5 million people in the Netherlands being functionally illiterate, the digitization ambitions of the Dutch government run the risk of social failure, as a significant part of the

© Longxiang Qian (Pexels)

Big Data and Citizen Engagement in Urban Health Labs (Completed)

In a continuously urbanising world, the notion of the experimental city has become part of popular discourse. Local policymakers, politicians, companies and (semi-)public service providers and citizens are engaging in urban experiments to find local solutions for global problems, such as health

© Ben Sweet/Banter Snaps (Unsplash)

Urban Media Engagement (Completed)

Earlier research has shown that media use among young people can be associated with self-expression, the development of one’s identity, and identifying oneself with various groups. This PhD research project, which is part of the Erasmus Initiative Vital Cities and Citizens, focuses on the media

© Franck V. (Unsplash)

Boundary Management of Private Spaces in a Public Safety Context (Completed)

In co-operation with the City of Rotterdam, CESAM initiated the research project ‘Managing privacy in a smart city‘. In response to rapidly expanding possibilities for smart urban governance through big data, privacy concerns are emerging both among citizens and government actors. Questions arise in

© Miguel Bruna (Unsplash)

Data empowerment in the smart city (Completed)

'Data empowerment in the smart city' is a project that the Centre for BOLD Cities develops in cooperation with the Data Alliance Rotterdam-Erasmus (DARE) and the Knowledge Lab Urban Big Data. Its aim is to increase citizens' awareness of the datafication of the public space and of the possible

Big Data for Youth Policy (© image: Tom Barrett/Unsplash)

Big data for youth policy (Completed)

The Centre for BOLD Cities has received funding from the Dutch National Research Agenda (NWA) for the research project ‘Big data for youth policy’. The project revolves around the possible use of big, open and linked data for determining how to recover ‘invisible youth’, i.e. unemployed

Jouw buurt, jouw data

Jouw buurt, jouw data - research game (Completed)

Jouw buurt, jouw data


Jouw buurt, jouw data (Your neighbourhood, your data) is the Centre for BOLD Cities' research game (or gamified survey), designed to gain insights in the data awareness of Dutch citizens. At the same time, the game serves to increase this awareness. The game was developed as the 2018 national public