Critical Computational Literacy for Earth-Nature-Society Futures (CCLENS)

Computational models are central to contemporary research and decision-making: they are used to quantify climate risks, biodiversity loss, and economic damages. Yet models do more than calculate possible outcomes. They also encode normative choices about system boundaries and model design, data sources, how uncertainty is treated and what kinds of futures are made visible or remain invisible.

At the newly established Center for Critical Computational Studies (C3S) at Goethe University Frankfurt, CCLENS treats computational modelling as both method and object of inquiry. Participants will practice critical computational literacy: the ability to work with models rigorously while also interrogating how they deal with uncertainties in producing knowledge that matters for individual decisions and policy making.

We aim to bring together 20 early-career researchers - early Postdocs, PhD candidates, and advanced master's students working with Earth-Nature-Society related models or doing research on such models and their societal or political effects - from multiple disciplines, including:

• Disciplines working with models: environmental sciences, climate science, geography, physics, Earth-system science, ecology, biodiversity science, informatics, data science, economics, computational social science, and related fields;
• Disciplines doing research on models (i.e. on the use of models by others): Social Sciences and related fields: political science, sociology, anthropology, geography, Science and Technology Studies (STS), philosophy of science, and related fields;
• Interdisciplinary research that connects environmental and societal questions.

For applicants working with models: We expect applicants to come from different modelling traditions and to have different levels of programming experience. Some programming skills are generally advantageous for tracks 1-3 (see below). Experience with models may include developing models, working with model outputs, constructing scenarios or estimating empirical models, evaluating or validating models, or critically studying modelling practices. We are particularly interested in applicants who are curious about approaches outside their home discipline, willing to contribute actively to collaborative group work, and have an interest to engage with social science perspectives on modelling.

For applicants doing research on models: Applicants who are doing research on (computational) models, their politics of knowledge production and/or the impact of model-based expertise in society and policy making do not need to have hands-on modeling skills to participate in the spring school. A basic understanding of concepts from Science and Technology Studies and familiarity or willingness to learn about basic modelling techniques is welcome.

We especially encourage applications from researchers who are underrepresented in computational fields, researchers based in the Majority World/Global South, and researchers with limited institutional resources. In particular for researchers from the Majority World but possibly also beyond, we have funding for travel expenses available. The working language of the school is English, thus intermediate or advanced written and spoken English level is required.

The five-day spring school combines shared conceptual input, hands-on modelling, critical reflection, and models interdisciplinary integration. Participants begin by developing a common language around different types and purposes of models, uncertainty, climate information, and the role of modelling in science and society. They then work in four parallel tracks: Natural Sciences Models, Human-Earth System Models, Socio-Economic Models, and Modelling Reflection & Science and Technology Studies (STS). The technical tracks work intensively with a focal model or modelling workflow, while the STS track examines how modelling choices, assumptions, infrastructures, and disciplinary practices shape scientific knowledge.

Throughout the school, participants connect domain specific models to climate models and between domains, explore how uncertainty enters and propagates through modelling workflows, and critically examine assumptions, omissions, scales, and model outputs. Rather than treating uncertainty only as a problem to eliminate, the school asks how it can be used productively - to diagnose model limits, compare alternatives, identify information needs, and support science communication as well as robust decisions under divergent futures.

STS participants are embedded in the technical tracks to support reflection on modelling practices and interdisciplinary translation. The final part of the school brings the tracks together to identify meaningful interfaces between models and to develop a shared Earth-Nature-Society integration roadmap. The aim is not to build a single integrated “supermodel,” but to understand what responsible model integration requires, where useful connections can be made, and where differences in concepts, scales, assumptions, or uncertainty should remain visible.

Participants will work in four parallel tracks that meet regularly for cross-track exchange:

1. Natural Sciences Models. Process-based and statistical biodiversity modelling, with a focus on how climate information propagates into ecological and biodiversity outcomes.

2. Human-Earth System Models. Coupled representations of climate and biophysical dynamics with economic, social, and policy dynamics, including feedbacks, thresholds, and pathway dependencies.

3. Socio-Economic Models. Climate-impact and economic-damage modelling, including Integrated Assessment Models (IAM) and empirical approaches.

4. Modelling Reflection and STS. Modelling as scientific, institutional, and political practice: how models are built, negotiated, stabilised, interpreted, linked and connected to policy and collective futures.

We are looking forward to your application. Please submit the following through cclens-springschool@c3s.uni-frankfurt.de as a single PDF (3 pages with less than 5 Mb) with a cover letter and a short CV. The e-mail should contain the exact subject line: CCLENS Spring School Application.

1. Cover letter (1-2 pages). Please address the questions below. We are interested in clear, concrete answers rather than a generic statement of motivation.
Your current research and/or interests: What is the topic or central question of your current research? Which discipline(s), data, methods, or conceptual approaches do you work with?

• Your experience with modeling (Tracks 1-3): What experience do you have with computational, statistical, process-based, agent-based, integrated, scenario, or other forms of modelling?
  This may include writing or coding models, using model outputs, evaluating or validating models, assessing assumptions and uncertainty, or critically analysing modelling practices.
• … or doing research on models (Track 4): How do you analyse models relating to climate change or Earth-Nature-Society transformations more broadly as socio-technical artefacts or sources of policy-relevant knowledge and expertise?
  This can include examining the politics of categorisation, indicators and visualisations, etc.
• Fit and motivation: What specific question, problem, or modelling challenge would you like to explore during the school?
• Collaboration across disciplines: What perspective or expertise would you bring to a mixed interdisciplinary group?
  Please briefly describe how you approach collaborative work, especially when concepts, methods, or definitions differ across fields.
• Track interests: Which of the four tracks are most relevant to you, and why? You may name up to two.

Practical support. At the end of your cover letter (can be on a second page), please also indicate:

• Whether you would require an official invitation or other documentation to support a visa application.
• Whether travel support would be necessary for you to participate. If yes, briefly state your travel origin and what support you would need, including whether your home institution can contribute.
• Whether you would be interested in childcare support during the spring school.

2. Short CV (max 2 pages) with scientific publications if any, education, professional experience, contributions to conferences, etc.

Please also write clearly in the body of your email the track(s) (choose max 2 out of 1-4) that you would like to apply for.

Application deadline: [October 15th, 2026]. Applications received after the deadline can only be considered if places remain available.

Applications will be reviewed by a selection committee. The cohort will be selected using four main criteria:

• fit with the school's modelling-and-uncertainty theme;
• evidence of a collaborative attitude and willingness to work across disciplinary boundaries;
• disciplinary, gender, and regional diversity across the cohort;
• motivation to apply research-on-research tools to modelling practice.

Because CCLENS brings together different modelling cultures, we do not expect all successful applicants to have the same technical profile. We are looking for a cohort in which participants can learn from one another, contribute different forms of expertise, and engage constructively with both technical and reflexive questions.

Through generous funding from the VW-foundation, there is no application or participation fee for the spring school. We will be able to cover the full costs for accommodation for all participants.

Travel support can also be requested. Applicants who depend on travel support to participate are encouraged to indicate this in the application.

Selected participants who require documentation for a visa application can request an official invitation letter. Applicants with care responsibilities are also encouraged to apply; we aim to facilitate childcare during the school.

CCLENS is organised at Goethe University Frankfurt by Oskar Hagen, Manuel Linsenmeier, Natalie Welfens, and Nico Wunderling, with contributions from external track advisers and lecturers across the natural sciences, social sciences, and Science and Technology Studies.

Questions about the programme or application process: cclens-springschool@c3s.uni-frankfurt.de.