Research
Residua organises its work into four research areas. Three are anchored in the disciplines of our directors; the fourth is the cross-cutting commitment that binds them together. Each is described below.
Data, models, and responsible tools.
Theory, fieldwork, and ethics.
Mass spectrometry and the material record.
Connecting the social, computational, and material.
Research programme
Our research areas come together in a coordinated programme in preparation for the 2027 European calls: three individual ERC Starting Grants, each a frontier project led by one director, and JUSTHERITAGE-AI, a Horizon Europe Cluster 2 consortium coordinated by the Institute.
Across all four, one commitment recurs: that AI, used as an auditable instrument rather than an oracle, can make the evidence behind consequential claims more transparent, more contestable, and fairer.
The programme in brief
Research area 01
We use large-scale data and computational methods to study social behaviour at scale, and we build the tools that make that study possible. The work ranges from statistical modelling and machine learning to the design of research software and the careful, transparent use of artificial intelligence in the research process itself.
Our commitment is that method is never neutral. We ask how data is produced, what it measures, and whom it serves, and we develop AI in ways that are accountable, documented, and open to scrutiny.
Methods & themes
Machine learningStatistical modellingNetwork analysisResearch softwareResponsible AIData ethicsDirector: Oscar J. Mayorga, Director of AI & Computational Social Science. He leads the Institute's ERC Starting Grant on the meta-science of racial and ethnic measurement.
Research area 02
This area grounds the Institute in social theory and qualitative inquiry. Through ethnographic fieldwork, interviews, and close analysis, we study how communities form meaning, how knowledge is made and contested, and how research findings move into public life.
It is also the home of the Institute's ethics and engagement work: ensuring that research with people is conducted responsibly, and that the public is a partner in inquiry rather than only its subject.
Methods & themes
EthnographySocial theoryInterviewsResearch ethicsPublic engagementKnowledge & societyDirector: Daniel Y. Zipp, Director of Sociology, Ethics & Public Engagement. He leads the Institute's ERC Starting Grant on the frontline enforcement of environmental law.
Research area 03
In the laboratory, we read the molecular residues of human life. Using mass spectrometry and analytical chemistry, we recover evidence from material samples, evidence of diet, environment, practice, and exchange, that complements and challenges the social and computational record.
This area gives the Institute a material foundation. It treats the physical trace as a primary source and develops the analytical rigour needed to interpret it.
Where we work is part of the argument. In an essay on marginalized archaeologies, Elezi examines why regions such as the western Balkans remain under-studied, and why the programme anchors its casework there.
Methods & themes
Mass spectrometryBiomolecular analysisAnalytical chemistryProvenanceMaterial recordLaboratory methodDirector: Gazmend Elezi, Scientific Director, Archaeology & Analytical Chemistry. He leads COMBA, the Institute's ERC Starting Grant in computational biomolecular archaeology.
Research area 04
The fourth area is what makes Residua more than the sum of three disciplines. Here we build shared methods, vocabularies, and standards that let computational, social, and laboratory evidence speak to one another, so that a molecular finding, a fieldwork observation, and a computational model can inform a single, well-evidenced account.
This is the Institute's distinctive contribution: not interdisciplinarity as a slogan, but a working practice of integration, with the openness and rigour to make it credible.
Cross-cutting
Mixed methodsData integrationReproducibilityOpen standardsInterdisciplinary designLed jointly by all three directors as a shared programme of the Institute.