A working paper introducing our new software VINA has been made available at SSRN and can be cited as: Nijs, T.; Stark, T.H.; and Boda, Z. (February 10, 2026). Introducing VINA: An Engaging and Ethically Responsible Interface To Collect Social Network Data Including Cognitive Social Structures on Smartphones . Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=6327198 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.6327198 The software is…

Angelos is visiting Verónica Benet-Martínez at University Pompeu Fabra in Barcelona. Together, they work on a paper assessing the effects of actual and perceived ethnic segregation in school classes on feelings of school belonging and prejudice. They make use of the school data, which we collected with the VINA tool, to examine the perceived structure…

Anniek Schlette visited Zsofia Boda at the University of Essex, United Kingdom, from October to December 2025. Together, they worked on a new research paper on the recognition of dual identifiers using our newly collected school data, which includes peer recognition and perceived networks.

Tobias Stark presented the latest insights from the DUALNETS project, our software VINA, and novel multilayer ERGMs to model cognitive social structures at the Mitchell Centre Seminar Series at the University of Manchester, United Kingdom.

The DUALNETS team organized the 4th installment of the mini conference of the European research network on “Intergroup Relations and Social Networks“. Ten experts presented their work on social networks and another 15 people attended the mini conference to exchange insights on intergroup relations. The two-day mini conference took place at the University Museum Utrecht.

The Sunbelt social networks conference is one of the major events of the year for our group. Angelos Dimosiaris, Lexin Chen, Anniek Schlette, and Tom Nijs all presented their work to expert audiences. Tobias Stark organized three panels on intergroup relations and social networks, and he gave the plenary introduction of the lifetime achievement award…

Anniek Schlette, Lexin Chen, and Angelos Dimosiaris each presented their DUALNETS research at the Migration and Societal Change Conference in Utrecht, Netherlands. Tobias Stark organized two panels on multicultural identities and social networks at the conference.

Tobias Stark was invited to present our new software to measure and model network perceptions at the SoDa Lab Seminar of the University of Bremen, Germany.

Tobias Stark was invited to present DUALNETS research at the “Interdisciplinary Workshop on Experimental Social Science on the Causes and Consequences of Appearance-based Discrimination” at the Heidelberger Akademie der Wissenschaften, Germany.

Tobias Stark was invited by the Oxford Internet Institute to present our new software to collect data on cognitive social structures at the expert workshop on “Advances in Self-Reported and Egocentric Network Analysis”.