ASTRA · Argumentation Strategies

Important aspects of everyday life (e.g. healthcare, commerce, law) increasingly rely on networks of distributed but co-operating computer systems. An understanding of negotiation, joint decision making and control of private information in such systems has therefore become a key challenge for computer science. My work will address this challenge by creating a theoretical foundation with which systems with conflicting information, goals and assumptions can jointly decide how to act by exchanging arguments (e.g. when one system provides sound reasons for another to grant access to private information). Whilst work to date has focussed on protocols that restrict the various communicative acts that can be made during such argumentation-based interactions, what is lacking is an investigation into how the choice of which act to make affects the outcome of the interaction. The proposed work will address this shortcoming by developing the first formally validated set of strategies to allow selection of communicative acts to make in order to influence a joint decision about how to act. This will establish a groundbreaking methodology for the intelligent design of argumentation-based interaction strategies. The significant results expected will consolidate my growing reputation as a leading researcher in the field of computational argumentation. As a result of the proposed mobility, I will considerably develop my academic network, establish new interdisciplinary collaborations, develop necessary research skills and gain experience in a variety of research areas. This fellowship will allow me to develop my personal research agenda and will stand me in the ideal position to go on to have an internationally successful independent research career. At the end of the fellowship I will be competitively placed to acquire a permanent academic post at a leading European university and will be in a position to apply for funding with which I can start to build up my own research group.