Edinburgh Napier University, Robert Gordon University and Peterhead Prison Museum

This project will be the first detailed study of prison heritage in Scotland. Its approach will be innovative, approaching Scotland’s engagement with penal history through an interdisciplinary perspective, drawing on insights from dark tourism, tourism management, cultural heritage and critical prison studies. The succesful candidate will offer new insights into curatorship for prison museums, and new strategies for Peterhead Prison Museum (PPM) to develop its interpretive and visitor experience strategies in ethical and imaginative ways.

Deadline: 8 June 2023

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University of Edinburgh and Microsoft Research (UK)

This project will explore the potential implications of generative AI for the future of knowledge work in the digital economy. Specifically, (a) within which areas of knowledge work has GAI had most impact, and how? (b) what future socio-moral issues are likely to arise for knowledge workers and their organisations, and how might such issues be mitigated? (c) how might human-GAI partnerships be managed, through design? (e.g., considerations of workflow, teaming, distribution of cognition).

Deadline: 8 June 2023

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University of Glasgow, Abertay University and the James Hutton Institute

The project will use the upland grazing areas of the Finzean Estate in Deeside as a study area, working in partnership with the landowners and estate managers. To investigate spatial and temporal scales and the combined impacts of human activities past and present in this landscape type, the project will combine archaeological information, providing insights into broad patterns of past human activities over 1000s of years, with agricultural data, providing essential information on recent management, and with field-based data to characterise local topography, vegetation and soils.

Deadline: 12 June 2023

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University of Edinburgh and CodeBase

This research will be rooted in the disciplines of interaction design and human-computer interaction, also engaging with creative industry studies and business studies.

The Creative Industries are a wide sector covering, among others: architecture, visual arts, craft, film, music, performing arts and publishing and are central to the health of the UK economy. Supporting the intersection of the Creative Industries and technology has much potential for fostering economic growth. However, creative practitioners often face significant barriers when starting technology-driven businesses due to the scale of upskilling this shift requires, for example in terms of digital literacy, start-up business models, and the wider technology ecosystem.

As such, there is still a need to better understand and evidence what specific support structures are needed to enable creative practitioners to engage and upskill with technology. Our recent research suggests that one particularly promising route, is to support network building and informal sharing of digital skills. However, there is a lack of evidence on best-practice approaches to support this.

Helgason, I., Smyth, M., Panneels, I., Lechelt, S., Frich, J., Rawn, E. and Mccarthy, B. 2023. Digital Skills for the Creative Practitioner: Supporting Informal Learning of Technologies for Creativity. In Proceedings of the 2023 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, April 23–28, 2023, Hamburg, Germany. ACM, New York, NY, USA

This PhD research will explore whether and how a “digital commons” can be one promising approach. Research on “commons” is rooted in shared natural resources and communities around them. Information commons have emerged as a way of supporting knowledge sharing and digital commons are an instantiation of these: typically online, community-run repositories of shared information and resources.

De Rosnay, M. D., & Stalder, F. (2020). Digital commons. Internet Policy Review, 9(4), 15-p

Deadline: 12 June 2023

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University of Glasgow and National Museums Scotland (NMS)

This project reanimates an under-researched collection of over 300 models of agricultural tools, machines and infrastructure that was created and displayed by the Royal Highland and Agricultural Society of Scotland in the first half of the 19th century, before being transferred to what later became National Museums Scotland. The collection, largely assembled between 1790 and 1866, connected the Society with many other actors and communities, from urban engineers to landowners, agriculturalists, workers, artisans and innovators in rural Lowlands and Highlands and beyond.

Deadline: 12 June 2023

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University of Strathclyde and Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Glasgow

This project explores the history of South Asian medical professionals in Scotland. It seeks to understand the experiences of South Asian medical students and professionals in Scotland, the connections between British Indian medical institutions and Scottish licensing institutions such as the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Glasgow and the role of medical networks in the experiences of South Asian medical professionals.

Deadline: 19 June 2023

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University of Strathclyde, University of Glasgow and The Alasdair Gray Archive

This project will see the creation of the Agnes Owens Archive which contains previously unpublished plays, poems and short stories. Owens’ champions point to her class, gender, and age in explaining her neglect; her work is frequently read against her biography. This project will absorb and supersede these contexts in its collation and critical appraisal of Owens’ full literary output, leading to a variety of public-facing events marking the centenary of her birth in 2026.

Deadline: 19 June 2023

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UHI, Sabhal Mòr Ostaig and West Harris Trust (WHT)

Working with the resident community of West Harris and adopting an interdisciplinary approach, this project seeks to uncover the intertwinings of history, heritage, and community development in the locality. To help strengthen WHT’s aim ‘to build a sustainable future for our community’ the researcher will investigate:

• the local and landscape history of the buyout; 
• the interaction of changing landownership patterns, culture and heritage; 
• ways in which indigenous worldviews can shape sustainable heritage futures in a community ownership context. 

^{Full details of the deadline for applications will be confirmed shortly. In the meatime, if you have any queries, please contact history@uhi.ac.uk and quote 'CDA West Harris' in your message.} 

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Queen Margaret University (Edinburgh), University of Aberdeen and Imaginate

This project focuses on the incorporation of the UNCRC and how its principles can expand Imaginate’s relationship and work with children and young people. This research project examines Imaginate as a site of change, producing a methodological model setting out key steps, indicators, successes, and challenges to the incorporation of the UNCRC within Imaginate’s core work. As an outcome of the project, this model will be platformed and shared across the cultural sector and beyond. The main research question: How does putting children’s rights at the heart of cultural policy and practice have an impact on an arts organisation in terms of organisational structures, process, and working practices?

Deadline: 19 June 2023

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