Designing Interactions with Natural History: Exploring the Adoption of Emerging Technologies in Regional Museums

AHRC Collaborative Doctoral Partnership (CDP) studentship with Portsmouth City Council

The University of Portsmouth and Portsmouth City Council are pleased to announce the availability of a fully funded Collaborative doctoral studentship from 1 October 2024 under the AHRC’s  Collaborative Doctoral Partnerships (CDP) scheme.

This research project will explore the adoption, appropriateness, and expressiveness of creative technologies to augment Cumberland House Natural History Museum’s collections and their value to attract new audiences. Using co-design, research-though-design, and mixed-method evaluation of audience experience, the project will discuss future opportunities for post-digital (regional) museums, help the cultural sector strive to adopt emerging technologies and leverage opportunities for digital literacy in heritage staff. The project will generate guidelines and enhance understanding of future-focused challenges within digital heritage, facilitating the creation of sustainable experiences that investigate the expressiveness of interactive technologies to engage audiences and tell stories about local museums’ natural history collections.

This project will be jointly supervised by Dr Argenis Ramirez Gomez (Lecturer in Creative Technologies and Human-Computer Interaction), Dr Claire Bailey-Ross (Associate Dean Academic, Principal Lecturer in Digital Heritage), Christine Taylor (Curator of Natural History) and Violet Nicholls (Assistant Curator) and the student will be expected to spend time at both the University of Portsmouth and Portsmouth City Council’s Cumberland House Natural History Museum, as well as becoming part of the wider cohort of CDP funded students across the UK. 

The University of Portsmouth and Portsmouth City Council are keen to encourage applications from a wide range of candidates and particularly welcome those currently underrepresented in doctoral student cohorts.

Project Overview 

Despite museums' long-standing commitment to impact, participation and engagement, evolving digital consumption patterns have changed museum audiences. These changes, coupled with ongoing public sector funding cuts, have put immense pressure on museums to justify their value and relevance to society. Consequently, museum professionals are compelled to explore new ways to engage audiences. Unlike larger national museums with dedicated digital teams, this project uniquely addresses the constraints faced by local museums, aiming to enhance their digital capabilities through accessible guidelines and broaden audience access, reach, and engagement. The proposed PhD project focuses on understanding and addressing the challenges faced by regional institutions in the post-digital age, emphasising the need to build museums’ digital capacity and capability. Drawing from a sustained collaboration between Cumberland House Natural History Museum and the University of Portsmouth’s School of Creative Technologies, the project aims to explore the adoption, appropriateness, and expressiveness of creative technologies. Specifically, it seeks to augment Cumberland House Natural History Museum's collections (>90% hidden in the museum’s store) to attract new and existing diverse audiences and enrich community participation and engagement - a priority for the museum. Through co-design research methods, the project aims to illuminate future opportunities for post-digital local museums, guiding the cultural sector in adopting emerging technologies and fostering digital literacy among museum staff and volunteers.

The primary objective is to develop guidelines for adopting sustainable digital heritage experiences and enhance digital literacy within regional museums. This involves exploring the expressive potential of creative technologies to engage audiences with museum collections and empowering museum staff with technology-driven innovation that adds value to the collection. This framework will foster an ecosystem in which local museums can thrive, exemplified through co-creation with the museum’s community (e.g., visitors, local schools, and creative volunteers). The project addresses how to co-create sustainable technology-based experiences that meet audience and museum needs to help museums’ digital transformation. Action-based audience engagement evaluation will provide evidence-based insights, crucial for effectively reshaping museums for the future. 

About the role

The successful doctoral candidate will be registered in the Digital and Creative Technologies postgraduate research degree programme and will be able to shape the direction of the project according to their background expertise and development needs. We aim to create a supportive environment where research independence and agency can flourish throughout the lifespan of the project.

The candidate will be expected to employ a comprehensive hands-on approach and integrate co-creation, and mixed-method audience experience evaluation through the creation of interactive experiences. The PhD candidate will have privileged access to Cumberland House Natural History Museum’s collection and the University of Portsmouth’s Centre for Creative and Immersive eXtended Reality (CCIXR) to leverage emerging creative technologies to develop interactive media experiences for the collection. 

The PhD candidate will focus on creating frameworks and guidelines, promoting co-creation as a method to empower the museum workforce with digital literacy, agency, and independence in adopting, creating, and maintaining new technology-focused experiences, thereby attracting diverse audiences. The resulting guidelines are expected to be designed to be replicable and adaptable, providing value to Cumberland House Museum, other regional museums and the broader sector.

Benefits and Opportunities

PhD candidates at the University of Portsmouth have access to research training through a highly-rated Graduate School Development Programme, valuable for the candidate’s professional development. The Graduate School offers bespoke training and professional development courses to help postgraduate students grow in their research careers. The Graduate School offers training on topics such as academic skills development; personal effectiveness; research governance and organisation; research design; data collection, analysis and presentation; engagement and impact; and career development amongst others. 

Additionally, PhD candidates can access a GProf programme (providing HE teacher training), and Teaching Well for Postgraduates (a pathway to obtain an Associate Fellowship of the Higher Education Academy, AFHEA status), as well as more bespoke faculty-based research training. Furthermore, postgraduate students are supported in developing their wider academic citizenship and career pathways throughout the PhD programme, with access to teaching experience opportunities in UoP, experience in organising conferences and other research events, as well as academic and alternative academic careers support. These are relevant career development opportunities for candidates wishing to pursue an academic career in HEIs.

Moreover, PhD candidates have access to UK and international placement opportunities (e.g. in local schools via the University’s partnership with The Brilliant Club, or at an international partner institution through the Turing Scheme) and will be able to explore potential opportunities for work placement with Portsmouth City Council and working on an area of the natural history collection. The Faculty of Creative and Cultural Industries and the School of Creative Technologies have developed industry links relevant to the project which the candidate could explore as opportunities for work placements (e.g., Worthing Museum, Mary Rose Museum, D Day Museum, ASPEX Gallery,  amongst others).

Details of Award

The studentship can be studied either full or part-time. AHRC CDP doctoral training grants fund full-time studentships for 4 years or part-time equivalent. The award pays tuition fees up to the value of the full-time home UKRI rate for PhD degrees. The Research Councils UK Indicative Fee Level for 2023/2024 is £4,786.

The award pays full maintenance for all students both home and international students. The UKRI National Minimum Doctoral Stipend for 2024/2025 is £19,237. In addition, the successful candidate will receive a CDP maintenance payment of £600/year. 

The student is eligible to receive an additional travel and related expenses grant during the course of the project courtesy of the University of Portsmouth worth up to £1500 per year for 4 years.

The successful candidate will be eligible to participate in events organised for all Collaborative Doctoral Partnership students who are registered with different universities and studying with cultural and heritage organisations across the UK.

Eligibility

• This studentship is open to both Home and International/EU applicants. 
• To be classed as a home student, candidates must meet the following criteria: 
  • Be a UK National (meeting residency requirements), or
  • Have settled status, or 
  • Have pre-settled status (meeting residency requirements), or
  • Have indefinite leave to remain or enter

     Further guidance can be found here. 

• International students are eligible to receive the full award for maintenance as are home students. 

As a collaborative award, students will be expected to spend time at both the University and the Cumberland House Natural History Museum / Portsmouth City Council Museums

Applicants must satisfy the standard UKRI eligibility criteria. 

How to apply

If you are interested in applying, you're welcome to contact Dr Argenis Ramirez Gomez (argenis.ramirez-gomez@port.ac.uk) and Dr Claire Bailey-Ross (claire.bailey-ross@port.ac.uk) for an informal discussion about this opportunity.

When you are ready to apply, you can use our online application form. Make sure you submit a cover letter / personal statement focussing on the suitability of your skillset and previous experience to the project, proof of your degrees and grades, details of two referees, proof of your English language proficiency (if required) and an up-to-date CV.  Our ‘How to Apply’ page offers further guidance on the PhD application process. As this is a pre-defined project, you do not need to submit a research proposal at this stage.

You're also required to submit a research statement/proposal tailored to the research as outlined above discussing your view on how to address the project. 

If you want to be considered for this funded PhD opportunity you must quote project code SASS9160524 when applying. Please note that email applications are not accepted.

Shortlisted candidates will be invited to an online interview on the 20th/21st of June (TBD).