2022 - 2023 | BFI - TORCH Knowledge Exchange Fellowship

Deadline | Monday, 16 May 2022 | 12:00 noon BST
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We welcome applications from the University of Oxford’s Humanities researchers to collaborate with the British Film Institute (BFI) as part of a new Knowledge Exchange Fellowship scheme. We have developed an opportunity for strategic collaborations to support mutually beneficial projects between Oxford Humanities researchers and the BFI in their key priority research areas. The BFI is a key leader and important voice in the creative industries and screen sector, and as such, we are exploring ways to develop research-led collaborations as part of a longer-term partnership.

The heart of the BFI is the National Film and TV Archive, which will be the focus of the Fellowship in this instance. Established some 85 years ago, it is one of the largest and most diverse film and television collections in the world. The archive’s expert staff perform research linked to historical, curatorial, data and archival sciences, with both a fiction and non-fiction focus. Featuring more than 120,000 non-fiction film titles, 60,000 fiction film titles and 750,000 television programmes, the Archive’s collections document British life, history and creativity from 1895 onwards. The Fellowship through this partnership will facilitate knowledge exchange by bringing Oxford academics together with the BFI, enabling opportunities to develop targeted activities together, and align with the BFI’s research agenda and Oxford researchers’ work.

Researchers in the Humanities are invited to apply for this open call with projects that connect to one of the research areas outlined in this call.

 

Purpose of fellowship
This fund is set up to support researchers in the Humanities Division with funding for strategic projects that use innovative research approaches and practice. It is essential that the project must work in a mutually beneficial way with the BFI and the Oxford researcher. 

  • Develop new, and build on existing, research-led relationships and mutually beneficial projects between Oxford researchers and the BFI.
  • Connect with the BFI on their priority research areas (see end of this document).
  • Illustrate innovative and entrepreneurial practices within Humanities research engagement and collaboration.
  • Provide an opportunity for researchers to trial and experiment ideas and develop collaborative projects and demonstrate the breadth of collaborative opportunities across different disciplines.

 

Priority research areas identified by the BFI National Archive

  1. Colonial Collections. Research to help bring these rich, non-fiction film collections, including home movies, propaganda and newsreels, to light. Particular focus into the issues they raise for the contexts in which they should be made available today, in the UK and abroad, in light of what are rapidly developing public debates about imperial legacy. This is very much about applied historiography- taking the collections and what we know about them already and applying that learning, and current thinking, to future curatorial practice. This would lead to some very useful, and practical, recommendations. There is already a substantial literature regarding the history to build this on.
  2. Emigrés and British Film. Research to better understand the ways in which British cinema has been shaped by immigration, in terms of creatives in front of and behind the camera. There is potential for this focus to include both TV and film.
     
  3. Natural Histories. Research to understand the substantial role played by natural history in British film and TV history, including its reception by international audiences, and the contribution and potential it has for informing and shaping sustainability practice.
     
  4. Immersive Content and Curation. Research to understand what it means to conserve immersive content, looking at it from both curatorial, archival and aesthetic concerns. There is potential for the focus to include or specify video games as key area of investigation.
     
  5. Online Video Content and Curation. Not dissimilar to immersive content but research in relation to what is now some twenty years of content that we’re playing (and not currently winning) a game of archival catch-up with. Research to create some kind of canon and/or categorised map of the work that should be in the national collection but isn’t, as well as the issues inflecting archiving in this area, would be very beneficial.
     
  6. Recognition and identification of objects, places, people, emotions in digital collections. The corpus of digital moving image and still image collection is growing exponentially, but the associated descriptive metadata is traditional cataloguer quality and scope, with a content synopsis, subject terms, genre, and some participants / creators. To fully capitalise on the digital opportunities for mass access to the collections – and monetisation where appropriate – we aim to enhance this with object, face, place and emotion categorisation and identification, using computer vision and artificial intelligence models, as well as cross-referencing the existing metadata to unlock connections (for example tracking the same actor across still image and moving image collections through decades). A research project to explore this AI-driven description of the digital collections, to create rich metadata to unlock access and revenue potential would be massively important for us.

 

Up to £12k is available to support the KE Fellow
This Fellowship will be held between 1 August 2022 - 31 July 2023.

Postholders: This may include buyout of teaching for postholders, either as one term or pro rata across several terms, and/or hourly paid/contracted research or teaching assistance (up to £9k), and/or justified project expenses to facilitate the collaboration (up to £3k). Total for each Fellowship of up to £12k.

Early-career: An early-career option is also available for those who submitted their thesis no more than five years prior to the start of the KE Fellowship. The early-career fellowship will award up to a 0.2 FTE staff contract at grade 7.1 (pro rata), and up to £3,000 project expenses to facilitate the collaboration. Total for each Fellowship is up to £12k.

All funds awarded must be spent by 20 July 2023 with events, workshops, travel etc. to be completed before this deadline.

 

Eligibility
All applicants must either be postholders with an employment contract containing a research mandate or an Early Career Researcher (ECR)/Junior Research Fellow (JRF). The academic post must last until at least to the end of the KE Fellowship (from the agreed start date to 31 July 2023). Applicants MUST have the support of their faculty AND in the case of ECR/JRF applicants, agreement from their line-manager or Senior Tutor to be released from their current post to undertake the fellowship. To qualify as an ECR/JRF, you must have submitted your doctoral thesis not more than five years prior to the start of the KE Fellowship (pro-rata for career breaks and/or work part-time).

 

How to apply | Guidance Notes

Applications are made using the IRAMS online form. Please provide your external partner’s name, email, and the BFI as a collaborator. Please tick the appropriate BFI priority research area box and outline your planned project.

Applications will be submitted online and must then be approved by your faculty through the IRAMS approval system before the deadline passes. Please discuss your application in advance with your Research Director and/or Head of Administration and Finance.

 

Queries and surgeries
Applicants with questions regarding the scheme or application process, including queries relating to eligibility, should email kesupport@humanities.ox.ac.uk for further advice and assistance.

We may be able to connect potential applicants with BFI contacts before applications are submitted. For those who want further advice on their application with Prof Abigail Williams (Director of KEI) and Dr Vicky McGuinness (Head of Cultural Partnerships and Programming), please email Barbara Zweifel on kesupport@humanities.ox.ac.uk to book a slot.

 

Application deadline
Trinity Term  |  Week 4  |  Monday, 16 May 2022  |  12:00 noon BST

 

Application submission
Online via IRAMS (SSO) webform only

 

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