Opportunities

Ways to get involved in the Centre's work.

Job opportunity: Senior Research Associate in Immersive Futures

We have a new opportunity for a Senior Research Associate (SRA) to join us at CenSoF. This role will explore the future of immersive technologies through a series of experimental and future-scoping projects. The post is fixed term funded until October 2026.

Deadline for applications is 11 December 2025. For full details and how to apply, visit the University of Bristol jobs page.

Call out: Creative Producer/Curator

Are you a Creative Producer or Curator interested in futures and how technologies and society shape one another? Do you have experience of exhibition programming and design?

The Centre for Sociodigital Futures (CenSoF) led by the University of Bristol has recently commissioned four artists in residence to co-create works with us for a public exhibition in June 2026. The resident artists are working with Centre members from October to December 2025 to establish relationships and form teams around issues of interest in relation to Centre findings and research. Initial ideas will be worked up during this time for possible pieces for an exhibition to be held in June 2026.

From January 2026, the commissioned producer/curator will work with the four artists in residence and members of CenSoF to creatively produce and curate an exhibition that reflects their work together.

What kind of exhibition?

It is anticipated that the exhibition will:

Run in Bristol, for a week to 10 days.
Include interactive experiences, technology prototypes and speculative artefacts that provoke conversations across diverse publics about questions related to sociodigital futures.
Engage researchers from different disciplines and professionals, as well as being accessible to public audiences.
Explore critical questions, problems and/or scenarios emerging from and developing the Centre’s ongoing research.
Be accompanied by a wraparound programme of engagement events, talks and workshops.
Potentially have an exhibition guide and accompanying online resource.

Who should apply?

We are looking for creative producers/curators who have:

Experience of creatively producing exhibitions with people from different artistic disciplines and from across different sectors (including, but not limited to, academia).
Experience of producing exhibitions/ events/ programming where creative technology is involved, including managing the delivery of the exhibition.
Experience of speculative or futures focussed approaches to art, design or critical making.
Experience of creating a curatorial framing for an exhibition that communicates effectively to diverse audiences.
Experience in creating and programming public engagement events around an exhibition.
Experience of exhibition interpretation, co-creating and producing exhibition guides.
Excellent organisational and time management skills.
Experience in designing a communications strategy to ensure the reach of the exhibition (NB this will be done in collaboration with CenSoF comms).
An ability to work in an inclusive way, with academics, artists and audiences, and to address access in delivering the exhibition experience

Deliverables for this role:

To work with the artists and Centre members to develop the initial ideas from the first phase of the artists in residence project, to support the co-creation and iterative making process in ongoing dialogue.
To establish the curatorial framing/narrative for the exhibition in collaboration with the Centre, considering concepts, aesthetics, and points of connection with different audiences.
To work with Centre’s Senior Communications Officer to develop and deliver a comms and documentation plan for the exhibition.
To document a creative producing process and participate in focus groups with artists and/or researchers as part of the CenSoF artists in residence/exhibition project.
To produce a pitch/presentation on the exhibition project: its narrative framing or curatorial concept, what experience it will provide visitors/audience segments with, detailing what will be in the exhibition (artworks, prototypes, texts, videos, technologies, etc.), how it will be designed and interpreted.
To work with artists and Centre members to curate and manage the production of a range of exhibitable artefacts, speculative prototypes, experiences or technologies.
To work with the artists and Centre members to produce ideas for how the space and experience will be organised and installed.
To develop a branded exhibition design, interpretation and exhibition guide
To ensure the process is managed inclusively for all involved through development of an access strategy for the exhibition and the process.
To liaise with the gallery, plan and manage the install, invigilation/stewarding and risk assessments.

Outline terms and conditions

Fee: £12,500 fee (inclusive of VAT, if applicable), between January and mid July 2026. This will be paid in instalments – in line with key deliverables.

The creative producer will be able to work flexibly across the seven months, closely negotiating this with the CenSoF team and the four resident artists. Unfortunately, no travel expenses are available for the post holder.

Application process

Please send your expression of interest (EOI) of up to two pages, or a link to a video of up to 5 minutes, and a CV to censof-enquiries@bristol.ac.uk by midnight Thursday 27 November 2025.

Your EOI should respond to the following questions:

Why are you interested in this call?
What approach would you take to collaborate with the artists in residence and CenSoF researchers and to develop the planned exhibition?
What relevant experience and expertise would you bring to creatively producing/curating the speculative design, art and technology works and exhibition with us?
Tell us about two exhibitions or projects you have curated or produced that relate to this call.
Please provide links to documentation of these projects/exhibitions. If the material is not available online you can email a PDF.

Please include your contact details so that we can get in touch.

Shortlisted candidates will be invited to interviews on Tuesday 16 or Wednesday 17 December (mornings), to discuss their expressions of interest and to find out more about their approaches. Please save one or other of these times. We have also planned a session with artists on 20 January 2026.

You can read more about CenSoF on our website or by watching this short film.

Visiting Fellows

We welcome applications for international Visiting Fellows from those at all levels – whether early stage or senior academic – wishing to work with us, for periods of between two weeks and 12 months. We are particularly keen to hear from applicants whose interests cut across all elements of the Centre's research, and can:

support the Centre's profile as an international hub
deepen, accelerate or extend our research agenda and objectives, or
enhance and/or contribute to the Centre's research and engagement capabilities.

Applications will be assessed in relation to these objectives, alongside considerations related to resources required to facilitate the visit, including space, tools, CenSoF staff time, and costs. As such, we encourage applicants to identify funding source(s) before applying to our visiting fellows programme, particularly for visits beyond three months – we can provide examples of schemes that can be approached for funding (email censof-enquiries@bristol.ac.uk) but, as we are a small team, you will need to identify a relevant sponsor and arrange funding yourself.

Note that we need a statement of intent only regarding external funding at this stage; you should apply to the visiting fellows scheme for approval first, before finalising.

In some circumstances, it might be possible for us to provide limited financial support for specific costs (travel and accommodation) for a period of two to 12 weeks. However, we urge you to explore other sources of funding, if you need it, in the first instance.

This is currently an open call for visiting fellows from both the UK and overseas, but we will also run themed calls from time to time – please check this page (and connect with us on Twitter and LinkedIn) to find out about topic-specific calls and deadlines when they open.

How to apply

If you are interested in joining us as a visitor, complete the Visiting Fellow Application Form July 2025 (Office document, 61kB) giving consideration to:

the purpose of your visit, your planned activities and how they will contribute to the Centre's research;
what you will learn and your visit will enhance your own research agenda;
how you will collaborate with colleagues across the Centre, both now and in the future, in addition to any collaborative work outside of the Centre;
any funding you need to support your visit, and how you will secure it;
space, CenSoF staff time and other resources (such as IT) that you need, and how you might use them to maximum effect.

You will also need to provide a brief 'nomination statement' from an academic researcher in the Centre, supporting the visit and committing to host and facilitate both cross-Centre integration and post-visit collaboration.

Send your completed form to censof-enquiries@bristol.ac.uk.

Further information

More details about the Centre, its research and people.

If you have any questions about our Visiting Fellows scheme or if you need to discuss funding (including support from the Centre for limited and specific costs), email censof-enquiries@bristol.ac.uk.