Opportunities

Ways to get involved in the Centre's work.

Call out: Sociodigital Futures Residencies x4

Are you an artist, designer or creative technologist interested in futures and how technology and society shape one another?

University of Bristol’s ESRC Centre for Sociodigital Futures is offering four residencies starting in October 2025 to co-create works with us for a public exhibition in June 2026.

Who is it for?

We are looking for artists, designers or creative technologists who have:

  • Experience of speculative or futures focused approaches to art, design or critical making;
  • Experience of co-creating or coproducing work with people from various disciplines or with different expertise;
  • A working process that allows for collaboration, iteration, is inclusive and responsible
  • An interest in emerging technologies and the ways in which they shape our everyday practices
  • An interest in the interrelationship between digital technology and society
  • An interest in futures, particularly sociodigital futures
  • A shared concern for just, sustainable or regenerative sociodigital innovation.

We will consider proposals from artists, designers and creative technologists working in any medium. The brief is to work alongside researchers to create work that can be exhibited and shared with public audiences in some form.

We are keen for the commissioned designers/artists to spend time with us in the Centre, to get to know our research and our partners.

There will be a hot desk available for you in the Centre and there is a seminar space for workshop activities. You do not need to be based in Bristol for this residency but will be required to attend initial workshops in person, the first of which is on Tuesday 14th October, 10.00am - 12.00pm.

We particularly welcome and encourage applications from those currently underrepresented in the art and design sector; particularly any applicant who identifies as working-class, a person of colour, global majority, transgender, non-binary or genderqueer, D/deaf, visually impaired, disabled or neurodivergent.

How to apply / application deadline:

Please send a 2-page expression of interest (EOI) or a video of up to 5 minutes to censof-enquiries@bristol.ac.uk by 9.00am on Friday 19th September (See below for more details).

Interviews will be held on Thursday 2nd October.

Fee:

£5000 artist fee (Approx 15 days dependant on day rate).

Materials budget to be negotiated, but we are not able to offer travel expenses.

More information about the application process. 

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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.