Vice-Chancellor's Fellowships

Digital Innovation

Within the Digital Innovation priority area we welcome applicants that reflect our current key strategic areas. These include digital and civic futures, and digital humanities, scientific computation and big data in science.

Digital Futures and Civic Futures

The University of Bristol is investing in a new Temple Quarter Enterprise Campus (TQEC), and as part of this we are exploring different ways of delivering education and using technology to drive advances in society, health and business. The two themes of Digital Futures and Civic Futures are central to the University’s research strategy for the new Campus. With both we are committed to a co-creation and co-production approach across social sciences and law, computer sciences, engineering and the arts that will bring researchers together with local, national and international partners from all sectors: government, business; civil society.

The Institute of Digital Futures seeks to harness technological development to address major societal challenges in order to enable collaborative consideration of the just, fair and prosperous societies we want to create for the future. We welcome research proposals that break out from disciplinary silos and create a new mould for the future of digital research, driven by the external needs of industry, communities and government. In Engineering, possible research project areas could include: Digital Connectivity, Digital Health, Future of Transport, Robotics and Autonomy, AI and Data, Creativity, Cyber security, Digital manufacturing. For more details see the engineering research pages. Possible Social Sciences projects could include: integrating conventional and novel data for exploring future scenarios; speculative design and digital innovation for social inclusion. For more information contact Professor Susan Halford (susan.halford@bristol.ac.uk).

The Institute for Civic Futures aims to develop an inclusive and fair, low carbon economy, using the forms of governance, finance and economic participation that can best support an alternative business ecosystem. Possible Social Sciences projects could include: developing local and regional government’s capacity to support co-operative businesses; employee-owned trust businesses: problems and opportunities; developing local finance organisations to provide patient capital for alternative businesses in the Bristol city region. For more information contact Professor Martin Parker (martin.parker@bristol.ac.uk.)

Scientific Computation and Big Data in Science

We particularly welcome projects addressing the Science Faculty strategic priority areas in imaging and characterising materials, digital environment, pollution of the natural environment, sustainable resources and energy, nuclear, Quantum and complex materials, chemical biology and antimicrobial resistance.

Digital Humanities. From corpus linguistics and geospatial data to digital publishing and cultures, researchers are increasingly using digital sources, theories and techniques right across the University of Bristol's Faculty of Arts. We therefore welcome projects from scholars whose work 1) directly and primarily utilises a particular digital source or set of digital sources OR 2) contributes to and develops the theoretical and/or technical understanding of digital sources in the Humanities. Projects must relate to one or more of the Faculties' disciplinary areas or to the interests of one of its six Research Centres. We welcome in particular projects that reflect on the implications of the digital revolution regarding privacy, security, reliability of information and how to assess this, and its implications for a new pedagogy for HEIs and schools. For more information please see the arts research pages.

How to apply