There is a general need to carry analysis of the possible broader, systemic impacts of technological transformations on energy and climate emissions of society, and to support policy developers, business strategists and technologists in considering this in their decision making. This need is particularly acute in the case of information technology, where the impact of the changes in behaviour and organisation which are enabled by new technologies is often far greater than the direct impact of the IT solutions deployed.One example currently in transformation is the news publishing and media industry. Over the next decade, a number of digital technologies will mature which will change the industry: high-speed digital printing, e-readers, personalisation technologies, mobile phone readable 2-D barcodes, etc. How the industry exploits these, and the resulting change in the overall system, could have a substantial (but not a-priori predictable) impact on the energy use and carbon footprint of the overall industry.Our research aims to develop methods and tools that would enable collaborative model building to take place at scale to enable shared learning to take place over large sets of stakeholders, and to trial this with a user community associated with the technological transformation of the news publishing industry. The following will be required:- Develop a toolset to allow less systems-aware stakeholders to either develop their own systems model, or explore their understanding of a given model, of the energy use and climate emissions impact of a specific technology intervention. The approach would require an appropriate graphical user interface that enables wide inclusivity.- Develop functionality which allows a community of stakeholders to explore the assumptions behind the models, critique them, and look at the impact of altering the assumptions in some way.- Work with a group of stakeholders to use prototypes of the toolset to develop initial systems models of the news publishing stakeholder system, how technology might transform it in the next 10 years, and the potential energy and climate implications of this. Gather feedback on appropriate design and functionality of the system iteratively. This will be done in collaboration with the Guardian Media Group.Allowing stakeholders in the industry to explore the possible broad impacts of different decisions as this technology transformation unfolds would increase the chance that a lower energy path is taken, and reduce the exposure of the industry to energy and carbon prices.

The growth of the cultural and creative industries (CCIs) in the past thirty years has coincided with an increase of research on the deep inequality in the sector. This has included studies on how ethnic minority people are involved in, represented by and experience the CCIs. What is missing from existing research is a close-up analysis, over time, of how diversity policy that has attempted to tackle such inequalities, is constructed and implemented and with what results. The Colour of Diversity project, through close collaboration with the UK's lead body for film culture, the British Film Institute (BFI), as well as the Cabinet Office's Race Disparity Unit and the Guardian newspaper, will deliver an ambitious, timely and impactful academic research-led programme examining the links between race inequality, diversity and cultural policy. As part of the collaborative project, a large range of cultural practitioners, audiences and communities will be invited to participate in research forums, seminars and round-table events designed to bring industry stakeholders, cultural workers and communities together to exchange knowledge about diversity and inclusion in the CCIs. The Colour of Diversity focuses on the UK screen sector where racial inequality remains a major policy challenge. Diversity and inclusion are increasingly on the screen industries' policy agenda (DCMS, 2012; BFI, 2012; BFI, 2018, BAFTA, 2020). However, despite nearly three decades of policy initiatives, inequalities in terms of workforce demographic and on-screen representations of BAME communities remain a significant social problem. The implications of the long-standing under-representation suggests that BAME communities experience multi-dimensional inequalities and forms of discrimination, an example of which can be found in the film sector. The issue pertains to a lack of employment, differential audiences and problematic representations. The significance of the problem is that the field of cultural production plays a critical role in shaping everyday society and culture, how communities see themselves and are seen by others. The field of cultural production and representation, therefore, has real social effects. The empirical basis of the research analysis will be the BFI's policy initiative, Diversity Standards, a major policy initiative that the flagship cultural organisation launched in 2016. Diversity Standards is designed to tackle prevailing sector inequalities and boost racial diversity and inclusion across its Film Fund-supported productions between 2016 and 2022. As well as being the first empirical study of the BFI Diversity Standards data, to which the research team will have exclusive access, this will be the first sustained academic analysis and evaluation of the construction and development of cultural diversity policy in the UK. A key objective of the study is to analyse the mechanisms of cultural policy that seeks to tackle inequalities. This will increase knowledge about how the CCIs construct diversity initiatives, with the aim to support other industry stakeholders in implementing effective and informed policy strategies that will have real effects in tackling structural racial inequalities. The project examines how diversity policy links to a range of interdependent intersections and contexts, as well as foregrounding the significance of direct testimony and narratives of those who are targeted by such diversity policies. Through a robust programme of research that will including interviews, workshops, critical discourse analysis and textual analysis, The Colour of Diversity will foreground the significance of the Arts and Humanities for tackling social concerns such as social mobility and diversity. A principal research aim is to demonstrate the contribution of Screen Studies to sociological understandings of race and ethnicity and develop a theoretical interrogation of diversity policy as a critical form of social policy.

This application is to support impact and engagement activities resulting from Dr Steve Presence's AHRC ECR grant, 'UK Feature Docs: Studying the Feature Documentary Film Industry' (2018-2020, from here 'UKFD'). The application proposes the creation of a new national organisation for UK documentary - the Documentary Film Council (DFC) - that has been co-conceived by the research team in collaboration with the leading organisations in the industry. The DFC will consist of a range of working groups that address the different needs and represent the different sub-sectors in the documentary industry. The specific aim of this project is to target Follow-on Funding at key elements of this proposed organisational infrastructure: the core work required to establish the DFC, and the specific activities of its Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) and Mental Health working groups. This strategic use of funds will directly support the foundations of the DFC and address two of the most pressing industry-wide issues - diversity and mental health - while also animating the DFC's broader organisational infrastructure and stimulating activity across all the DFC's proposed working groups. The UKFD project was primarily a work of cultural history that explored the evolution of documentary as a cinematic form over the past two decades. However, the project also included a more future-facing research strand that aimed to investigate the challenges faced by those working in the sector today. This strand of the project expanded well beyond its original scope following high levels of stakeholder engagement and the formation of close relationships with leading industry bodies. As the research developed, it emerged that policymakers in the film and television industries alike had, for various reasons, largely overlooked the unique needs of the nonfiction sector. As a result, UK documentary was suffering from a range of problems that stemmed from a long-standing lack of tailored support. This work thus exposed an urgent and unforeseen need for widespread policy intervention across the documentary industry. Responding to this need, the UKFD research team scaled-up their originally modest plans to explore challenges in the sector. In partnership with Doc Society - the lead body for documentary in England - and with additional 0.4 RA support, funded by UWE in recognition of this expanded remit, in April 2019 the UKFD team launched what became the largest survey ever conducted of UK documentary producers and directors. The results were published by the UKFD team in June, which in turn became the basis for an extensive sector-wide consultation in summer and autumn 2020, the results of which were published in a second major UKFD report in January 2021. This Follow-On Funding bid is the product of this unanticipated and unforeseeable research trajectory. The proposed project builds on the original UKFD research and takes it in a significant, innovative and exciting new direction. The proposed structure and reach of the DFC is without precedent in the UK screen sector. It will generate a range of creative, innovative and evidence-based interventions across the documentary industry, and will attract national and international attention, engaging a genuinely diverse range of new audiences and user communities. As evidenced by the UKFD project research, many of the issues and challenges facing the documentary industry can only be addressed via sustained and collective commitment to the problems at hand. A secure and sustainable cross-sector infrastructure is a precondition to building and maintaining such commitment. With support from the AHRC at this crucial stage, this project will provide that infrastructure to the UK documentary sector, delivering significant cultural, economic and social benefits to the sector and its audiences and ensuring the impact of AHRC-funded research is felt across the UK screen sector and beyond for years to come.

This project explores the application of Virtual Reality (VR) technology to documentary content. Thirty years since the term virtual reality was coined, and nearly fifty years since Ivan Sutherland's first experiments with a "head mounted three dimensional display", developments in hardware and software now make VR viable as a mass-market consumer proposition, and 2016 sees a variety of devices coming to market. While cinema offers an optical illusion of movement, 360 experiences offer a new generation of illusion - a powerful sense of "being there" within the scene portrayed known as presence. To date, consumer VR has been associated with gaming. However, the potential audience appeal promised by presence has led to considerable interest in the video market - notably among producers of non-fiction content. 2015 saw VR projects commissioned by the New York Times, Vice News and the UN for example, the latter winning the Innovation Award at the Sheffield DocFest - one of the world's major non-fiction markets. We hypothesise that Virtual Reality documentary has significant potential to inform public debate - offering new directions and in particular novel forms of witnessing enabled by 360 perspectives, but that the powerful sense of presence offered by immersion also gives rise to ethical challenges; does the feeling of "being there" offer genuine insight or a new form of voyeurism? do unmanned 360 camera rigs feel like surveillance to subjects? a user in an immersive headset experience is likely to be paying attention to the world depicted, but what does that mean for their presence where they are standing? The project will approach these questions through six case studies created by industry partners - examining production and user experience. Producers will share their approaches to storytelling in this new 360 medium. With an audience group who we will follow from their first exposure to VR, we will investigate engagement, attention, understanding and emotional reaction, as experienced on contrasting VR platforms, and compare these with 2D and 3D experiences delivered without headsets. The first three case studies will address the theme of migration - one of the big global challenges that has been a notable subject of VR non-fiction to date. The research will explore the implications of exposure to powerful documentary content within immersive experiences, probe issues around isolation and sociality that relate to the use of headsets. The project will also consider the point-of-view of the subjects of media, asking for example whether particular issues around privacy arise in the context of 3D filming and immersive display. Drawing on findings from the case studies, and from workshops with industry and community partners, we will define key themes which will be explored in the production of three path finding prototypes. These will illustrate research findings and suggest future directions for Virtual Reality documentary. Producers are eager to engage with the potentials of VR documentary, but face challenges around language, technology and audience insight. Through a process of investigation, dialogue, and shared findings, the research will stage a timely engagement with this emerging medium, supporting the development of this new production sector, while keeping the interest of audience and subjects to the fore.

The aim The IPOW Anniversary Initiative is to develop and support new and emerging artists from sites of conflict, crisis and post conflict by nurturing their creative talent, enhancing creative enterprise skills and showcasing their work on an international platform. The project features alternative creative workshops for marginalised artists, a mentoring network for creative entrepreneurs and the dissemination of these artistic projects to the general public via The Guardian and Taschen publishing. The IPOW Anniversary Initiative emerged from 10 years of research visits, observations and interactions with creative communities in sites of conflict, post conflict or communities in social, political or economic crisis. IPOW's research revealed that creativity served as a powerful tool in times of social and political upheaval. Art can provide a means of resisting violence, preventing conflict, healing individuals and communities and enabling communities to re appropriate space consumed by war. However, whilst creativity is utilised to address social, psychological and cultural needs, artists often lack the skills or outlets to exploit the economic value of their talents. Furthermore, communities affected by conflict or crisis did not have access to the necessary educational tools to develop their creative projects or to connect to audience. In its most recent phase (2013-2014) In Place of War had attempted to address this skills gap by delivering informal creative entrepreneurial workshops on the ground to marginalised communities. However, it was apparent that informal workshops over a short period of time had little impact in developing skills or enhancing exposure. To this end, In Place of War has created structured knowledge exchange workshop certified by the University of Manchester. The Creative Entrepreneur Workshop (CEW) is structured over nine weeks and draws upon creative practice identified through IPOW's research. All this material would not have been available without the extensive research and practitioner networks developed through AHRC support. In addition to this, artists have the opportunity to develop a creative business proposal which will presented at the end of the sessions. Industry experts will give feedback on creative proposals and artists will be allocated a mentor to support theml. Furthermore, the most viable project will be awarded a small seed fund to support the development of the project. In addition to this, IPOW will work with Tacshen Publishing to offer mentoring support for new and emerging visual artists on the CEW. The CEW and mentoring network will nurture a new generation of artists and practitioners from sites of conflict or extreme disadvantage by creating a research-informed, free at the point of use educational tools and professional support system. As part of this new stage of development, IPOW has developed a relationship with the Guardian to disseminate and engage with new public audiences. IPOW been invited to programme 6 events at the Guardian Space in London. This unique collaboration will provide an innovate public space to present new and emerging talent identified via the CEW, giving artists an international platform, thus expanding opportunities. This partnership will facilitate connections between artists and international audiences, increase avenues for dissemination, and generate public debates on the role of arts in society. Responding to the need to generate economic benefits and improve access to international audiences for marginalised artists, IPOW will also work with Taschen Publishing to publish a book on art in conflict zones. Artists featured in the book and will receive a percentage from book sales. The proposal aims to provide tools for creative entrepreneurship, support mechanisms for artistic development and new pathways for dissemination and engagement with international audience for artists from conflict and post conflict zones.