Research

Research at University College Falmouth

Research and enterprise are central to University College Falmouth's identity and aspirations as a global arts university. Our overarching aim is to develop and sustain an entrepreneurial and internationally distinctive research discourse that drives the University College's academic profile and underpins its contribution to economic, social and cultural advancement.

Four key objectives underpin this overarching aim for the period 2010-2015:

• To establish a profile of international excellence in selected areas of research through strategic and targeted investment
• To maximise the impact of this research in support of Cornwall's growing, creative economy
• To ensure provision of a sustainable, high quality and stimulating research environment within which both to develop staff capabilities and to frame postgraduate research student programmes
• To ensure that research and enterprise activity directly enhances learning and teaching.

The quality of research has been recognised in recent Research Assessment Exercises and we have been successful in attracting European Union funding for research that contributes directly to the development of Cornwall's economy.

In 2009, fourteen new doctoral students, eleven of them full-time, began specialist research with the institution and will augment the growing number of successfully completed PhDs. Six studentships are being advertised for 2010.

From 2010 all research-active staff will be affiliated with one of our new Centres for Research and Innovation focused on the following themes:

• The Digital Economy
• Sustainable Design
• Arts, Communities & the Environment

These Centres support specific research Groups in areas of acknowledged strength. By April 2010 the following Groups have been approved:

• Autonomatic - Digital manufacturing technologies in the creative process of designing and making three dimensional objects
• Performance Writing - extended, interdisciplinary textual practices
• RANE - Research in Art, Nature & Environment

The following Group is at proposal stage:

• Connected Creative Communities - Exploring the ways in which creative communities - past, present and future - develop and maintain connections between individuals and groups.

We also have acknowledged research strengths in Choreography, Music, Photography and Theatre.

Other information on Centres and Groups can be found on our Studentships [link to updated Studentships page] webpage.

To find out more about UCF's research activities and aspirations, contact Dr John Hall, Associate Director of Research, by email: j.hall@dartington.ac.uk.

On matters that relate to both Research and Enterprise, contact Professor Geoff Smith, Deputy Rector, by email: Geoff.Smith@falmouth.ac.uk