Music Futures - Call for Proposals 2022

First launched in 2021-22, Music Futures brings together UCL academics with an interest in music from a wide range of disciplines – from engineering, through the humanities, the fine arts, science and technology studies to cognitive neuroscience – in the absence of a dedicated music department.

The aims of the initiative are threefold:

• to connect UCL scholars with an interest in music, and build a lasting community among them
• to connect the UCL community with creatives, and with a wider London public
• to foster research and dialogue between scholars and musicians, research, and knowledge transfer and public engagement

In 2022-2023, we are seeking to consolidate the foundations laid in the initiative’s first cycle of events last year, which included a new shopfront website, a festival in June 2022, a call for proposals, a short film, and a number of networking and other events.

Specifically, we are planning:

• The present new call for proposals, inviting applications for support for projects involving UCL academics and research students.
• A grant to conduct research at UCL PEARL (Person-Environment-Activity Research Laboratory), to be advertised early in 2023.
• Some additional curated or supported events and activities.

Music Futures is jointly hosted by the UCL Institute of Advanced Studies and the UCL European Institute and, with support from UCL Grand Challenges. The initiative is convened by Nicola Miller, IAS and Claudia Sternberg and Uta Staiger, EI. The convenors are supported by the Music Futures Sounding Board, an advisory group of eleven UCL colleagues.

Funding

Up to £18,000 is available for the projects funded under this call. We invite proposals for work costing from a few hundred pounds up to a maximum of £2,500.

Eligibility and outputs

This year's call welcomes applications for projects from UCL colleagues (academic and professional services), or teams including at least one UCL academic. PhD students are welcome to apply, in cooperation with an established UCL academic.

All proposals need to be collaborative and include a research element. We particularly encourage critical interdisciplinary work, and projects that enable conversation between musicians and academics, between creative practice and scholarship. We further welcome applications for projects that build collaborations between UCL researchers and external institutions, actors or venues.

Follow-on projects from last year are encouraged.

Some of the funding is set aside specifically for research workshops. Grants of £2,500 will be offered to teams of researchers who plan to come together for exploratory discussion of a theme or topic. The idea is that c £1000 of the grant will be spent on employing one or two PhD students to organise up to three workshops for relevant UCL staff and research students; the remainder, up to £1500, will fund those workshops (invited speakers, catering). These workshops are intended to build intellectual community and enable intellectual exchange; it is hoped that they might lead to funding applications, such as to Grand Challenges, but there is no formal requirement for them to do so.  We are looking to create opportunities for people across UCL to explore cross-disciplinary possibilities in an informal format.

Funds will have to be spent by 31 July 2023 (some activities may take place after this date). 

Deadline

The call for proposals will close on Monday 9th January 2023. Please submit your application using the provided form below and emailing it to Claudia Sternberg at c.sternberg@ucl.ac.uk

 Download the Music Futures application form 2023 (docx)