ICT in Arts and Humanities Research
e-Science Institute Public Lecture
A Potential for All: e-Science for the Arts and
Humanities
30 April 2007
ICT in Arts and Humanities Research
What is e-Science in the Arts and humanities
•
Agenda rather than a methodology, still less a subject
•
•
An Oxymoron?
e-Science vs e-Research
•
National agenda developed in the natural sciences and technology
•
Infrastructure of advanced technologies for secure collaboration and resourcesharing across the Internet
•
all Research Councils committed in their Delivery Plans
ICT in Arts and Humanities Research
Grid technologies
•
Computational grid
•
Data grid
•
Communications grid (Access Grid)
Associated technologies (service grid)
•
Visualization
•
Data mining
•
Security
But looser definition
ICT in Arts and Humanities Research
First phase of the Programme: 2000• £98m spread across Research Councils
• Core e-Science Programme managed by EPSRC on behalf of
all the Research Councils
• AHRB misses out
• Tony Hey Director of the e-Science Core Programme
ICT in Arts and Humanities Research
Third phase of the Programme: 2006• No earmarked money: AHRC misses out again
• Core e-Science Programme managed by EPSRC on behalf of
all the Research Councils
• Malcolm Atkinson e-Science Envoy
ICT in Arts and Humanities Research
e-Science
• Why is it important for the humanities?
– Money
• tools and generic resource development
– Injection of new technologies
• collaborations between computer scientists and arts and
humanities researchers
– Dispersed and heterogenous nature of typical humanities data
resource
• the typical AHRC-funded resource
– Not an instant solution
• Combination of top-down and bottom-up developments to integrate
resources
– But not just the data grid
ICT in Arts and Humanities Research
Existing provision
• AHRC Research Panels
– Up to 2003, about 50% of £100m of research projects have
some kind of digital output and/or input
– What kind of projects?
• Support services funded by AHRC and JISC
– Arts and Humanities Data Service (AHDS)
• creation, curation, preservation, and on-line
dissemination of digitised research materials
– Resource Discovery Network (RDN: now Intute)
• gateways for the discovery of online resources
ICT in Arts and Humanities Research
ICT in Arts and Humanities Research Programme
• includes the creative and performing arts
– practice-led research
• £3.8m for 5 years from October 2003
• Part of a uniquely centralized system of public support for ICT
in the arts and humanities
– but...
ICT in Arts and Humanities Research
ICT Programme’s aims:
• to build capacity nation-wide in the use of ICT for arts and
humanities research
– complementing existing provision
• to advise on the AHRC's ICT strategy
– later...
• strong infrastructure in place on which to build up e-Science
activities
– despite arriving at the table very late
ICT in Arts and Humanities Research
Main activities:
• ICT Methods Network: £1m for 3 years from April 2005
– use of advanced ICT methods
• Projects and methods database (with support from JISC)
– methods taxonomy
– will be part of a unified on-line resource: ICTGuides (AHDS)
• including training materials at all levels
• register of experts
• list of centres
• ICT Strategy Projects (£1m)
– knowledge-gathering: needs, uses, scoping surveys
– resource-development
• Problems of funding tools development
ICT in Arts and Humanities Research
AHRC-EPSRC-JISC Arts and Humanties e-Science Initiative
– Scoping survey
– JISC A&H e-Science Support Centre (King’s: 2006-8)
• based in AHDS and Methods Network
– AHRC A&H e-Science Research Workshops
– EPSRC e-Science demonstrators
– six 4-year AHRC e-Science postgraduate studentships.
– AHRC-JISC e-Science research projects (£1.2m +
EPSRC?)
• varying emphasis on tools development and research
findings
ICT in Arts and Humanities Research
Workshops in e-Science for the Arts and Humanities
•
Alan Bowman
User Requirements Gathering for the
Humanities
•
Paul Ell
Geographical Information System eScience: developing a roadmap
•
Angela Piccini
Performativity/Place/Space: Locating
Grid Technologies
•
David Shepherd
The Access Grid in Collaborative Arts
and Humanities Research
•
Gregory Sporton
Building the Wireframe: E-Science for
the Arts Infrastructure
•
Melissa Terras
ReACH: Researching e-Science
Analysis of Census Holdings
ICT in Arts and Humanities Research
Workshops in e-Science for the Arts and Humanities
•
Melissa Terras
ReACH: Researching e-Science
Analysis of Census Holdings
– cross dataset searching (across complex and fuzzy data)
and developing a configurable tool to undertake record
matching
• not merely limited to historians and census material
• physicists and astrophysicists working on the
Astrogrid
– to track and trace different entities in space
across massive datasets
ICT in Arts and Humanities Research
e-Science Demonstrators (EPSRC)
•
Peter Ainsworth
Virtual Vellum: Online Viewing
Envionment for the Grid and Live
Audiences
•
Charles
Crowther
A Virtual Workspace for the Study of
Ancient Documents
•
Sarah-Jane
Norman
Motion Capture Data Services for
Multiple User Categories
ICT in Arts and Humanities Research
Research Grants and Studentships Scheme
Aims:
• to advance research in the A&H through the use and
development of e-Science technologies
– build up the infrastructure of tools and resources for ICTbased research in the A&H,
– and to demonstrate the value of such tools and resources
through the achievement of significant A&H research
findings.
ICT in Arts and Humanities Research
Balance between development and research findings may vary
from one project to another
• the development of e-Science tools or resources specifically for
research in the arts and/or humanities
– must present a significant research or development
challenge in terms of the technology
• and/or the achievement of significant research findings in an
arts or humanities subject using e-Science technologies.
– must achieve significant research findings
• panel expects to fund a selection of both types of project
ICT in Arts and Humanities Research
The Panel sought to fund a broad range of activities,
• covering a number of different technologies and subject areas,
• including practice-led research in the creative and performing
arts.
Projects of varying size, which may last for a period of from six
months up to a maximum of four years
• maximum FEC of £400,000 (plus any studentships)
ICT in Arts and Humanities Research
Projects must involve an appropriate level of collaboration
between ICT specialists and arts or humanities scholars
• expressed in terms of time commitment
• and demonstrate that their participants possess collectively the
appropriate level of expertise in both areas.
ICT in Arts and Humanities Research
Archaeology
4
Art
5
Dance & Drama
8
Generic
4
History Politics
2
Language & Linguistics
4
Literary Studies
5
Media Studies & Photography
2
Museums
3
Music
4
Creative Writing
1
TOTAL
42
A&H PI
25
CS PI
17
ICT in Arts and Humanities Research
Malcolm Atkinson, national e-Science Envoy
e-Science is the systematic development of methods using
advanced ICT to enable better research (20th March 2007)