Project funding

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Interested in creative interdisciplinary collaboration?

Creative Scotland, in partnership with Scottish Natural Heritage and the University of St Andrews, is seeking proposals for collaborative interdisciplinary projects (i.e. projects involving individuals from both cultural and ecological/scientific/historical backgrounds) that creatively explore ideas and issues surrounding the representation – now and in the past – of natural Scotland.

Project Themes

Projects can focus on any aspect of the arts and popular culture, using media of the team’s choice and should explore the following questions:

  • How have the arts and popular culture represented Natural Scotland, in the past and the present?
  • How do these artistic and cultural representations shape our responses to the natural world on an emotional, intellectual, social, public and environmental level?
  • What can we learn about the ‘real’ Natural Scotland from these imagined environments? Can these representations provide useful evidence or insights for environmental historians and scientists?
  • What can artists and creative practitioners learn from ecologists, environmental scientists and historians?
  • What lessons can we learn from our responses to representations of Natural Scotland for future policy and practice in environmental planning and management?

Two different award levels are on offer:

Small Team Projects

Awards of up to £6000 will be made to small inter-disciplinary teams. Teams must include at least one practitioner from any creative arts background and at least one practitioner with a background in the natural sciences or environmental history who will contribute to and reflect upon the project and collaborative process from a scientific and/or academic perspective.

Larger Team Projects

Awards of up to £10,000 will be made to larger projects, involving a similar team to that detailed above as well as working with a wider group or community (e.g. school group/s, students, local community, professional network, etc).

Other Key Elements

Projects should take place during 2013, and should preferably be under way by August, to allow work-in-progress to be presented and discussed at the Imaging Natural Conference on 27 August 2013 at St Andrews University.

Collaborators will also be asked to reflect in writing on the experience of working in collaboration for inclusion on this website as well as the planned Imaging Natural Scotland publication. It is also hoped that participation by academic team members may generate academic papers for relevant academic journals.

How to Apply

An application form together will full funding guidelines is available on the Creative Scotland website. A series of information sessions for all applicants will take place across Scotland in March and April. Films of the sessions will also be made available on this site.

The deadline for applications is 5 pm on Monday 29 April 2013.

To stay up to date with the latest developments sign up for regular updates. You can also stay in touch through Twitter or by contacting us directly at admin@imaginingnaturalscotland.org.uk.

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