FILMEU_RIT brings together four European Higher Education Institutions: UL - Lusófona University from Lisbon, Portugal; TLU/BFM - Tallinn University Baltic Film, Media and Arts School from Tallinn, Estonia; LUCA School of Arts from Brussels, Belgium; and IADT - Dún Laoghaire Institute of Art Design and Technology, from Dublin, Ireland. Together, these institutions collaborate around the common objective of jointly promoting high-level research, innovation and educational activities in the multidisciplinary field of Film and Media Arts and, through this collaboration, consolidate the central role of Europe as a world leader in the creative fields. These institutions, among four other HEIs, are jointly promoting the implementation of FILMEU – The European Universities Alliance for Film and Media Arts.
FilmEU_RIT involved the implementation of four TMs – Transformational Modules in view of ensuring the alliance R&I capacitation. The four implemented TMs were defined following the original indication for different TMs in the SwAfs H2020 call and are: [TM1] R&I RESOURCES AND STRATEGIC AGENDA brings together TMs “Developing a common R&I agenda” and “action plan & Sharing resources and infrastructures” indicated in the call; [TM2] IMPACT & ENGAGEMENT corresponds to TM “Engaging citizens and society” in the call; [TM3] TALENT corresponds to “Strengthening human capital” TM in the call; and [TM4] NETWORKING corresponds to TM “Exploring joint structures for common barriers and best practices” in the call.
The implementation of the transformational modules was designed across the Work program to ensure the Alliance's capacity-building through different transformations covering all selected domains.
Our transformational modules were conceived as a response to several challenges we identified:
A. the current status of film education in Europe, where film schools are traditionally tied to educational models of the conservatoires which are, for the most part, still distinct from the wider academia;
B. the current relatively “lower” status of artistic and practice-based research. The fact that artistic research is still a relatively young field contributes to greater difficulties in getting support and funding for research and a lower level of recognition of its impact and value.
C. lower levels of capacity at the Alliance level both in terms of trained and dedicated researchers and science management capacity among the partners
D. difficulty in acquiring funding for artistic and practice-based research.
Through the implementation of the four described TMs, the Alliance intended to increase its R&I capacitation and expand the uptake of artistic practice-based research in the Alliance and further on in Europe, which will in turn impact the creative sector and Europe’s positioning as a leader in this field, though responding to the Alliance’s more general objectives. FilmEU_RIT advanced this joint R&I agenda for artistic research. This involved enhancing capabilities, fostering collaborative structures to boost talent attraction, and amplifying the impact of the Alliance's research to improve its overall competitiveness.
