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Activity Funded

Centre for Research in Applied Communication, Culture and New Technologies

Centro de Investigação em Comunicação Aplicada, Cultura e Novas Tecnologias

Reference
UIDB/05260/2020
Project Start Date
2020-01-01
Project End Date
2024-12-31
Principal Investigator
Funding Program
Concurso de avaliação no âmbito do Programa Plurianual de Financiamento de Unidades de I&D (2017/2018) - Financiamento Base

Abstract

10.2 Summary in English for general dissemination purposes The Centre for Research in Applied Communication, Culture, and New Technologies (CICANT) results from the combined efforts of faculty of the School of Communication, Arts and Information Technologies at Lusófona University, towards the goal of creating a research unit that allows for the integration and harnessing of the research activities conducted within it. The unit is geared towards innovative and interdisciplinary research in the field of communication and media research, promoting theoretical and applied research in three main subject areas: Media Technologies and Literacies (MTL); Media, Society and Culture (MSC); Media Arts and Creative Industries (MACI). These three areas mark the confluence between the interests of theunit’s researchers, the areas of emphasis of the PhDs and master programmes the unit is involved in, and the areas of expertise of the Labs run by the unit. CICANT's main mission is to promote original and innovative theoretical and empirical knowledge in these areas while exploring the relations between media, society, arts and culture. CICANT strives for inter- and multi-disciplinary research and is committed to collaborations and partnerships with a wide array of organisations and publics. This degree of openness of the unit intends to reinforce its ability to design research that brings novelty and promotes new forms of approaching the challenges that the media pose today. The attention the unit has devoted to issues such as literacy, cultures of production and consumption, facets of social-cultural change, but also other areas where the media now have a definitive role, such as health or the creative industries, has the potential to produce outcomes with impact at different societal, economic and cultural levels. CICANT has five main sectorial areas of intervention: 1. Institutional development - via the reinforcement of the team; the consolidation of existing and new labs; the diversification of the sources of funding and the strengthening of the unit’s engagement with society and stakeholders; 2. Internationalization - by strengthening our relations with stakeholders in Lusophone countries and by keeping on promoting the active participation of the unit at an international level; 3. Impact and Dissemination - by striving for the use of both innovative and establish methods and theories with the intention of producing original research outcomes that will generate relevant societal impacts that can deepen the synergies between the social sciences and communication technologies, while contributing to new and effective responses in the field of societal challenges; 4. Education - by keeping on supporting our existing advanced training activities; 5. Engagement with industry and civic society - by deepening the collaboration with other academic and civic society partners in the country and implementing knowledge transfer mechanisms that can generate greater impact and stronger liaison with external stakeholder 10.3 Summary in English for evaluation The Centre for Research in Applied Communication, Culture, and New Technologies (CICANT) results from the combined efforts of faculty of the School of Communication, Arts and Information Technologies at Lusófona University, towards the goal of creating a research unit that allows for the integration and harnessing of the research activities conducted within it. The unit is geared towards innovative and interdisciplinary research in the field of communication and media research, promoting theoretical and applied research in three main subject areas: Media Technologies and Literacies (MTL); Media, Society and Culture (MSC); Media Arts and Creative Industries (MACI). These three areas mark the confluence between the interests of the unit's researchers, the areas of emphasis of the PhDs and master programmes the unit is involved in, and the areas of expertise of the Labs run by the unit. In the 2018-2022 time period, CICANT aims to reinforce its national and international profile via the articulation of the research efforts of its team around these core areas. The intertwined grid of problems that are inherent to these concepts allow for research both in applied and in theoretical domains. CICANT assumes that applied research is only fully meaningful when a strong conceptual framework contextualizes it. The focus on these three core areas allows CICANT to continue its effort of bridging theoretical and applied research in the fields of media and communication research, despite being a small unit,. CICANT main mission is to promote original and innovative theoretical and empirical knowledge in these areas while exploring the relations between media, society, arts and culture. CICANT strives for inter- and multi-disciplinary research and is committed to collaborations and partnerships with a wide array of organisations and publics. This degree of openness of the unit intends to reinforce its ability to design research that brings novelty and promotes new forms of approaching the challenges that the media pose today. We do not see our research as an effort to work in a niche, but as a creative process that can bring forth novelty as well as contribute to explore mainstream problems in communication. Our team is young, but proactive and resilient, having already shown potential in dealing with core knowledge in a creative manner. The attention the unit has devoted to issues such as literacy, cultures of production and consumption, facets of social-cultural change, but also other areas where the media now have a definitive role, such as health or the creative industries, has the potential to produce outcomes with impacts at different levels: i)societal: CICANT’s vision is aligned with the European Directives of the H2020 2018-2020 programme, namely as concerns the focus on specific societal challenges; ii)internationalization: CICANT profits from a wide network that integrates many international partners and specifically targets partnerships with the Lusophone countries; iii) content and applications – a significant part of the research produced at CICANT involves the actual development and production of content and applications that is later disseminated at different levels. Many of these activities involve practice-based research, which is still somewhat of a novelty in this field. The design of our institution is divided in five main sectorial areas of intervention: 1. Institutional development - via the attraction of young and senior researchers to an innovative and scientifically challenging unit; development of existing and new labs; consolidation of the dimension and productivity of the group; the diversification of the unit’s activity and funding, namely via the promotion of new projects that address the challenges coming from visual culture, new social languages and participatory cultures; and the allocation of human and laboratorial resources in accordance with the needs of each project while ensuring its successful completion; 2. Internationalization - by strengthening our relations with stakeholders in Lusophone countries and by keeping on promoting the active participation of the unit at an international level, namely by reinforcing existing collaborations with international organizations (ECREA, CILECT, ICA IAMCR) and participation in international projects; 3. Impact and Dissemination - by striving for the use of both innovative and established methods and theories that pull together strengths in both quantitative methods and qualitative research, always with the intention of producing original research outcomes that generate relevant societal impacts that can deepen the synergies between the social sciences and communication technologies, though contributing to new and effective responses in the field of societal challenges and addressing the need to ensure the articulation and impact of all projects and initiatives developed in relation with CICANT’s three core subject areas; 4. Education - by keeping on supporting existing advanced training activities, though assuring the coordination and strengthening of all research activities conducted in the context of post-graduation and doctoral education; 5. Engagement with industry and civic society - by deepening the collaboration with other academic and civic society partners to reinforce collaborative research in Portugal; implementing knowledge transfer mechanisms that can generate greater impact and stronger liaison with external stakeholders based on the outcomes of projects carried out under the subject areas mentioned above, namely in view of producing recommendations on media related developments that can contribute to the reinforcement of inclusion and participation, while addressing the need to promote the unit’s engagement with civic society and industry. The focus is on knowledge and technology transfer and the pursuit of novel cooperation models with different stakeholders in the cultural and creative industries.

Institutions

Main Institutions

  • Universidade Lusófona de Humanidades e Tecnologias Centro de Investigação em Comunicação Aplicada Cultura e Novas Tecnologias (ULHT CICANT)
  • COFAC, Cooperativa de Formação e Animação Cultural, CRL (COFAC)

Funding 499.100,00 €

Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT) - Portugal

499.100,00 €