28 July 2017
Hawke EU Centre Directors, Professor Anthony Elliott and Professor Susan Luckman, have both been awarded research grants as part of the Erasmus+ Programme of the European Union. With over 1,000 applications received, only 30 applications were selected by The Education, Audiovisual and Culture Executive Agency (EACEA) for EU Partnership Instrument (PI) funding. Collectively valued at €116,703 ($171,281AUD), both projects are likely to commence in early 2018.
For more information about the research projects, see below.
Digital Technologies, Transformations and Skills: Robotics and EU Perceptions
Project Leader: Professor Anthony Elliott, Dean: External Engagement and Executive Director, Hawke EU Centre
Project Summary: The project focuses on perceptions of EU policy and investment in advancing digital technologies - specifically, robotics and artificial intelligence (AI) - and its impacts upon workplace change, educational retraining and new digital skills. The field of robotics and AI promises the most profound disruptive technological shift since the Industrial Revolution. The advent of supercomputers, intelligent machines, robots and algorithms ushers in a world for which much of the developed world is not prepared, and against which government policy and intervention - on regional and global levels - is increasingly vital.
Focussing on EU policy in key areas of technological innovation and employment changes the project centres on a suite of activities - workshops in 3 European regions and an international multidisciplinary conference in Australia – bringing EU and Australasian academics together with industry, business, policy makers and community stakeholders. Specifically, these activities will address: EU innovation and cohesion policies; the diversity of region-specific challenges and opportunities around robotics; AI technologies and the redefinition of digital skills; and, the importance of EU perceptions for effectively implementing policies aimed at the socially inclusive management of technological transitions. The relevance of European approaches for Australasia, and alignment of Australasian policy discourses with EU policy and investment will also be explored.
Creative Industries and the Digital Economy as Drivers of EU Integration and Innovation
Project Leader: Professor Susan Luckman, Associate Director: Research and Program, Hawke EU Centre and Professor: Cultural Studies
Project summary: Europe’s cultural and creative industries (CCIs) build upon strong foundations to be world leading, though these same histories of strength give rise to uneven participation patterns and thus differential levels of cultural and economic integration across the EU despite the opportunities afforded by the Digital Single Market. This project will develop, test, operationalise and disseminate policy, research and best practice informed educational materials designed specifically to prepare creative graduates in the EU, Australia, Russia and beyond for internationally-engaged careers in the cultural and creative industries (CCI), and the European CCI market in particular.
The project involves around 40 researchers and educators from UniSA, the EU and Russia. UniSA will host an academic workshop at Trinity College Dublin which brings together leading scholars of European creative work and digital economy. A key focus of this will be developing a set of guidelines for how EU-relevant business skills and personal competencies can be better embedded into university creative industries courses and programs within the EU, Australia and Russia. Then, working with our partners at the Copenhagen Business School, in the Match Tournament teams of UniSA undergraduate students, guided by academic and industry advisors, apply Entrepreneurial Discovery Processes and design thinking to address ‘real world’ governmental challenges. The winning UniSA team will fly to Copenhagen to participate in the EU roll-out of this innovative UniSA work-integrated learning framework.
