Work Packages

WP 1 Management and Coordination

This WP deals with the overall project management for the funding period, including different activities that establish teamwork, decision making, communications and collaboration, reporting, financial management and quality control.

WP 2 FilmEU Institutional and Staff Capacitation

FilmEU strategically positioned WP2 at the beginning of the project as a key WP whose main objective it to equally capacitate all partners in different domains central for the implementation of the future university.

The central tenet of the proposed pedagogical model is that artistic teaching and research has to be a practice-based endeavour that engages with societal problems with the intensive use of technological mediation. Considering this, our models build on the principles of design thinking, social constructivism and the Trinity Bridge 21 model, to propose a challenge-based model – the Samsara model – that combines a cross-disciplinary purview with team-based education rooted in project development.

WP 3 Curricula Design and Educational Development

This work package concerns the development of the educational component of FilmEU. This includes the core component of the harmonisation of the curricula of the degrees currently offered by the Alliance in order to allow for the implementation of the proposed Samsara model (WP2) and its embedded mobility (WP4) that is crucial for the implementation of the projected pedagogical strategies. This process will support FilmEU’s vision of developing and exploring pedagogical models for the creation of challenge-driven programmes that enhance mobility and allow for the transference of the artistic, critical and technical skills required for the implementation of inclusive, student-centred international programmes that: build strong connections with the industry; educate in a global setting; integrate critical, theoretical and historical components in the educational process; and adhere to the state of the art in technological terms, as FilmEU postulates.

Complementarily, the WP involves the preparation of a number of proposals for new Erasmus Mundus Joint Masters degrees and an international BA that will deepen the educational offer of the Alliance, increase its internationalisation and reinforce its sustainability.

WP 4 Future Mobility and Pedagogies

The FilmEU Alliance aims to identify and describe the existing types of mobility at each partner, their associated management models, HR capacities and IT systems used, and define the future mobility matrix based on the new types of Mobility to be implemented via the Samsara model. The effort to implement the mobility matrix and the new mobility model proposed for the Alliance needs to be built from a common ground.

Mobility becomes a norm and something intrinsic to the provision of education and research. Under the term “mobility” we understand all types of virtual, blended and physical mobility, whether it is short or long term, a mobility of a student, academic, non-academic, researcher or other staff member. Mobility is not an exchange anymore but rather a flow of activities and opportunities that participants will naturally experience. We will, in particular, stimulate forms of mobility attached to project development (Samsara model) and the intense use of technologies available in different campuses of the University (FilmEU HUB).

WP 5 Physical and Virtual Infrastructures

FilmEU will design and implement a digital and physical infrastructure to manage, support and facilitate learning and research across all the campuses of the University. This will be our shared campus – a cultural and creative hub for all those who have an interest in traditional film practices and increasingly in new and emerging disciplines at the intersection of film and technology.

This infrastructure is a key differentiating aspect of the European University since it materialises its positioning in the multidisciplinary field of artistic creation and experimentation, while reinforcing its international and cooperative dimensions. This hub is also a key driving element of the proposed Samsara model, since project development and associated mobility are dependent on the facilities and resources offered by this network of labs. We have named this network FilmEU HUB.

FilmEU HUB is composed of three interlinked layers of shared physical and virtual infrastructures:

A virtual repository and media management layer that will provide the Alliance with storage and media assets and metadata management services;
A VLE that will integrate three different components: a dedicated platform for LLL and internal training entitled Lusofona X based on the Edx framework and APIs; a dedicated implementation of Moodle supported by the existing implementations in the partner HEIs; and a number of virtual rooms for education and collaboration;
Four distinctive labs in each of the campuses of the Alliance as represented in the figure below, corresponding not to mere amalgamations of technology but to a collection of equipment, resources and facilities consistent with the future areas of innovation for the culture and creative industries recently identified in the EU report “100 radical innovations for the future”.

WP 6 Research and Innovation

Artistic research in Film and Media Arts is still developing and requires a boost to tackle the fragmentation of creative and cultural industries and their innovation capacity. We’ll create a new ecosystem for the current micro or small size companies to implement change, support the change in business models, increase market orientation, and expand the entrepreneurial mind-set. The outcomes are often intangible, and more knowledge is needed, particularly in IP management in the audiovisual industries.

Artistic Research is transdisciplinary and collaborates with media, social and cognitive sciences as well as with music and performing arts. Within this WP, research groups will be formed by the TF, led by supervisors from each HEI, to tackle the different topics in question.

A model for a joint PhD will be established focusing on how to combine creative, research and innovation skills in a ground-breaking manner. Fruitful dialogue between theory and film art is a starting point for the curriculum development. Working methods are planned to be agile, sustainable and iterative.

Collaboration with WP5 is a necessity, since research requires a state-of-the-art infrastructure. The future research areas will work closely with FilmEU HUB Labs. The joint doctoral school provides opportunities to develop European-wide research activities within the field of Film and Media Arts. The focus is on how to combine creative and research skills in an innovative manner, with mobility that enhances future co-production possibilities.

WP 7 FilmEU Joint Future Governance

This work package outlines the framework and processes that mark the journey to create an innovative governance and management model.

The management model to be designed must ensure the operationalisation of the Alliance’s mission -- creating a European University that is a model for European collaboration and integration in the fields of the Arts and the creative industries, greatly contributing to Europe’s leading role as a provider of education and research in the creative and artistic areas.

The envisioned governance and management model must be: relevant - empowering involved HEIs with adequate resources; participatory - allowing for equal participation from all stakeholders; transparent - in order to allow for clarity and accountability of decision-making; financially sustainable - with consideration to the different funding models participating HEIs have; engaging - by assuring active involvement from all parties; inclusive - ensuring that all groups participate; flexible - in order to instil adaptability in face of a changing environment; and responsible – by clearly assigning duties and addressing merits or flaws. This model must be implemented in a multicultural and international context.

WP 8 Digital Learning Services

FilmEU Alliance will define, design and implement the Digital Learning Ecosystem that will be used by FilmEU students, teachers, staff, and partners across the knowledge triangle to implement all of the activities of the Alliance and support the future activity of the European University.

WP 9 Quality Assurance

The main objective of this WP is to design and test an Accreditation system for FilmEU, creating a program that goes beyond the national approach while corresponding to the specificities of arts education and research. The development of a European accreditation process is something the Alliance is deeply committed to, namely because all of the Erasmus Mundus programmes the Alliance is promoting are also moving towards a common European Quality Assurance Framework and one of the programmes already concluded its international accreditation last year (Doc Nomads, 2019).

WP 10 Sustainability and Dissemination

Sustainability if the key aspect of the strategy of the Alliance and it’s with that in mind that we have designed this WP both as a sustainability and dissemination WP. The need to define the actions beyond the funding period implies we include in this WP a final toolkit that summarizes all the findings and results of the previous WPs in the form of a deliverable ready to be transferred and used for the implementation of the European University in the period after the funding. In our view, this also implies the defined model is fully accepted at all levels, both internally and externally. This is why we have designed a multi-layered dissemination strategy that will reach internal and external stakeholders in order to communicate the achievements of the Alliance but also engagement with its vision and proposals. Complementarily, we will from the beginning work towards a unified identity of the Alliance and this is why a common branding strategy is included in this WP.