Our research unit is a vibrant multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary research community that's made up of 22 academic staff and 25 PhD candidates.
We work across the fields of music, drama, film and screen studies, computer games, and heritage and museum studies.
Our work is rooted in our unique cross–border and UK/Ireland context, connecting our region's distinctive experience with the broader international field.
Over the last two REF cycles our Research Impact has been judged to be at the very top of the UK field, with the unit being placed joint first in REF2021 and joint 2nd in REF2014.
Our research environment is now (as of REF2021) judged to be 100% 3*/4* ('internationally excellent' and 'world-leading), and our overall profile is 41% 4* 'world-leading', leading us to be ranked alongside many prominent research-intensive departments at other universities and in the conservatoire sector.
Current projects include the £72-million Studio Ulster Belfast Region City Deal project, providing Northern Ireland's hub in the URKI (AHRC) CoSTAR Network Lab, the £465k Presence Lab (funder NI Department for the Economy), and participating in Ulster's £457k+AHRC Impact Accelerator.
Recent projects led by this unit include the £13 million AHRC Creative Cluster, Future Screens NI, and the UKRI Covid Rapid Response project Museums, Crisis and Covid-19.
Research themes
We conduct discipline-specific and interdisciplinary research across a number of themes:
- Arts, Heritage, and Conflict - post–conflict arts, arts and reconciliation/conflict transformation, cultural heritage, arts practices engaging with cultural heritage, arts and protest movements.
- Applied Arts, Health and Disability - performance and health, applied drama, community/participatory music/music technology and disability)
- Creative Industries - arts and cultural heritage sectors in economic contexts; organisational cultures, creative technologies)
- Arts Practices and Practice-as-Research - from music theory and composition to dramaturgy, encompassing both practice–based and practice–led outputs as well as theoretical commentary.
Subject/Discipline teams
We also organise our research around discipline-based teams, including music, drama, film/screen, heritage and museum studies, and computer games.
Our studios and venues
Our staff are leading the £72 million Studio Ulster virtual production facility in Belfast Harbour, with a range of other studios and performance venues at our Belfast and Derry~Londonderry campuses; see facilities and infrastructure.
Our research profile and outputs
Since 2014 our researchers have produced over 130 peer–reviewed or equivalent practice–based outputs, including 8 monographs and edited collections, 25 major compositions and albums, and 97 journal articles, book chapters and published conference proceedings.
Staff members have also delivered keynotes and invited lecturers at universities including:
- the University of Otago
- University of Newcastle
- Royal Irish Academy of Music
- National University of Ireland, Galway
- Freie Universität Berlin
- Northwestern University
- Carnegie Mellon University
- The Chinese University of Hong Kong
Our partnerships
In addition to our collaborations across disciplines, we work in partnership with regional, national and international arts and cultural organisations including:
- BBC
- RTÉ
- National Museums Northern Ireland
- Irish Museums Assocation
- the Contemporary Music Centre (IE)
- Sound and Music (UK)
- Nesta
- the Abbey Theatre
- the Playhouse Theatre
- Cultúrlann uí Chanáin
- Void Gallery
- the Nerve Centre
- FabLab NI
- the Walled City Music Festival
- City of Derry Jazz Festival
- Imbolc International Arts Festival
We are represented on boards and working groups of these academic organisations:
- CineJ Cinema Journal
- ECREA: European Communication Research and Education Association
- IFTR: International Federation of Theatre Research
- Irish Humanities Alliance
- ISSTA: Irish Sound, Science and Technology Association
- ITYARN: International Theatre for Young Audiences Research Network
- Interference: a Journal of Audio Culture
- Journal of the Society for Musicology in Ireland
- TaPRA: Theatre and Performance Research Association
- Arts and Humanities Research Council Peer Review College
- EU Horizon 2020 Peer Review
Our PhD community
Our PhD programme is a key part of our research community. We currently have approximately 25 PhD researchers from the UK and Ireland, as well as the rest of Europe, the Americas, and Asia.
In our most recent Postgraduate Researcher Experience Survey (PRES 2019), we ranked top in the university for research culture (GPA of 4.08) and performed above the sector average in a range of measures. Ulster University ranked 8th across the UK, and 3rd for research culture.
At our Magee campus Candidates have access to office spaces, IT and performance/production facilities as well as wider university-level support through the Doctoral College.
We are a partner in the UK AHRC–funded Northern Bridge Consortium, in addition to running our own annual scholarship competition (deadlines generally in January/February each year).
See our unit-level information on the process of applying for the PhD, including advice on developing a research proposal and how to make initial contact with potential supervisors.