About the Project
Researchers flagged the benefits of having a forward-facing ‘living map’ of research interests, expertise and collaborations to support (re)connecting researchers and to invigorate research activity across the Humanities and Social Sciences, and potentially beyond.
This ‘living map’ aims to go beyond gathering taxonomic lists of research interests/topics by:
- using as an initial base extant data on publications and grants from the University’s Dimensions database (with permission from researchers and operationalised by the Research Information Office);
- layering on to this data which is gathered via a sophisticated bespoke survey in sumApp created with developers (Greater Than the Sum using Kumu Inc.) and co-designed by researchers, focusing on the next steps they wish to take to develop their research. Survey questions can be added/amended to best reflect the research environment as it unfolds and researchers can edit their responses at any time (it is not a one-off snapshot of data, incorporating instead future research ambitions built out from current and previous research activity);
- producing an evolving mapping tool which gives researchers agency in generating their own interactive maps according to their interests, using filters and key word searches. This will visualise and provide details of connections researchers can use to develop their networks, adding the qualitative benefits of social network mapping to links beyond lists and raw data.
