Scottish Fisheries Museum Receives Support for Digital Innovation

The Scottish Fisheries Museum is one of 14 museums across the UK to benefit from UK Research and Innovation and Arts and Humanities Research Council investment that will help shape the future of UK museums.

The UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) and the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) Digital Innovation and Engagement Fund is supporting museums to explore digital innovations such as bespoke video games and telepresence robot guides.

The Digital Innovation and Engagement Fund is a collaboration between UKRI-AHRC and The Museum’s Association.

A total of £600,000 will support 14 museums across the UK to kick-start, scale up, and evaluate the innovations they so adeptly designed through the Covid-19 pandemic.

Scottish Fisheries Museum – Fish Net

The photographic collection of the Scottish Fisheries Museum is a resource of national significance, chronicling the technological economic, social, and political development of the Scottish fishing industry from the later 19th century through to the present day. Using the power of digital connection, we will reveal the stories caught within our photographic collection. This 12-month project will crowd-source information and data to produce a newly digitised, publicly accessible, nationally significant archive.

Game changing initiatives

This has been an extraordinary period, one that has had, and will continue to have, significant long-term impacts on how museums function, their audiences and their role in society.

But the shifting habits of museum audiences has provided a catalyst for change in the sector not seen since World War Two. UKRI-AHRC will be supporting museums on this journey of change, innovating and testing approaches to deliver more diverse content to more people and to creatively explore and innovate for their audiences of the future.

Sharon Heal, Museums Association Director, said:

“The Digital Innovation and Engagement grants were a timely opportunity for museums to build on their creativity in engaging their communities during lockdown and to develop their skills in the digital space.”

Full details of the Digital Innovation and Engagement Fund recipients can be found at:

https://www.ukri.org/news/ukri-and-ahrc-investment-will-help-shape-the-future-of-uk-museums/