What will the programme involve?

Who can apply?

How to apply?

What should the case for support include?

How we will assess your application?

Information webinars

More information about DISKAH

Discuss project ideas

Contacts

The DISKAH (Digital Skills for Arts and Humanities) network aims to build capacity amongst Arts and Humanities (A&H) researchers in the use of state-of-the-art national Digital Research Infrastructure (DRI) to foster innovation and collaboration. 

What will the programme involve?

The DISKAH one-year long fellowships provide an opportunity to broaden engagement with large-scale computational methods via state-of-the-art national digital research infrastructure to support A&H research. DISKAH Fellows will gain access to resources and networks to develop their projects, build capacity, co-design training for A&H, as well as contributing to the DISKAH network.   

A key aspect of the fellowships is the hands-on deployment and testing of research software by accessing large-scale computing infrastructure to scale up existing software and/or create new ones to address larger or more complex datasets. Through these efforts, the Fellows will develop exemplary use-cases for DRI in A&H and deliver training for wider capacity building within their institutions and communities. The programme of work is as follows: 

Dates	Activity	Location
29-30 April 2025	2-day introductory and co-design workshop	Brighton
May-June 2025	Access and onboarding to DRI	Remote
1-4 July 2025	4-day training workshop in DRI for research	London
July – December 2025	Independent deployment and testing of research software in DRI	Remote
January 2026 – March 2026	Dissemination and training of research community/ies	Face to face at various institutions

As paid fellowships, DISKAH Fellows are expected to commit up to 165 hours to the programme, including at least 60 hours for independent hands-on experimentation utilising DRI. Fellows will also be expected to co-design the DISKAH curriculum. Training workshops will support Fellows with relevant technical and non-technical skills, including communicating research through academic and non-academic outputs. Fellows are not required to have had prior experience with High-Performance Computing (HPC) but should have some experience creating or contributing to software that supports research.

The Fellowships will run between April 2025 and March 2026 and successful applicants are expected to commit 165 hours in this time. A flat rate of £6,500 will be provided to fellows’ institutions during the programme. Additional funding is available to attend the programme activities, including network workshops, events and/or activities.

Expected Outcomes

Fellows are expected to develop an independent piece of work utilising DRI to produce an exemplary use-case for DRI; as well as lead the delivery of one face-to-face training event between January and March 2026 within their network or community/ies. This event will be an opportunity for them to share the knowledge and skills they have developed during the programme.  

Additionally, they might further disseminate their use-case for DRI in A&H to build capacity in the community. For example, via training materials (e.g. Carpentries-style), digital research outputs (e.g. Programming Historian, research paper), blog posts, datasets, and/or software prototypes. Fellows are expected to make these outputs, including software and datasets, findable, accessible, interoperable, and reusable (FAIR). 

Fellows will be invited to showcase their programme of work at a network DISKAH event towards the end of the project.

Go back

Who can apply?

The DISKAH Fellowships are open to research technical professionals (RTPs) and researchers from A&H-related disciplines affiliated with a Higher Education Institution (HEI) or AHRC-recognised Independent Research Organisation (IRO) in the Arts and Humanities in the UK.   

Applicants are expected to: 

• Be affiliated with a Higher Education Institution (HEI) or an Independent Research Organisation (IRO) in the Arts and Humanities in the UK. The affiliated institution or organisation must have agreed to the applicant’s participation for the DISKAH programme, including time buy-out.  
• Be resident, eligible to work and able to receive payment within the UK. 
• Lead or enable the delivery of research outputs and impact from research, for example as a PhD candidate, an Early Career Researcher (ECR), an established researcher or a Research Technical Professional (RTP). 
• Have some experience creating or contributing to research software. 
• Commit to spend 165 hours from April 2025 to March 2026 in the DISKAH Fellowship Programme. This is equivalent to a time allocation of 10% of Full Time Employment (FTE). 

We are committed to equity, diversity and inclusion and are especially keen to attract a diverse applicant pool, and strongly welcome applications from under-represented groups in research, computing, and digital skills, such as Black, Asian, ethnic, and/or national minorities, women, those with disabilities/disabled people, neurodivergent people, and/or those in the LGBTQIA+ community. Please contact us directly if you would like to discuss any accessibility requirements for your application or application process. 

Go back

How to apply?

To submit an application, use the following form: https://survey.chws.brighton.domains/index.php/987845

Deadline: 3rd of March 2025, 16:00 (GMT). 

A FAQ is also available to help applicants with any questions they might have.

The application’s questions can be found in this document.

Your application includes three components: 

• A 2000-word case for support.
• A letter of support from your home institution or independent research organisation to confirm their support for your involvement in the DISKAH Programme.  
• An updated CV (up to 4 pages long).

Go back

What should the case for support include?

Your 2000 words case for support should be structured around the following areas:   

Proposed Project 

• What do you hope to accomplish through this fellowship programme? For example, what are your research questions, what are the research workflow challenges that you are trying to address?  
• What approaches do you currently use and why they are important for your research and/or the research you support?   
• How will computational access (e.g. for HPC and DRI resources and training) inform or transform these approaches? 
• What existing research software and datasets are already available? Please also include information about the DRI/HPC services that you might have been using or intend to use within your project. Describe other relevant open research and open access practices if applicable. 

Impact and Personal Statement 

• Why do you want to become a DISKAH fellow, and how do you think it will benefit you?   
• Which wider networks do you currently have which might benefit from capacity building, such as access to research software and training, through your fellowship? 

The applicant does not need to demonstrate proficiency in software development and no prior experience of digital research infrastructure is needed. The application should clearly identify the candidate’s strengths and readiness to engage with these skills and infrastructures. This will allow us to identify training requirements.

Go back

How will we assess your application? 

A panel will assess and score applications according to the following criteria (each criterion will be scored between 0 and 5): 

• Proposed Project:
  • Quality of the proposed work including underlying concepts, existing research software and datasets.
  • Pertinence of the approaches to benefit from the capabilities of large scale computing infrastructure.
  • Potential for the proposed project to develop one exemplary use-case for DRI in A&H. 
• Impact and Personal statement:
  • Quality of the applicant’s track record.
  • Extent to which the wider networks will benefit from capacity building through the fellowship. 
  • Readiness to engage with large scale computing infrastructures.

We aim to complete the assessment process within 4 weeks of receiving your application. Feedback will also be shared with the applicants. 

Go back

Information webinars

For those interested in the programme and application process, the dates are as follows: 

• 12^th of February at 1 pm (GMT) – Register here

• 26^th of February at 10 am (GMT)  – Register here

The webinars won’t be recorded, but we will make the slides available, and we will update the FAQ file after both webinars. 

For any enquiries about the webinars, please get in touch with Dr. Myrsini Samaroudi: M.Samaroudi3@brighton.ac.uk. 

Go back

More information about DISKAH 

The DISKAH (DIgital SKills for Arts and Humanities) is a network initiated through a collaboration between the University of Brighton, Durham University, the University of the Arts London, and the University of Exeter, N8 Centre of Excellence in Computationally Intensive Research (N8 CIR), King’s Digital Lab, UCL’s Centre for Advanced Research and the European Digital Research Infrastructure for the Arts and Humanities (DARIAH). The network will expand via the fellowship scheme by supporting researchers to access and co-develop a UK-wide training program to enhance computational and data literacy as well as engage with cutting-edge Digital Research Infrastructures (DRI). 

Go back

Discuss project ideas 

If you need to discuss project ideas, you can book a 30 minute slot with DISKAH’s PI, Dr Karina Rodriguez Echavarria here: https://calendly.com/k-rodriguez-brighton/30min

Contacts 

If you would like further information about the programme or the project, please contact:

Dr. Karina Rodriguez Echavarria,
Reader and DISKAH Project Lead,
email: K.Rodriguez@brighton.ac.uk 

Dr. Myrsini Samaroudi,
DISKAH Research Fellow,
email: M.Samaroudi3@brighton.ac.uk 

Go back