Leadership in New Music and Audio Technology (URF Grant, 2015–17)
As a result of a three-year grant from the University Research Fund (URF) at the University of Huddersfield, the Centre for Research in New Music initiated the Speculations in Sound International Research Network, bringing together a group of leading universities and institutes to carry out a high-profile programme of research collaboration. The network has supported opportunities for research exchange and partnership in various areas of new music, including composition, performance, music technology, improvisation, new sonic media, and musicology, including many of the projects outlined below.
The grant also enabled a series of key Creative Industry Partnerships, including projects with the Bozzini Quartet (Canada), Apartment House (UK), ELISION ensemble (Australia), the BlackBox Project, and the exclusive distribution partnership between CeReNeM's HCR CD label and NMC Recordings.
Sustainability in Strategic International Research Partnerships and establishment of the ‘Creative Coding Lab’ (URF Grant, 2016–20)
A follow-up to the 2015 URF grant, this University Research Fund award provided funding to create the Creative Coding Lab, which focuses on on software programming for creative purposes with projects covering applied psychoacoustics, 3D spatialisation, interactive analysis, and large database navigation and resynthesis, as well as a significant expansion of the Huddersfield Immersive Sound System (the HISS). Further funding has supported the continued staff exchanges of the Speculations in Sound international research network, support for the HCR industry partnership with NMC Records, and the development of new Creative Industry Partnerships with Ensemble Musikfabrik (Germany), Wet Ink (USA), and International Contemporary Ensemble (USA), plus partnerships with the Transit (Belgium) and Darmstadt (Germany) festivals for events connected to the Democracy in Music project.
Notable publications stemming from the grant include books/chapters with Oxford University Press (x2), Cambridge University Press (x3), Boydell & Brewer, Bloomsbury, and Routledge (x7); CDs with Kairos, Aeon, Neos, another timbre, emprientes DIGITALes, Winter & Winter, and SubRosa; articles in Organised Sound, Journal of the Royal Musical Association, Journal of the Audio Engineering Society, and in the proceedings of major international conferences (NIME, ICMC, AES, TCPM, RMA).
The two grants helped establish the infrastructure to support over £19m in external research grant applications, of which £6.4m was awarded, as well as numerous commissions, prizes, and awards for creative and practice-based work.
