Shape the Future of Audiences, AI, and Creative Technologies
Fully Funded PhD Studentships | Starting October 2026
ADAPT-AI is seeking passionate researchers and practitioners from diverse backgrounds to join our innovative doctoral training programme exploring how audiences experience and engage with creative technologies and artificial intelligence.
What is ADAPT-AI?
ADAPT-AI (Analysing and Diversifying Audience Participation with Creative Technologies & AI) is one of just ten AHRC-funded Doctoral Focal Awards in the UK. We’re training the next generation of leaders who will shape how audiences interact with immersive experiences – from VR and AR to AI-powered creative content.
Working with world-leading cultural venues including Serpentine Arts Technologies, Southbank Centre, Barbican Immersive and more, you’ll develop cutting-edge research skills alongside practical expertise in machine learning, extended reality, ethical audience analysis, and inclusive participation methods.
Why ADAPT-AI?
We value many paths to doctoral research. Whether you come from academic study, professional practice in creative industries, or have taken a non-traditional route to research – your unique perspective and experience are what we’re looking for.
You’ll join a consortium of three distinctive London institutions:
King’s College London – expertise in digital humanities and AI
London South Bank University– strengths in media production and community engagement
Guildhall School of Music & Drama– world-leading performance and creative practice
Plus, you will have access to cutting-edge facilities, millions of audience members annually through our partners, and a supportive community of researchers working at the intersection of creativity and technology.
Three Ways to Apply
Co-design your research with industry partners on pre-defined projects addressing real-world challenges.
Measuring Creative R&D, Audience Impact and Innovation in Art and Technology
Develop new frameworks for how arts organisations measure their R&D contributions to innovation – moving beyond simple visitor numbers to capture the full impact of creative-technology work on audiences and innovation ecosystems. Working with Serpentine’s Arts Technologies team, you’ll have direct access to groundbreaking projects at the intersection of art, AI, and emerging technologies.
Co-design your research with industry partners on pre-defined projects addressing real-world challenges.
Partner Organisations: Southbank Centre / V&A / National Gallery / Barbican Immersive / VIVE Arts
This challenge area reconceptualises public realm cultural spaces, from Southbank Centre’s 11-acre campus to V&A East’s urban context, as complex socio-technical interfaces requiring fundamental rethinking of how cultural institutions engage diverse communities. Moving beyond the traditional venue model, this research asks: what happens when the public realm itself becomes the platform for cultural experience? How do we understand “attendance,” “community,” and “engagement” in fluid, open environments where people move between leisure, distraction, cultural participation, and everyday urban life?
Research will conduct comprehensive international horizon scanning and literature review to map successful public realm cultural practices, investigating what infrastructure (physical, digital, social) is needed and what constitutes best practice in this under-theorised area. How can cultural institutions ethically and equitably use technology to engage people already present in cultural spaces for other reasons – as third spaces, thoroughfares, social destinations -without surveillance overreach or manipulative “penetration” of unwilling audiences?
Key questions include: Where are the boundaries between venue, platform, and interface in open environments? What can cultural institutions learn from existing social infrastructure? How might we avoid the “build it and they will come” fallacy, instead understanding what audiences actually want versus technically-driven “art of the possible”? Research will critically examine tensions between cultural campus models (Southbank Centre, V&A East, National Gallery’s new wing) and high street public realm, between capital infrastructure investments and adaptive space-making, between scalable participation and ethically-grounded co-creation. What are the disruptive models – mobile-enabled, hybrid physical-digital, durational, architecturally-integrated – that can shape future audiences across cultural producers of all scales?
This work requires developing new theoretical frameworks for understanding public realm as cultural interface, examining successful international case studies (Abandon Normal Devices, location-based immersive experiences, civic infrastructure integrations), and critically assessing issues of access, equity, commercialisation, and the relationship between cultural and civic infrastructure in service of genuine public good.
Partner Organisations: Target3D / VIVE Arts
This challenge area investigates how motion capture, computer vision, and AI can enable genuine co-creative dialogue between live performers, intelligent systems, and audiences in performance contexts. Moving beyond simple trigger-response interactions, how might AI systems interpret and respond meaningfully to both trained performers and audience participation, creating three-way conversations between human, machine, and spectator?
Research explores the aesthetics and ethics of AI as creative collaborator rather than tool, examining questions of agency, authorship, and the preservation of performer autonomy when working with responsive systems. How do performers and audiences experience and value AI-mediated interaction? What interaction paradigms enable meaningful participation while respecting different levels of ability, confidence, and desire to engage?
Research might also extend beyond the performance moment, considering how interaction may begin before and continue after the event through digital interfaces and evolving datasets, reframing the one-off cultural encounter as as a continuing ecology of exchange between human and machine memory. Drawing on practice-based research methodologies, embodied cognition theory, and performance studies, this work will develop through iterative creative residencies, generating both artistic outputs and theoretical frameworks for understanding human-machine collaboration in live performative contexts.
Partner Organisations: Target3D / VIVE Arts
This challenge area investigates how motion capture, computer vision, and AI can enable genuine co-creative dialogue between live performers, intelligent systems, and audiences in performance contexts. Moving beyond simple trigger-response interactions, how might AI systems interpret and respond meaningfully to both trained performers and audience participation, creating three-way conversations between human, machine, and spectator?
Research explores the aesthetics and ethics of AI as creative collaborator rather than tool, examining questions of agency, authorship, and the preservation of performer autonomy when working with responsive systems. How do performers and audiences experience and value AI-mediated interaction? What interaction paradigms enable meaningful participation while respecting different levels of ability, confidence, and desire to engage?
Research might also extend beyond the performance moment, considering how interaction may begin before and continue after the event through digital interfaces and evolving datasets, reframing the one-off cultural encounter as as a continuing ecology of exchange between human and machine memory. Drawing on practice-based research methodologies, embodied cognition theory, and performance studies, this work will develop through iterative creative residencies, generating both artistic outputs and theoretical frameworks for understanding human-machine collaboration in live performative contexts.
Partner Organisations: National Gallery / Serpentine Galleries / V&A / VIVE Arts / Target3D
This challenge area explores how game engines (Unity/Unreal) and XR technologies can extend museum reach to audiences unable or unwilling to access physical venues, developing production workflows and design patterns for creating high-quality virtual and hybrid cultural experiences.
How can real-time 3D, spatial audio, and interactive media create culturally meaningful digital experiences rather than poor substitutes for physical visits? What production pipelines, technical infrastructure, and institutional workflows enable sustainable creation and maintenance of virtual cultural content? Research addresses both craft questions: photogrammetry, 3D optimisation, cross-platform deployment, accessibility implementation, and critical questions about authenticity, the relationship between physical and virtual, and equitable access. How do different audiences (disability communities, geographically distant, digitally native, technologically excluded) experience and value virtual museums? What design patterns serve diverse needs including varied abilities, devices, bandwidth, and digital literacy?
This work develops technical production expertise alongside theoretical frameworks for understanding virtual cultural spaces, creating open resources that benefit the broader cultural sector.
Partner Organisations: Southbank Centre / Barbican Immersive / VIVE Arts / V&A
This challenge area investigates production methodologies and interaction design for creating scalable XR experiences that augment physical public cultural spaces—mobile AR, location-based MR, projection mapping—enabling large numbers of people to experience layered cultural content through accessible technologies. Rather than individual VR experiences, how can hybrid reality approaches create shared augmented experiences in public cultural venues?
What production workflows (WebXR, mobile AR frameworks, real-time content generation) enable sustainable creation and distribution? Research addresses the unique challenges of public realm XR: diverse technical capabilities, varied environmental conditions, designing for both individual and collective experience, accessibility across ages and abilities. How do audiences discover and engage with location-based cultural content? What interaction paradigms work for shared versus individual experiences?
Drawing on HCI, cultural geography, urban computing, and accessible design frameworks, this work develops cross-platform XR production skills while investigating how hybrid experiences can enhance rather than distract from physical cultural spaces and programming.
Partner Organisations: Serpentine Galleries / National Gallery
This challenge area addresses cultural institutions’ urgent need for ethical, transparent, and institution-controlled approaches to data infrastructure for responsible cultural stewardship in an era of AI and platform dominance. How can cultural organisations develop “full stack” digital sovereignty – controlling their data, audiences’ information, and technological choices – rather than depending on extractive commercial platforms? What alternative models (open-source systems, data cooperatives, federated approaches, digital twins) might provide autonomy while enabling data-driven innovation?
Research investigates policy, legal, technical, and organisational questions through environmental scanning, case study analysis, and participatory action research developing prototypes with partners. What are current vulnerabilities and dependencies? What regulatory frameworks support cultural digital sovereignty? How might collaborative approaches enable resource-sharing while preserving institutional autonomy? This work spans technical infrastructure understanding, data governance frameworks, policy analysis, and organisational change, developing practical guidance and policy recommendations for the cultural sector navigating increasingly complex digital landscapes.
Develop your own research idea aligned with ADAPT-AI’s three core themes
Our Three Research Themes
Audience Interfaces focuses on how creative technologies, including AI and XR, mediate the relationship between audiences, cultural content, and institutional spaces. This theme explores the systems, platforms, and socio-technical frameworks which audiences encounter and engage with arts and cultural experiences in both physical and digital realms.
Research under this theme investigates how technological interfaces shape audience attention and perception, enable the quantitative assessment of participation and engagement, facilitate access, and create new modes of cultural participation. Projects may explore (but are not limited to) attention and perception modelling in cultural contexts (including physiological and biometric engagement tracking but also wider studies of how culture is being experienced), data-driven audience analysis, responsive digital platforms, spatial computing in cultural venues, interface frictions with differently-abled bodies and novel interface design for diverse audience needs.
The theme draws upon critical frameworks from media studies, platform studies, digital humanities, HCI/UX and user-centered design, critical disability studies and cultural analytics, developing theoretical and methodological approaches to understanding technology-mediated cultural experiences. Research is underpinned by ethical considerations around data collection, privacy, algorithmic bias, and the responsibility of cultural institutions and venues in shaping technology-enabled audience experiences.
Audience Interaction focuses on novel participatory methods and co-creative practices enabled by creative technologies and AI in live, embodied, and performative contexts. This theme investigates how audiences move from passive engagement to active participation, examining the choreography of interaction between performers, events, artworks, audiences, and intelligent systems. Research might explore real-time responsive experiences, interactive performance, audience agency in immersive environments, and the blurring boundaries between creator and spectator.
Projects may investigate (but are not limited to) motion capture for audience-responsive performance, AI-driven adaptive narratives, participatory design methodologies, accessible interaction paradigms for neurodiverse audiences, embodied interaction in music, dance and theatre, or the ethics and aesthetics of audience behavioural influence.
Research might also extend beyond the performance moment, considering how interaction may begin before and continue after the event through digital interfaces and evolving datasets, reframing the one-off cultural encounter as as a continuing ecology of exchange between human and machine memory.The theme draws upon practice-based research methodologies from performing arts, choreography, live art, and interactive media, emphasising embodied knowledge and human-centred approaches to understanding participation. Research questions how interaction design can create meaningful cultural experiences while respecting audience autonomy and addressing power dynamics in participatory practice.
Audience Integration addresses how diverse communities can be meaningfully brought into cultural experiences through creative technologies, while exploring sustainable production workflows, curatorial and organisational models, and distribution strategies for immersive and AI-enhanced cultural content.
This theme examines barriers to cultural participation – social, economic, geographical, and technological – and investigates how advanced technologies including AI and ML, XR (VR/AR/MR), and game engines can bridge or sometimes inadvertently reinforce these divides. Projects may investigate (but are not limited to) AI or XR production for accessibility, community-centred co-production methodologies, game engine workflows for cultural content, technical production pipelines, AI literacy, public engagement models, measurement of social impact beyond attendance figures, policy frameworks for digital and cultural infrastructure, alternative legal or economic frameworks for project distribution, and hybrid physical-digital models for expanding cultural reach.
The theme emphasises the development of creative-technical production skills in service of equity and social justice, and sustainable approaches to cultural technology that serve public good rather than commercial interests alone.
Who Should Apply?
We welcome applications from people with:
– Academic qualifications in relevant fields (arts, humanities, creative practice, social sciences)
**or** significant professional experience in creative industries, technology, audience development, or related sectors
– A passion for understanding and diversifying audiences
– Interest in ethical and responsible use of creative technologies
– Commitment to inclusive research practices
We recognise that excellence comes in many forms. If you have deep professional expertise, creative practice experience, or have overcome barriers to reach this point – we want to hear from you.
Funding Package
Funding will be for 3.5 years (full time) or 7 years (part time).
Both UK and international applicants are eligible, and up to 30 per cent of studentships can be applied to international applicants.
– Full tuition fees covered
– Annual stipend (UKRI rate: £22,780 (incl LWA) full time for 2025/26)*
– Research training and support
– Access to state-of-the-art facilities
– Opportunities to attend conferences and workshops
* The CDA pathway attracts an additional £600 uplift to the stipend.
Please note: UK Visa and Health surcharges are not covered as part of the funding for international students
How to apply
Application deadline: 13 February 2026
Shortlisting will take place after applications close during February/March 2026
Interviews will take place during March 2026
Outcomes will be notified during April 2026
Start date: October 2026
Funding will start 1 October 2026. Term dates at each Higher Education Institution may differ – please refer to their website for details.
Step One: choose your pathway to access the appropriate application form:
CDA Application Form Independent Proposal Application Form Industry Challenge Application Form
To help with planning, you can download a PDF version here. Please note: only forms completed on the links above will be accepted – please do not email PDFs.
Step Three: apply via the formal admissions process at your selected Institution
King’s College London Guildhall School of Music & Drama London South Bank UniversityStep Four: Pay attention to the specific notes
To apply to King’s College London, please apply to the AHRC DFA ADAPT-AI: Analysing and Diversifying Audience Participation with Creative Technologies & AI Programme. Do not enter any supervisor details in your application. Enter the funding code: 2627ADAPT-AI.
To apply to Guildhall, please follow the instructions on the form.
To apply to London South Bank University, please apply to the ‘Arts and Creatives Industries PGR Programme‘. Do not enter any supervisor details in your application. Enter the funding code: ADAPT-AI-01.
Information Sessions
Upcoming
Wed 14 January 2026, 1-2.30pm – Collaborative Doctoral Award (CDA) (with King’s College London and Serpentine Galleries)
Mon 19 January 2026 · 1-2pm – Interaction (with Guildhall School of Music and Drama)
Tue 20 January 2026 · 1-2pm – Interfaces (with King’s College London)
Wed 21 January 2026 · 1-2pm – Integration (with London South Bank University)
Register via emailing adapt-dfa@kcl.ac.uk and clearly stating the session you would like to attend.
Our commitment
The ADAPT-AI Doctoral Focal Award studentship programme is committed to supporting students from ethnic backgrounds that are currently underrepresented in UK arts, culture and heritage occupations, particularly in leadership roles (as detailed in the UK Arts, Culture and Heritage Audiences and Workforce PEC report, May 2024). We also acknowledge this underrepresentation in postgraduate research in the UK and are committed to improving access and participation at this level.
5 studentship awards for October 2026 entry will be ringfenced to applicants from the ethnic backgrounds listed below. Applicants must be UK-permanent residents who are liable for fees at the home rate and identify as one of the following ethnic groups (as identified by the applicant in the Studentship Application Form):
Asian or Asian British (including Bangladeshi or Bangladeshi British, Chinese or Chinese British, Indian or Indian British, Pakistani or Pakistani British, any other Asian Background)
Black (including African or African British, Caribbean or Caribbean British, any other Black Background)
Mixed or Multiple Ethnic Groups (including White or White British and Asian or Asian British, White or White British and Black African or Black African British, White or White British and Black Caribbean or Black Caribbean British, any other Mixed or Multiple Ethnic Background)
Other* (including groups that do not fit into the above categories)
*Applicants will be asked to provide further details if this box is ticked.
Equality, diversity and inclusion is a priority for ADAPT-AI. We strongly welcome applications from a diverse range of career paths, backgrounds and all sections of the community who are underrepresented in postgraduate research, as well in the arts and creative industries.
Questions?
Contact the ADAPT-AI team at: adapt-dfa@kcl.ac.uk
