The Centre of Excellence in European Intellectual Property and Information Rights of Bournemouth University (UK) was established with the aim of giving support, visibility, and enhanced impact to a series of academic activities in crucial areas of European integration such as Copyright and related rights, Industrial property, Privacy, Data protection, Freedom of expression and Access to information. The supported activities involved teaching and research, staff exchange, publications, delivery of web resources and organization of seminars, public lectures and conferences.The areas covered by the Centre of Excellence are currently subject of intense policy debate at EU level, as new key legislation came into force during the project’s implementation period: most notably the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), the Unitary Patent (still pending) and the new Directive on Copyright in the Digital Single Market. The Centre contributed to the policy debate in these areas by serving as a catalyst for international research. Additionally, the Centre responded to the challenges and public controversies raised by the Covid-19 pandemic, such as those surrounding intellectual property and access to medicines, by incorporating these themes in its research agenda.The activities delivered by the Centre of Excellence can be grouped into four streams:TEACHING: design and delivery of undergraduate and postgraduate programmes, as well as short courses and workshops addressed to professionals, industry, creators, non-law students and cultural heritage institutions.RESEARCH: implementation of collaborative research projects on subjects of legal regulation of internet platforms, artificial intelligence and fundamental users’ rights. This research was consolidated in a series of working papers, publications and public engagement activities.EVENTS: conferences, workshops, public lectures and seminars targeted to academics, policy-makers and civil society. Global engagement was also achieved through a scheme of visiting fellowship, which brought scholars from all over the world to work at Bournemouth University for up to four months.OUTPUTS: publication of edited books, working papers and dedicated online resources.Furthermore, the Centre has co-funded a PhD Studentship in European intellectual property law and Artificial Intelligence at Bournemouth University, starting in September 2019.

This is a higher education student and staff mobility project, please consult the website of the organisation to obtain additional details.

The aim of the WATCH project is to model the organisation of territories, economic and political connections, and social hierarchies promoted and sustained by maritime connections across and around the English Channel during the early Bronze Age (EBA). This study is crucial to understand how communities living in the Channel coastlands became interdependent at a time when trade in tin and copper was strenghtening the foundations for an extensive prehistoric European union. Central to the project is the study of burials within their human, social, and natural environments using Geographical Information System (GIS) analysis. The project is interdisciplinary, rooted in archaeology but borrowing concepts, methods, and data from geography and environmental sciences. This project will enable the fellow to achieve the research and transferable skills, which will allow him to become a mature independent researcher and international expert of the EBA northwestern Europe. The fellow will be able to apply the most up-to-date GIS skillset to different problems in the field of prehistoric archaeology, which will extend an exciting research career. This project offers the opportunity to the fellow to conduct innovative research and transnational mobility while providing benefits for the European Research Area, the Bournemouth University, the supervisor, the partner organisation and the fellow. This project will allow the fellow to develop a research agenda that will lead to a range of research and consultancy projects with European academic and non-academic institutions for the better understanding of EBA societies and cross-Channel relationships, thus enhancing research excellence and addressing recognized research questions in Europe, and beyond. Finally, the fellow aims to offer civil society the demonstration of how and why both sides of the Channel became socially and economically interdependent in the past is relevant to considering the future of our societies.

Fluid simulation is a challenging and dynamic research area in computer graphics and animation community, which are in line with the practical demands of the visual effects and computer animation industry for high quality images. Methods offering fine fluid details, controllable art design, phase transition and diffusion phenomena are valuable for the industry. MultiFluid will develop a multilevel theory and hybrid solution with tools to provide a coherent multi-level enhancement to refine the fluid details and offer user-friendly controls in animation. Within this framework, it will develop a multi-phase interaction and phase-transition model to consider complex physics beyond the state of the art, which aims to create realistic images for computer animation and visual effects production. MultiFluid is designed to resolve the mismatch in digital creation. It aims to advance knowledge in physically-based modelling and fluid dynamics with a distinctive unified theoretical framework to incorporate new mathematical understanding in particle-grid based numerical simulation, which tackles computer animation production with priority but also bring new knowledge into fluid simulation with a new numerical approach and tools. This multidisciplinary research is ambitious and revolutionary to combine competencies from fluid mechanics and animation artists to benefit stakeholders directly and generate impact. The fellowship will help the ER to develop his new capacity in multiple disciplines, esp. in fluid simulation and computer animation and open new career opportunities. Knowledge Transfer will happen among the fellow, the supervisors and stake holders to forge innovative development to answer the challenges. The investment is timely and necessary with sizable return in economic growth to address EU ICT research strategy on boosting digital contents generation and support industry competitiveness with innovative ICT development for visual effects and computer animation.