It is proposed to develop a genre studies network which will stimulate new debate across disciplinary, theoretical, methodological, and international boundaries via a series of six workshops. This project is conceived as a stepping stone towards developing the first UK Centre for Genre Studies. Since antiquity the concept of genre which was first developed by Plato and Aristotle has gone through numerous translations from one culture to another, one medium to another, or from one discipline to another. In the process of translation, genres can transform, mutate, adapt to new conditions. Sometimes it leads to the emergence of new genres which usually appear as a result of cross-fertilisation and hybridisation. However, the relevance of the concept has never disappeared and if anything it has grown, especially in the context of new media in which humans have to process information faster than ever before. Genre, as taxonomy, is a helpful tool for creating meaning and making sense out of reality. Hence, the notion of genre needs to be reviewed in light of recent technological developments and the advent of Twitter, facebook, the blogosphere and other media. Since the classic triad of genres was defined (epic, tragic, comedy), the number of genres has grown exponentially to include new literary, music, cinematic, television, media, and other genres. Genre is a fundamentally cross-disciplinary category, which needs to be studied with the help of disciplinary and inter-disciplinary approaches. The pilot workshop Genre in Contemporary Russian Culture, which was funded by CEELBAS and held at the Centre for Russian and East European Studies, the University of Birmingham (27 June 2011) has successfully demonstrated the fruitfulness of genre studies when applied to the study of one culture. The current project aims to extend genre studies approaches to European cultures. The six proposed workshops will focus on six main themes: theories of genre and methodologies applied to the study of genre, genre in translation, genre and new technologies, genre and gender, genre and the canons of representations, communicating the genre (the author, the text and the audience). All workshops will draw on the expertise of leading UK and international scholars from across the fields of modern foreign languages, literary, cultural, media, film and gender studies, the arts and visual culture. Academics will be encouraged to develop multidisciplinary approaches to genre in broader cultural contexts and to work in cooperation with practitioners who will contribute to discussion of genre at roundtables. To attract broader public interest, the series will be opened by the talk given by Sam Leith, an award-nominated UK writer and columnist, who, in his recent book You Talkin' to Me? Rhetoric from Aristotle to Obama (Profile Books, 2011) touches on the issues of genre in an enlightening and humorous fashion. The guest speaker at the last workshop will be the eminent Russian detective writer and translator Boris Akunin whose recent novel Quest was written in the new genre of an online book or a 'book-game', as the author calls it (see http://www.elkniga.ru/akunin/). The project will have a dedicated webpage which will promote all events organised as part of the project and provide links to other relevant activities. All project developments will also be disseminated via Twitter. Among other project outputs, there will be the selected podcasts of academic papers and talks given by guest speakers, a special issue on genre studies in an academic refereed journal, 'Notes for Teachers on Genre' disseminated via the webpage, and a conference paper written by the principal investigator and published on the project webpage. Among potential beneficiaries of the project there will be library professionals and readers (workshops 1,2,6), school teachers (1) and gallery professionals (5), translators (4), new media practitioners (3), and the Russian Diaspora (6).

The world of instrumental classical music is comparatively conservative in comparison to other areas of the creative arts where historical works are presented in a contemporary context. The notion of creative contemporary interpretations of a historical text has been explored much less widely in this realm than, for example, in that of Shakespearian theatre. One exception has been historically informed performance, the attempt to recreate musical performances as they would have sounded in the time of the composer of the work in question. This has, of course, been paralleled in London's Globe Theatre's productions of Shakespeare in all its Elizabethan splendour but there have also been numerous productions in modern dress, in radically reinterpreted settings, including multi-media presentations and effects and even in contemporary language. And, at the same time, recorded classical music has stuck to the notion of presenting the work from the perspective of an audience member in a concert hall. Indeed much of the sales rhetoric of classical recordings is framed in terms of realism: just like being in the auditorium. A recent example is that of 'dummy head' binaural recordings made in famous concert halls: experience the orchestral sound from 12th row centre at Vienna's Musikwerein. In the world of film and television, on the other hand, Shakespearian actors can be allowed to whisper and raise an eyebrow in close up or thunder across a battlefield in glorious Cinerama. Their performance techniques have adapted to the potential offered by editing, multiple takes, camera angles, CGI and special effects. This project seeks to redress that imbalance by utilising the creative non-linear editing, alternate performance practices, spatial staging and digital signal processing that have developed within popular music, to create radical re-interpretations of music from the classical repertoire: from Bach to Debussy. They will be developed through discussion, negotiation and collaborative creative practice between performers, recordists and music theorists. The aim is to highlight particular perspectives and features of the pieces that have been identified as salient by music theorists and to develop performance, production and processing strategies that illuminate them in recordings and technologically mediated performances. An additional dimension of the project is to utilise digital multi-media to both document and explain the creative processes involved and to put this output online as a proposed new template for practice-as-research publication. The notion of a research question in creative arts practice is a thorny one that frequently only becomes evident in retrospect but it is also often a collaborative and negotiated process which can be subject to a variety of interpretations. Presenting this process through video of the discussion and workflow, the use of video-recall for post-hoc analysis and multi-perspectival commentaries by the collaborative participants, allows this complex nature to be reflected in a published output. The same is true for the demonstration of tacit knowledge and other unique features of practice-as-research that are ill-suited to traditional text based publication. In addition to being an important contribution to research in classical music and record production, this practice-as-research digital online published output serves as an exemplar or a template for similar work in other areas of creative arts research. The last event in the project will therefore be a hybrid conference, part face to face and part online, in which academics from a range of practice-as-research backgrounds will come together to discuss the merits of this template and the contribution that it makes to the development of formal structures that would produce greater parity in funding applications and research 'excellence' assessments between practice-as-research outputs and traditional text based publications.

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BackgroundAs climate change, overpopulation, and inequalities take their toll on our planet and on global human development, Sustainability has become increasingly important for a prosperous and viable future. The UN defines Sustainable Development (SD) as development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. As such, SD calls for concerted efforts towards building an inclusive, sustainable and resilient future for people and planet by harmonizing economic growth, social inclusion and environmental protection. STEM has at this level, a huge role to play as it can provide answers to this crucial harmonization. For the past years, SD has been a significant element of the EU’s political agenda. In 2001, the EU established a SD Strategy and more recently was a major contributor to the UN’s 2030 Agenda for SD.One cannot talk about SD without highlighting the role of education. Education is central to efforts to develop and promote sustainable solutions for the developmental needs of both people and the planet (UN, 2013). Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) should be understood as an integral part of quality education and lifelong learning. All educational institutions ranging from preschool to tertiary education and including both non-formal and informal education should consider it their responsibility to address sustainable development and to foster the development of key cross-cutting competencies related to sustainability. (Issues and Trends in ESD, UN, 2018) As noted, ESD should start early in school (UN, 2018). It is in early childhood that children often experience the greatest environmental challenges, and it is a time when the foundations of many of their fundamental attitudes and values are established. We know from research and experience that even very young children are capable of sophisticated thinking in relation to socioenvironmental issues and that the earlier ESD ideas are introduced, the greater their impact and influence can be. In EU member states, SD tends to be covered at the higher levels of school education (EACEA, 2017). In primary school, in turn, ESD has generally been insufficiently addressed. It is common to find some SD related topics covered in class (e.g., environmental protection, waste), but rarely as part of a holistic approach.Project OutcomesIn response to this situation, the Colourful World project gathered 6 partners from the UK, Portugal, Poland and Greece, including a higher education institution, an education authority, schools and companies. The project has developed an innovative and playful pedagogy for Sustainable Development education for children (aged 6 to 10) which encourages their interest in STEM topics. This pedagogy is based around a computer learning game that the project has successfully devised, tested, and launched. This game, which is now freely available online, is for formal, non-formal and informal learning contexts. Available in all the languages of the project partners (English, Greek, Portuguese, Polish) the game is currently being played and enjoyed by young learners in several countries.Alongside the game, the project has produced a guide for educators to facilitate its use in learning contexts as well as a glossary of key terms to augment and refresh the knowledge base of participating educators. Like the game, these are freely available in all the project languages. Additionally, Colourful World has also delivered: project presentations to disseminate Colourful World and associated outcomes to target groups; pilot testing activities of the game and linked learning materials to validate them and capacitate educators on their use; publications and presentations about the project in a range of formats and settings, including peer-reviewed journals, conferences and symposia to spread awareness of Colourful World; a website and a Facebook page on Education for Sustainable Development with a repository of the materials produced in the project (and other relevant matter) that can be a meeting point for people involved or interested in the topic; a Sustainability Strategy presenting the guidelines for the ongoing exploitation and dissemination of the results of the project; contests which have engaged children and educators in the project and raised awareness of Sustainable Development; a project video to promote Colourful World.

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