RMIT University has received $5 million in funding to support a European Union program created to build advanced knowledge and skills in architecture, design and art.
The EU program, known as the Architecture, Design and Art Practice Training Research (ADAPT-r) international research training network, aims to "make important contributions to the EU’s goal of boosting research performance outcomes in these creative fields and creating greater mobility between countries".
RMIT University is the first Australian institution ever to receive funding to support a European Union program as non-European institutions are not generally eligible. However an exception can be made for an outside institution working with European partners, if this can be shown to be essential to the success of the activity.
The University will be working in partnership with the Catholic University of Leuven, Belgium; the University of Ljubljana, Slovenia; the Glasgow School of Art, Scotland; the Art School of Aarhus, Denmark; and the University of Westminster, United Kingdom.
RMIT’s contribution to ADAPT-r is built around its practice-based PhD program operating in Australia, Vietnam and Europe for students in fields including urban design, landscape architecture, fine art, and architecture.
“We are extremely pleased and proud to have been selected for this funding,” Professor Richard Blythe, Dean of RMIT’s School of Architecture and Design, said.
“This grant provides international recognition at the highest level for the innovative PhD training model, based in practice that has been developed at RMIT over a 25- year period under the leadership of Leon van Schaik. It is a tribute also to our good relationships with important European partner institutions.”
Each year in November a symposium will be hosted by RMIT at its premises in Barcelona Spain, which will bring together practitioners, many of them associated with the ADAPT-r grant, from across Europe.
The work began on 1 January this year and will continue over the next four years.
