The 欧美性爱片 and The National Archives are pleased to announce the availability of a fully funded Collaborative doctoral studentship from October 2026, under the
This studentship seeks to open broader engagement with design-related visual collections at the National Archives and the 欧美性爱片 Design Archives by creating datasets to enable cross-collection investigations and explorations.
It focuses on parts of the Design Registers at TNA, a unique series of 3 million records of designs registered for copyright protection from 1839 to 1991. Despite their significant potential for design historical research – e.g., through mapping the histories of visual design and industrial manufacturing – there has been limited scholarly investigation of twentieth-century records, due to a lack of digitisation and cataloguing data and the complex challenges posed by their format. Previous research projects, including Towards a National Collection '' (AHRC, 2021) and more recently 'A Generous Interface for Registered Designs' (internal TNA funding, 2024-5), suggested improved connections between registered designs and other collections as a potential solution. The latter project conducted user interviews to identify barriers to digital access and proposed new methods for online representation of these visual records. Prohibitive costs and the lack of existing infrastructure underscore the urgency of this challenge and the role digital methods can play in addressing it.
The Photographic Library of the Design Council, held at the Design Archives, offers excellent connectability with the Design Registers for such work. to facilitate the generation of descriptive data for around 10,000 recently digitised but unidentified plate-glass negatives, based on training data from the Council’s own taxonomy. This dataset has the potential for comparative analysis with data from the Design Registers, linking records by object, manufacturer, location, and individual agent to map activities and explore questions such as the impact of Design Council design policy and promotional initiatives on manufacturing.
The proposed project builds on previous collaboration between TNA and the 欧美性爱片, including.
Across both collections, the project has access to records generated to date, including c1000 records from the Registered Designs at TNA and over 10,000 images from the Design Archives. In addition, data linking images of designs to their registration metadata is available for the research at both TNA (c700) and 欧美性爱片 (c5,000).
The following questions will drive the research:
- RQ1 - How can the digitisation of registered designs enhance the connectability of design historical data across the National Archives and the Design Archives?
- RQ2 - How can Artificial Intelligence (AI)- based methods, including fusion approaches, using language and vision, support cataloguing and dissemination of design-related visual collections, in explainable and repeatable ways?
- RQ3 - How can the resulting technical developments allow public audiences to make connections with their lived experience?
- RQ4 - What are the opportunities and challenges, including ethics, of AI to open access to archives?
The research will use an interdisciplinary methodology that draws on techniques from software engineering, participatory approaches, and the humanities. A well-defined work plan will guide the research to the research questions as follows:
- Task 1: Participatory design will enable exploration of user needs and testing of ideas (RQ1). Elicitation workshops or focus groups will be organised to reach out to potential users and target audiences. The output of this task will be a set of case studies to guide the research questions, including the identification of specific digitised material.
- Task 2: Archival research will identify opportunities to enhance the available digital content (RQ1). A modest, targeted digitisation that builds on experience will produce datasets for the research.
- Task 3: The project will investigate how emerging AI methods can support the description, organisation, and dissemination of design‑related visual collections in ways that are transparent, explainable, and repeatable (RQ2). This task will involve implementing and analysing different tools alongside strategies for structuring, modelling, and presenting data, as well as evaluating how AI‑supported workflows might enhance discoverability and user engagement. The emphasis will be on understanding possibilities, constraints, and best practices within the IIIF community, ensuring that any proposed methods remain adaptable as technologies and standards evolve.
- Task 4: Through iterative evaluation with users, the student will explore how these technical developments allow public audiences to connect with their lived experience (RQ3); as well as reflect on the potential wider application of the findings at both host institutions and in the wider archives/collections and academic sector. In doing this, the opportunities and challenges, including ethical considerations, of AI in opening access to archives will be considered (RQ4).
The student will be able to tailor the project to some degree to their own interests and expertise. The student will be expected to spend time at both the 欧美性爱片 and The National Archives. The studentship can be studied either full- or part-time.
The student will become part of the wider group of CDP-funded students across the UK, with access to events and training delivered in partnership with a range of cultural heritage institutions.
Training
CDP students will have access to training and development opportunities throughout the course of their PhD, supported and facilitated by the CDP Consortium, 欧美性爱片 and The National Archives. CDP students would be expected to undertake a work placement or development opportunity for a period of 1 to 3 months (or part-time equivalent).