University of the Arts Helsinki’s Kevin Skelton awarded Academy Research Fellowship funding
Visiting researcher Kevin Skelton at the Research Institute studies how higher arts education can better support collaboration and creativity across disciplines.
“Performers today are often required to work across different artistic disciplines and beyond the arts sector, yet universities still tend to train them within specialized disciplinary programmes.” Academy Research Fellow Kevin Skelton notes that this is the underlying premise for his research project titled Training Transdisciplinarity in Performing Arts Higher Education[SK1] [MH2] .
Focusing on the University of the Arts Helsinki’s three academies of music, theatre, and fine arts, the research will examine current study programmes, gather insights from students and teachers, test new course models, and establish an international working group dedicated to future work related to transdisciplinary pedagogy in higher arts education.
“The goal is to develop new ways of teaching and learning that prepare students for diverse, flexible careers. In this way, the project aims to contribute to a more collaborative and innovative arts education system in Finland and beyond.”
The Research Council of Finland (RCF) has selected 42 researchers in social sciences and humanities research to receive Academy Research Fellowship funding. Skelton received 662,277 euros for the period 2026–2030. The Scientific Council’s total funding comes to some 27 million euros for Academy Research Fellowships.
The total number of applications submitted to the Scientific Council increased substantially from last year, particularly in the case of applications for Academy Research Fellowships. The applicant success rate was around 10 per cent for Academy Research Fellowships.
The RCF’s Academy Research Fellowship funding is intended for early-career researchers on a fast career track who have formed international networks and who are conducting scientifically high-quality and high-impact research that contributes to scientific renewal.
In the Scientific Council’s view, the overall standard of the Academy Research Fellowship applications was high, and the best applications were of very high quality in many respects.
“The applications included new methods, topical societal issues, solution-oriented research approaches, and an aim to engage in dialogue and generate impact beyond the academic world,” the RCF states.