The University of Glasgow will be leading a pilot project to look at optimising immersive technology in Scotland’s heritage and tourism sectors

The Scottish National Heritage Partnership pilot has been funded through a grant from the Arts & Humanities Research Council (AHRC) and the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) to find the next generation of immersive experiences.

Immersive technology, like virtual or augmented reality, is big news and is changing how the public interacts with content in their daily lives.

Today you can fly a jet plane without leaving your living room or go to a visitor attraction which will allow you to go back in time to experience a battle or “smell” the streets of a medieval city.

In Scotland, immersive technology has been put to use by the National Trust for Scotland at Bannockburn to allow visitors to take part in the battle.

Through immersive gaming you can become a general in one of Scotland’s most important battles, making the decision as to where troops should be places to see if you could have done a better job than the leaders on the day.

Heritage

The Scottish National Heritage Partnership has been funded at the University of Glasgow, with Professor Murray Pittock (Pro Vice-Principal (Special Projects)) as Principal Investigator and Professor Lorna Hughes (Humanities-Information Studies) and Dr Maria Economou (Hunterian-Information Studies) as Co-Investigators.

Dr Neil McDonnell, Lord Kelvin Adam Smith Fellow in Virtual and Augmented Reality is also engaged in the project, and the external partners are the National Library of Scotland, the National Trust for Scotland, Glasgow Museums and the Heritage section of Soluis Digital (www.soluis.com/heritage/), who were responsible for the Bronze Age roundhouse at the British Museum alongside other experiences.

The project will develop:

  • an evidence based market model for use with Scottish Government, VisitScotland, local tourist authorities and non-governmental agencies
  • a visualisation exploring the decision-making process and value chain of immersive implementation in heritage organisations 
  • a risk assessment of the blockers to successful development and exploitation of the findings in the creative and cultural economy. It will begin to create the infrastructure for optimal design and procurement in this area in support of the economic targets for tourist numbers in the Glasgow 2023 tourism strategy and in the economic planning of the Scottish Government.

The Scottish National Heritage Partnership is one of around 30 UK pilots have been funded,involving HE-industry partnerships.

In the Summer 2017, the AHRC and EPSRC launched a joint call for pilot funding projects to look at the next generation of immersive experience ahead of the launch of the UK Industrial Strategy in which Immersive Technology forms a key part of Audiences of the Future.

This is expected to be followed in 2018 by further funding opportunities linked to UK industrial strategy and the opportunities already being identified through the Immerse UK network.

First published: 9 January 2018

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