Pathfinders

The Enact Pathfinders Programme

The Enact Pathfinders Programme is a key part of our co-design approach to establishing a practice research repository. It enables us to manage scope and underpins our scalable approach to ensure the delivery of the objectives of Enact. This involves the concept of ‘projects’ as case studies.

What does ‘project’ mean in the context of the Enact Pathfinder Programme? 

Any body of work that has thematic and/or methodological interconnections between the component parts (which are digital or could be digitised) that includes any materials created or collected that could be shared – such as the examples highlighted in the graph below.

We are interested in the files, the context and narrative, the types of contributors involved (which could include creators, collaborators and/or participants), the rights and/or licenses that might have already been applied and how any ethical approval has been recorded.

Digital research materials examples in a column graph based on the findings of the PR Voices project
Digital research materials graph from PR Voices Project findings presented by Holly Ranger at International Digital Curation Conference 2022 presentation slides available in Zenodo.

 

 

 

What might these individual components look like?

The PR Voices simple portfolio provides a starting point for a view of the components one might include to bring together the different elements.

The role of the Pathfinders within Enact? 

Becoming a Pathfinder enables participants to share their knowledge of creative practice and proactively contribute to the development of Enact. Enact Pathfinder project team representatives will actively participate in different components of the Enact: PR Voices and SPARKLE Phase 2 project. This will include:

    1. Bringing knowledge and/or experience of creating, collecting and or sharing creative practice research.
    2. Recognising both academic practice researchers and experts who work with practice researchers to help them to share their research process/outputs/data. These expert areas could include (but are not limited to) repositories, research data, curation, metadata, open standards, licensing, intellectual property, rights, copyright, research management or impact.
    3. Participating in workshops, focus groups, user acceptance testing of the Enact Repository Minimum Viable Product as it is built (Pilot and Early Adopter Pathfinders).
    4. Testing the Enact Repository out – as a companion to practice research as it takes place (all Pathfinders)
    5. Contributing to the creation of Enact documentation.
    6. Contributing to other parts of the programme such as the development of a skills and training programme.

What types of Pathfinders are there? 

Our Pathfinder Programme is comprised of three phases:

Phase 1: Enact Pathfinder Pilots (the Enact consortium) (2026)

Projects from the Enact team’s institutions are contributing to the development of the Enact licensing framework, the review of the PR Voices metadata schema and the build of the Enact: Core Repository minimum viable product, as well as providing input for documentation and the development of the training and skills programme.

Phase 2: Enact Pathfinder Early Adopters (2026)

The Early Adopter Pathfinders bring a project that has significant amounts of extant material that includes shareable assets, as well as access to the experiences of some of those who were involved with the project.

The six Early Adopter Pathfinders who are now helping to shape the next phase of the Enact Practice Research Data Service: Buckinghamshire New University, Manchester Metropolitan University, Middlesex University, the University of Leeds, the University of Nottingham Ningbo China and the London College of Music at the University of West London.

They are contributing to the review of  the PR Voices metadata schema and the build of the Enact: Core Repository minimum viable product, as well as providing input for documentation and the development of the training and skills programme. They will continue to contribute to varying degrees for the remainder of the project.

Phase 3: Enact Pathfinder Challengers (2027-2028)

Enact Pathfinder Challengers will bring fresh eyes to the Enact Repository. Their experience will see them use the Enact Repository alongside live projects, and work with the Enact team to help us understand (in real time) how they use the Enact Repository while they are undertaking their practice research. They will share materials and bring a mix of people who are contributing to their project.

Further information will be available on Phase 3 in September 2026.

 

See Holly Ranger. Working with a research community to identify barriers to reuse in practice research. International Digital Curation Conference 2022. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.6652239