In 2007 the Carnegie Trust for the Universities of Scotland awarded funding to a proposal initiated by Prof. Dina Iordanova (University of St. Andrews) and Prof. John Caughie, Dr. Dimitris Eleftheriotis, and Prof. Christine Geraghty (University of Glasgow) to support a five-year long project which will permit us to hold annual research conferences at several Scottish institutions in the course of five years (in places like Dundee, Edinburgh, Aberdeen, Glasgow,| Stirling, and St. Andrews). The conference series will operate as a pan-Scotland relay of specialised research conferences fostering further collaborations and pooling research expertise. Once regularised, the annual meetings of the Consortium will help in exchanging information on our most recent research and achievements. This would be the first most significant step to enable putting in place inter-institutional teams of researchers whose expertise would be pooled together to lead to robust research outputs. We also aim to develop cultural engagement with organisations outside immediate academia, such as the Edinburgh International Film Festival, Scottish Screen, or the DCA.

The Consortium’s interlocking activities allow us to capitalise on the international reputation of Film & Visual Studies and firmly establish Scotland as a recognised centre of excellence for research in the field. It's also our ambition to enhance the (already high) quality of research in Scottish universities and to foster a generation of emerging young scholars, who will make important contributions in shaping the future of the discipline.