Research and collaboration

The Museums team actively researches the collections and collaborates with academic Schools on research projects.

We showcase the groundbreaking research at the University of St Andrews through our exhibitions and programming. But we also support, collaborate on and lead research using our collections, audiences and expertise.

Everything we do is created by and with University staff and students.

If you have an idea – however well-formed or early-stage – and would like to work with the Museums team to develop it, then we want you to get in touch. The first stage in working with us is to complete the Note of Interest form (PDF)  

Wardlaw Museum: Research Studio

The Research Studio is a new kind of space, marking a new way that the Museums team is working. It is a space for curiosity and conversation, inspired by the spirit of enquiry that is at the heart of University research and teaching.

The Research Studio space will be flexible, and we encourage experimentation and prototyping, as well as creativity and the development of new ideas. Some exhibitions will begin their development in this space, and at other times there will be conversations and public events taking place here. Whatever it is, it won’t be the same thing twice.

Exhibit: digital storytelling

The museums of the University of St Andrews have developed an innovative new tool which enables anyone to access our digitised objects and to create interactive presentations.

Exhibit can be used for teaching, assessment, presenting research to a wider public and illustrating presentations.

Exhibit is easy to use and can be shared or embedded in PowerPoint, Moodle, Teams, WordPress and web pages. It can be shared with students or colleagues, who can annotate it or use it as a basis to create their own presentations. Find more information on how to use Exhibit on our collections pages.

AHRC research project: online teaching with digitised museum collections

Covid-19 has led to a rush by museums and collections to digitise and create digital content, in parallel with a dramatic shift to online and hybrid teaching and learning by universities.

By capturing case studies and good practice relating to online teaching and learning with digitised collections, we hope to offer much-needed support to museums and universities. 

Find out more on the online teaching with digitised museum collections page.

Dive In! Protecting Our Ocean

We are happy to share two documents that reveal our findings from the Dive In! project.

Our Dive In Case Study (PDF) summarises what the visitor evaluation of the exhibition revealed, in turn shedding light on how exhibitions can engage visitors around pro-environmental behaviours.

Our Dive In Interpretation Guide (PDF) offers thoughts as our learning from the project, and as a means of positive encouragement to other museum teams making exhibitions that seek to provoke behaviour change in their visitors, especially concerning climate change and other environmental campaigns.