Three researchers from the Faculty of Humanities, Communication and Documentation at the Carlos III University of Madrid (UC3M), Jesús Bermejo, Michele Curnis and Ana Mejón, have been selected in the latest call for applications for the Ramón Areces Foundation's Digital Humanities Research Grants Program. The projects stand out for their use of disruptive technologies such as artificial intelligence, enriched digitization, and chronotope mapping to advance knowledge of the archaeology, history, and culture of the Castilian Middle Ages and the Spanish film industry, respectively.

Professor Jesús Bermejo Tirado, from the Department of Humanities: History, Geography and Art at UC3M, is leading a project developed in collaboration with several researchers from the Applied Artificial Intelligence Group (GIAA-UC3M), focused on developing a new protocol for the automated processing of images of archaeological ceramic works using Artificial Intelligence to achieve the automatic identification of their traces of use and production. This project, called TrAIces, will apply computer vision techniques, such as image segmentation and object recognition, using convolutional neural network architectures. The final technological result will be the creation of an automated model capable of analyzing large volumes of images and accurately recognizing traces of use, generating an open-source model for free use by the international scientific community.

Researcher Michele Curnis, also from the Department of Humanities: History, Geography, and Art, coordinates the project Aristotle and Alfonso X the Wise. Analysis and enriched digitization of Las Siete Partidas. The study explores the presence of the Aristotelian tradition in Las Siete Partidas, the most complex legal-social encyclopedia of the medieval period. The research suggests that the use of Aristotelian texts not only sought philosophical legitimacy, but also determined the conception of the monarchy and the guidelines for state administration under Alfonso X. One of the main milestones of the project, in fact, is to verify whether the ideas derived from a cultural heritage known as the “Aristotelian tradition” laid the foundations for the system of government of Alfonso X the Wise. With a view to transferring the results to society, the main objective is to create an Aristotelian-Alfonsine augmented reality repertoire containing the system of sources used in the 13th century for the drafting of Las Siete Partidas.

Ana Mejón, a researcher at the University Institute of Spanish Cinema (IUCE) at UC3M and the TECMERIN research group, is leading the Spanish Cinema Constellations project, which analyzes the transformation of the film industry driven by digitization and the emergence of new technologies in the 21st century. Researchers Asier Gil Vázquez and Rubén Romero Santos (IUCE-TECMERIN) are also participating in this project. The main objective is to redefine and map how the professional structure of contemporary cinema has changed in the face of the mutation of traditional job roles. The methodological innovation of the project lies in the application of the concept of “chronotope,” a tool that allows for a temporal and spatial representation of the different professionals in order to visualize their interconnections, overlaps, and relationships of dependency. The result of this project will be an interactive digital report designed to help interested groups and training centers adapt to the real needs of the current film labor market in Spain.

The main objective of the Ramón Areces Foundation's Humanities Research Grant Program is to promote the transfer of knowledge in disciplines such as history, philosophy, geography, and digital humanities, awarding grants to researchers under the age of 50 who work at Spanish universities or research centers. In its most recent edition, the Foundation has awarded a total of 24 grants in the area of Humanities, three of which have gone to researchers at UC3M, to be carried out between 2026 and 2028.