£11.2m grant to establish ground-breaking Migrant Futures Institute
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Transformational Oak Foundation gift will create unique research and education hub focused on migration, hope and collaboration.
This is a photo of refugees protesting at Victoria Square in Athens after the borders to the north of Greece were closed in February 2016. It was taken by Sumita Shah (Athens Volunteers Information and Co-ordination Group).
Goldsmiths has secured a landmark £11.2 million grant from Oak Foundation to establish the Migrant Futures Institute (MFI) — a bold new initiative dedicated to reimagining migration through the lenses of arts, humanities, and lived experience.
This grant represents the largest single philanthropic gift in Goldsmiths’ history and contributes to the growth of the university’s long-term endowment fund, supporting financial resilience and a sustainable model for socially engaged research and education.
A distinct and unique approach
Drawing upon Goldsmiths' rich legacy of academic excellence, creativity and commitment to social justice, the MFI will serve as a dynamic space for critical inquiry and collaboration. Our unique approach of working directly with migrants and refugees, as well as our UK and international partners will allow us to co-produce new knowledge and opportunities, challenge ways of thinking that create division and hostility, and help generate more hopeful futures for people who move, as well as the communities who host them.
The Migrant Futures Institute will be a research institute like no other — grounded in the deep creative and critical traditions of Goldsmiths, but also radically outward-looking and collaborative. This generous gift from Oak Foundation allows us to build something visionary and enduring — a space for new ideas, new solidarities, and new generations of socially engaged research and education.
Professor David Oswell, Deputy Vice-Chancellor and Chair of the MFI Delivery Board and the MFI Project.
On track to deliver
The journey to secure the grant has taken several years of development, visioning and negotiation, all steered and co-ordinated by our Development and Alumni Office. The MFI project is very much under way, with academic and professional staff from across the College involved and collaborating. Planning, recruitment and programme development are all progressing well in parallel with early-stage research activities and international partnerships.
The Institute’s formal launch is planned for next year, so watch this space for more news and how to get involved.
Find out more: Migrant Futures Institute (MFI) website