Community Innovation Practitioners reveal results of UKRI inclusive innovation funding award
Published: 7 October 2024
The College of Arts & Humanities Partnership Catalyst was one of first five Community Innovation Practitioners funded by the AHRC pilot.
Community Innovation Practitioners reveal results of UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) inclusive innovation funding award.
AHRC Creative Communities is a £3.9m major research programme based at Northumbria University. It explores how co-created culture can enhance belonging, address regional inequality, deliver devolution, and break down barriers to opportunity for communities in devolved settings across all 4 nations of the UK.
Among the first Community Innovation Practitioners was The College of Arts & Humanities Partnership Catalyst's Gaston Welisch.
Mr Welisch said: "The CIP project enabled me to learn and grow as a researcher. I gained valuable skills in facilitation, co-creation, and reflexive analysis, and I deepened my understanding of place-based research methods. The insights and relationships developed through this project will inform my future work and professional development as a researcher, particularly in adopting more inclusive and participatory approaches to community innovation."
The opportunity to host a Community Innovation Practitioner in the College of Arts & Humanities for the last year has strengthened the already productive partnership UofG have with The Glasgow School of Art.
Gaston Welisch worked within the Arts and Humanities Partnership Catalyst (AHPCatalyst) programme assisting to develop better relationships with our stakeholders through the innovation of materials used within our workshops. In particular this greatly enhanced our recent place-based Catalyst with Govan Old. Gaston was jointly managed by Dr Fraser Rowan (KE & Innovation Manager, College of Arts & Humanities) and Dr Michael Pierre Johnson (Innovation Leadership Fellow in the Creative Economy,The School of Innovation and Technology, The Glasgow School of Art)
The programme's Community Innovation Practitioner (CIP) Awards 2023-24 awarded £290k to five CIPs across all the four nations of the UK to work with cross sector stakeholders and communities with the aim of generating new culture to enhance community cohesion. The programme is led by Northumbria University academics.
Over the last 12 months the five CIPs have worked with government, private, public and third sector partners to deliver new cultural research and development (R&D) aimed at enhancing local belonging and pride in place and opening new access to collaborative R&D.
Their new podcast series, case studies and devolved policy papers provide timely evidence on the value of cross-sector partnership working to deliver cultural innovation and community cohesion in devolved contexts.
Through podcasts, case studies and policy papers the CIPs profile the voices of communities that operate at the heart of innovation. These new publications capture vital new knowledge on the power of diverse partnerships, co-creation, and its potential to shape and sustain resilient communities as well as more inclusive models of innovation and R&D.
The CIP work ranges from the use of design-led tools to promote communication between arts and humanities academics and community partners (Gaston Welisch, University of Glasgow); the use of photography, poetry and drama to empower communities and break cycles of silence around trauma and substance use (Áine Brady, Queens University Belfast); the role of heritage sites in fostering sustainable development in de-industrialised regions (Alexander Langlands, Swansea University); the power of music to unite diverse communities in Liverpool (Georgina Aasgaard, University of Liverpool); and collaborative filmmaking with skateboard communities to reignite civic pride and identity in Portrush (Jim Donaghey, Ulster University).
The research also offers practical guidance for communities, academics, third and private sector organisations, and policymakers seeking to implement co-creation strategies to tackle challenges within their own communities and devolved contexts.
It has been announced today that the UKRI Creative Communities programme has been extended by AHRC to 2027 with an additional £1.7 million funding award.
The funds will be used to scale up the Community Innovation Practitioner (CIP) award for 2025/2026, doubling the number of opportunities for new CIPs. A call is now open for up to 10 Community Innovation Practitioners with the commitment to have at least one award in each of the four nations of the UK.
Executive Chair of AHRC Christopher Smith: "AHRC Creative Communities seeks to bring rigorous research and a principle of co-creation to building stronger local partnerships. The Community Innovation Practitioner award brings research and practical understanding together to make us all partners in developing the potential we have, to be better, creative and more fulfilled citizens. This scheme exemplifies AHRC’s commitment within UKRI to evidence-driven citizen science, underpinned by our strategy to Transform Tomorrow Together."
AHRC Creative Communities Programme Director Professor Katy Shaw said: "There has never been a more important time to focus on the key role that culture plays in catalysing community cohesion and a sense of belonging and pride in places up and down the UK. Our five Community Innovation Practitioners (CIPs) prove what is possible when the powers of devolution and culture come together to radically reimage who does research, how we share its findings and the spill over benefits of facilitating a more inclusive innovation ecosystem. R&D is a jewel in the crown of the UK. Our CIPs show that cross sector communities in all 4 nations are creating cutting edge cultural research that is truly by all, for all. We look forward to the next round of awards that launch today and encourage everyone to apply."
To mark the launch of the CIP research, the extension funding and the brand-new CIP award call, the AHRC Creative Communities team will be hosting a virtual CIP Showcase on Wednesday23 October 2024, 11am and an Expression of Interest webinar for potential applicants to the new funding award on Weds 13 November 2024, 11am. Full details and registration are available on the AHRC Creative Communities website.
The Arts and Humanities Partnership Catalyst
The Arts and Humanities Partnership Catalyst (AHPCatalyst) is a design-led and partner-driven Knowledge Exchange programme developed through a collaboration between the University of Glasgow and The Glasgow School of Art. It reverses typically academic-focused approaches to partnership and project development. It centres partner, audience, and community needs and uniquely enables stakeholders to collaborate to identify intersectoral challenges and opportunities towards the co-creation of SHAPE research-based solutions. Learn more here - Catalyst
First published: 7 October 2024