Creative citizen project launches with £1.4 Million award
Wednesday, February 22, 2012
Cardiff's Creative citizen research project will last 30 months
The School has been awarded £1.4 Million by the The Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) and the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) for its ‘Understanding the value of the creative citizen’ project led by Professor Ian Hargreaves.
Cardiff secured the award after bidding to become one of three University projects to share a £3.5 Million research fund titled the Connected Communities Programme.
The three projects will seek to understand the way communities and individual citizens contribute to the creative economy of the UK.
A Cardiff-based research team, including Dr Andy Williams and Glyn Mottershead, will work with Birmingham City University to examine hyper-local publishing groups, in partnership with Ofcom, the communications regulator, and Talk About Local, a leading player in the hyperlocal scene.
The two other strands in the research programme will look at community-led design and creative practitioner communities, exploring the value of their creativity to individuals and communities and how their potential is changed by the emergence of communications technologies which permit on-line social networking. These will be led from Birmingham University, University of the West of England, the Royal College of Art and the Open University.
Professor Hargreaves said "This award will allow us to work to understand the value of emerging forms of community news media alongside acts of creative citizenship in other areas, such as design, planning and clusters of artists. All of this is to be considered in the context of the strong growth in social networks and is aimed at achieving a better understanding of the UK's creative economy and its potential."
The 30 month project is expected to generate traditional academic outputs such as conferences, books and journal papers but will also support a range of public events, exhibitions and co-created media tools. Professor Hargreaves added “Our findings will be of value to policy-makers who need to better understand the scope for productive investment in the UK’s creative economy at the national and local level.”
To find out more about the project contact Professor Ian Hargreaves, Dr Williams, Glyn Mottershead or Research Executive Officer Julie Jewell.