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Social Science Research Park

Facilities

Take a look around the building.

We are designing a place for creativity and collaboration.

The Social Science Research Park (SPARK) is being developed as part of the University's £300m Innovation Campus on Maindy Road. It will form part of the Innovation Campus.

Collaboration

SPARK will be a communal space that removes barriers and promotes face-to-face interaction. Attractive and stimulating, it is designed to be a catalyst for change, inspiring the out-of-the-ordinary thinking we need for the complex challenges of our time. It will be a new resource, helping the University to engage with its community, governments, charities, businesses and the wider public.

The purpose-built facility will bring together world-leading researchers with practitioners, policy makers and other stakeholders. Promoting a collaborative and problem-focused approach, it will translate outstanding research into real world solutions.

Research

The facility will draw in new research partners to create opportunities for innovation and enterprise across diverse sectors and regions. Crucially, it will provide a facility that other leading UK and international institutes can access, creating further collaboration.

At the heart of SPARK is the idea of co-creation: people working together across disciplines and across professional boundaries to identify, study and solve some of the most pressing problems we face.

One of its key activities will be production prototypes and ideas that can be tested with citizens, consumers and end-users.

Researchers in SPARK will work with others to increase the impact and value of their research to society and improving public engagement with science, thereby boosting entrepreneurship, innovation and employment opportunities across all sectors.

spark will be a hub for interaction between the University and its partners.

Facilities

An environment for open dialogue, shared spaces will support SPARK's mission to promote inter-disciplinarity and the co-production of knowledge.

Facilities will include:

  • an exhibition area
  • high-quality catering
  • recreational spaces
  • visualisation lab

Alongside these will be labs for the study of computational social science, behaviour and innovation, as well as secure data facilities and flexible meeting rooms.

The building will act as a hub for social science research across the University, hosting our visitors and external research partners in a location perfect for creative events.

Find out more about the SPARK centres and groups.