With an investment of nearly £500,000 to catalyse place-based innovation across all 4 nations of the UK research ecosystem, the AHRC Creative Communities programme is extending its signature Community Innovation Practitioner (CIP) Awards for a new 2025-26 cohort.
Funding has been awarded to new CIPs across a spectrum of projects that represent the rich cross-sector community research and inclusive innovation that is catalysing growth in all 4 nations of the UK. The CIPs will capture the inspiring explosion of collaboration and connectivity that unlocks the full potential of our great arts and culture.
Between them, they will galvanise creativity in their regions: transforming empty retail spaces into creative hubs in Dundee; fostering reconciliation in Belfast through a co-created community art exhibition; strengthening community cohesion through craft in Rochdale; addressing cultural health and creating cultural planning across Kirklees; support cultural regeneration in Digbeth; and inspire new forms of collective storytelling in Cardiff.
AHRC Executive Chair Professor Christopher Smith said:
“Culture is crucial to the prosperity and wellbeing of communities, from ensuring children can develop creativity to driving growth across the UK. That’s why Government and local actors prize the role of arts and humanities research in community-based projects.
That’s why we launched the Creative Communities programme, to capitalise on the enormous opportunity to harness this potential to benefit places and people across the breadth of the UK.
So far, the programme has worked with more than 100 partners, generated a wealth of new knowledge and policy proposals, and created a successful podcast. I’m excited to see where this latest round of Community Innovation Practitioner Awards will take us.”
This major investment in innovative funding for cross-sector research partnerships will generate vital new knowledge about co-creation and the unique role played by their communities and partnerships in growth through new research, development and innovation (RD&I). Each CIP will work in their devolved policy context to explore how co-created cultural innovation can enhance belonging, address regional inequality, deliver devolution and break down barriers to opportunity.
Like the 2023-24 cohort, each CIP will produce a case study, policy paper and an episode of the Creative Communities podcast series to share learning from their community and cultural partners. Together, the CIPs form a Community of Practice network with the aim of fostering new relationships and sharing innovative practice.
The CIP Awards are a prototype for a more democratic and impactful means of co-creating knowledge, regarding community and cultural partners as equals in the research process.
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