Research Ireland and the UKRI Arts Humanities Research Council (AHRC) jointly hosted a scoping workshop in Birmingham with the aim of identifying new opportunities for interdisciplinary bilateral collaboration in research in the creative industries. Both the UK and Ireland have significant strengths across the creative industries and have invested in arts and humanities research that supports the creative skills and creative economy.
The scoping workshop brings together UK and Irish stakeholders with an interest and experience in research into the creative industries, creative skills and capacity building and creative communities in the UK and Ireland. The workshop sought expert views on research themes within these areas, aiming to collate evidence of research undertaken to date in these areas and provide an opportunity to reflect on possible funding mechanisms that could address the research gaps identified.
Building on the success of the UK-Ireland collaboration in the digital humanities programme, the scoping workshop is the first step in realising AHRC’s and Research Ireland’s aim to collaborate on a new initiative that will deliver a transformational impact on creative industries research across and between the UK and Ireland. The workshop is the first step in developing a pathway to a programme that will exploit complementary areas of excellence in the creative industries in both countries, with a view to new and sustainable collaborations and strengthening of world-class research capacity across UK and Irish creative research institutions.
Both Research Ireland and the AHRC are committed to strengthening creative industries research within their respective countries. In the UK, the AHRC has committed at least £50m for at least six new Round 2 Creative Industries clusters. There is strong alignment between AHRC’s creative industries priorities and those identified within the Government of Ireland’s Digital Creative Industries Roadmap for 2024-2026, focused on enabling smart specialisation, clustering and place-based approaches to the development of the design, digital games and content creation industries. The UK-Ireland Creative Industries research collaboration aims to build on these strengths and both countries’ commitment to place-based innovation with an aspiration to develop new and sustainable creative research initiative in the coming years.
Over 60 participants were welcomed by Peter Brown, Director of Researcher Development, Research Ireland and Professor Christopher Smith, AHRC Executive Chair.
Professor Christopher Smith said:
“Building on the success of the UK-Ireland collaboration in the Digital Humanities research programme, AHRC are excited to host Research Ireland and UK and Irish stakeholders as part of the first steps towards new and stronger collaborations.
“Both countries have growing strengths in the creative industries, shared policy goals related to the creative economy and active arts and humanities research communities.
“We look forward to developing new activities which emerge from this workshop and wider scoping activities, imagine investments that will benefit the creative industries and drive synergies across science and responsible growth for our societies, and continue the close arts and humanities research and innovation collaboration between the UK and Ireland.”
Peter Brown commented:
“Collaboration between researchers in UK and Ireland is a strong feature of their respective research systems, providing a foundation on which to build exciting opportunities going forward. Ireland and the UK possess many strengths across the domains of Arts and Humanities, and this was leveraged to very positive effect in recent times with a specific digital humanities collaboration. Now, we are bringing experts together in the creative industries to explore the scope for strengthening links in this area. Research Ireland is looking forward to working with UKRI-AHRC and researchers across our two islands to identify new possibilities for collaboration.”
Photo Caption: Peter Brown, Director of Researcher Development, Research Ireland, addressing the AHRC-Research Ireland: UK/Ireland Creative Industries Scoping Workshop.
Notes on Research Ireland
Established on August 1st 2024, Research Ireland is the new national competitive research and innovation funding agency, amalgamating the activities and functions of Science Foundation Ireland (SFI) and the Irish Research Council (IRC).
Notes on AHRC
The UKRI Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) funds internationally outstanding independent researchers across the whole range of the arts and humanities: history, archaeology, digital content, philosophy, languages and literature, design, heritage, area studies, the creative and performing arts, and much more. The quality and range of research supported by AHRC works for the good of UK society and culture and contributes both to UK economic success and to the culture and welfare of societies across the globe.