In the first phase of the project (2016-17), we used both the University’s networks (eg VOICE, Elders’ Council) and our own contacts, to send out an invitation to women in the local community who identified as an older person (Age UK’s definition is 50) to get involved in the project.

Through a dialogic process with participants, we devised three linked activities: digital storytelling (women’s stories are now archived on Curiosity Creative’s website); a photographic exhibition which travelled to the City Library and the Discovery Museum and is now permanently hung in a teaching room in the Armstrong Building); and a guerrilla ‘performance’ in Grainger Marker on International Women’s Day 2017 which included a pop-up choir of around 100 women. Feedback from participants demonstrated not only that the experience had been uplifting and empowering but that women enjoyed working with each other and sharing experiences.

The second phase (2017-2018) was made possible by follow-on funding and several activities were tied in with celebrating the centenary of the Representation of the People Act which began the process of women’s suffrage and International Women’s Day, including a flashmob at Grey’s Monument which we decorated with knicker bunting, claiming the right of all women to be safe on the streets of the city: Knicker Revolution. This was one of the few inter-generational events we organised as part of NOT Acting Our Age (NAOA). But the primary initiative for this phase was the making a film about older women and active life which was subsequently shown at Wylam Brewery and the City Library. The film, YesWeCan, was produced as a collaboration between NAOA and the Women’s 100, a local group of women who worked to organise a series of events celebrating the achievements of women over the past century.

The project has been presented at several talks and seminars, both on campus and elsewhere and was included as part of the University’s contribution to the Great Exhibition of the North. The project is a brilliant example of university colleagues working with members of the community to challenge social and cultural stereotypes around gender and ageing.

Project Lead: Karen Ross

Funder: Economic and Social Research Council Impact Acceleration Account (IAA)

Unit members have expertise in social justice, labour, rural, and women’s history as well as the history of medicine and health. The team supports innovative digital practices in the collection, archiving and representation of personal testimonies in the making of history.

The Unit seek to use oral history as an evidential tool to inform other research and as a way of responding to societal challenges. This includes helping to shape policies on poverty, ageing, transport, crime and international development.

The Unit is helping to develop the next generation of oral historians, with early-career researchers involved in the design of two ground-breaking projects.

The first of these pilot studies investigates the relationship between reminiscences of working lives, orality and their visual representation. The research will be with people in the North East of England who have lived through industrial decline and attempts at economic regeneration. Oral histories will be collected from former employees of manufacturing industries along with visual sources, including photographs and film. Working with the School of English Literature, Language and Linguistics, the project will also explore changes in the ways speech and narrative performativity have changed over time by identifying and re-interviewing a sub-sample of participants who were recorded in the past.

The second of these pilots is in the history of health and brings together colleagues from History, Classics and Archaeology, the Faculty of Medical Sciences and the Institute for Ageing. The research explores the recollections of men and women who were born in Newcastle one year before the National Health Service came into existence. Studied from birth, participants have taken part in an epidemiological study that continues to this day. Their memories will not only historically contextualise pioneering medical research, but will provide an invaluable record of their participation and its impacts. The interviews from both pilots will form the basis for a new oral history archive at Newcastle.

Project Team: The Oral History Unit and Collective

Project Duration: September 2017 to October 2020

Funding: Research Investment Fund, Newcastle University

Click here to download The Oral History Unit and Collective case study.

All of the work requires the development of practical partnerships with and between politicians, the armed forces, and the heritage community and the team works as a hub to: raise awareness of the issue; facilitate these partnerships; and carry out research into how cultural property can be best protected during armed conflict.

The team’s work has been central to a number of successes to-date including:

a) Providing a major contribution to the smooth journey through Parliament of the Cultural Protection (Armed Conflicts) Act and the subsequent ratification by the UK of the 1954 Hague Convention on the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict and its two (1954 & 1999) Protocols in December 2017;

b) The team’s research prompted the UK MoD to establish a new CPP Unit, expected to be operational by 2020;

c) Helping draft new Statutes for the Blue Shield under Dutch Law in 2016;

d) Development of international Blue Shield policy based heavily on articles by the team;

e) Working with the UN’s Special Rapporteur for Cultural Rights on making access to cultural heritage a universal human right;

f) Developing long-term training and operational links with UK Armed Forces, NATO, US Air Force, and the UN Peacekeeping Force in Lebanon;

g) Between them the team publishing one book two book chapters; and four academic and eight general articles;

h) Between them the team speaking at 30 international and 19 national conferences.

Future work is planned to continue to raise awareness; develop and expand partnerships; and continue to ensure research findings have immediate, positive impact influencing how cultural property is protected during conflict.

Project Team: This team is led by Professor Peter Stone who holds the above UNESCO Chair. Peter is supported by 0.5 Principal Research Associate Dr Paul Fox and Full-time Research Associate Dr Emma Cunliffe.

Project Duration: Peter took-up the Chair on 1 January 2016; Paul joined the team in July 2017 and Emma in November 2017. The first term of the, renewable, Chair ends on 31 December 2019.

Our research found that while quality of life, a vibrant creative and cultural community and affordable premises were major draws for CDIT businesses in the region, several barriers to growth were identified. These include distance from London (and associated travel costs), migration of talent, and broadband connectivity (in rural areas).

In the Innovation Pilot phase we ran a diverse range of creative workshops and student placement projects in areas including social media training, design-led innovation, accessing funding, digital development for writers, business planning and reflection, and creative-digital hacks.

In the second phase of Creative Fuse, businesses were invited to join forces with other CDIT organisations and university academics to apply for Innovation Pilot grants. Just over 30 grants were awarded, each project fusing creative skills with technology expertise to address industrial and social challenges in the North East. Many of these projects have implications for other sectors beyond CDIT, including construction, education, health and wellbeing, law, manufacturing, and retail. Outcomes from this phase of activity will be published in late 2018. 

Creative Fuse has embraced multidisciplinary working and curated space for cross-sector collaboration through monthly networking events. CAKE (Collaboration and Knowledge Exchange) events bring together academics, artists, SMEs, social enterprises and large organisations with different skills and backgrounds to eat cake and hear a series of short presentations around a common theme. These events are popular, attracting regular attendees with over 680 different people in one year. CAKE themes have included Smart Data Innovation, Future Fashion, The Science of Performance, Digital Heritage, Crafts and Making, and the Space Industry in the North East.

Project team: Newcastle University, Northumbria University, Teesside University, University of Sunderland, and Durham University. Principal Investigator: Professor Eric Cross, Newcastle University, School of Arts and Cultures. 

Funders: AHRC, European Regional Development Fund (ERDF), Arts Council England. 2016-2018.

To find out more about the Creative Fuse project, visit their website. 

With its exhibitions and outreach programmes it reaches an audience of both children and adults, as well as providing a unique resource for researchers. Seven Stories is accredited by Arts Council England as the National Centre for Children's Books: the only `nationally-styled' museum in the North-East.

The Vital North Partnership is jointly funded by the University and Arts Council England. The partners share the ambition that Newcastle becomes a centre for excellence in children’s literature, for outstanding research, learning, collections, engagement and professional practice. It is designed to include colleagues from right across the University, including:

• Newcastle University’s Children’s Literature Unit’s research is opening up new research pathways to the Seven Stories Collection, supporting collection development and providing new ways for public audiences to access these materials

• The School of Architecture, Planning and Landscape are working with Seven Stories to explore children’s spaces and the city

• Researchers from the School of Arts and Cultures are supporting the development of Seven Stories’ exhibition spaces

• Culture Lab at Newcastle University are working with Seven Stories to develop innovative digital experiences showcasing Seven Stories’ archives

• The School of Education, Communication and Language Sciences are helping Seven Stories to evaluate their early years programmes and develop their understanding of enquiry-based learning

The University and Seven Stories are working towards designating Newcastle a UNICEF Child Friendly City. At the heart of this is the ambitious, 10-year project led by NewcastleGateshead Cultural Venues: City of Dreams, which aims to ‘engage everyone aged 25 and under in Newcastle and Gateshead in rich cultural experiences and to wield the transformative power of creative activity to have lasting positive impact on children and young people’s lives.’

Research and management team includes Matthew Grenby, Rachel Pattinson and Jill Taylor-Roe.

SAM aims to create a world-leading team for spatial analytics and modelling at Newcastle University. The vision is to contribute to forging a more connected and trans-disciplinary spatial science able to provide integrated understanding and ability to manage complex social, economic, engineering, environmental and technical phenomenon in space and time. SAM is a unique cross-disciplinary collaboration between CURDS/Geography, Architecture and Planning, Engineering, Computing Science and Mathematics and Statistics.

The ‘SAM Lab’ shared space has been established and located in the Urban Sciences building on the Science Central site, next to the Urban Observatory.

Working closely with and leveraging the internationally renowned expertise of Computing Science, the Digital Institute and Turing Institute, the SAM@Newcastle team will now move into its formal launch, establishment and development phase. In developing the next generation of spatio-temporal analytics and models to tackle trans-disciplinary research challenges, SAM will be actively involved in securing external research funding, producing world class academic outputs, and delivering industrial and policy engagement and impact with the public, private and civic sectors.

Project Team: Andy Pike (PI) CURDS/GPS, Stuart Barr Engineering, Roger Burrows APL, Peter Clarke Engineering, Jeremy Crampton APL, Rachel Franklin CURDS/GPS, Robin Henderson Maths and Statistics, Emilio Porcu Maths and Statistics and Professor Nick Wright, Engineering. SAM@Newcastle 

Project Duration: Started 2015 to present

Funding: Research Investment Fund (RIF) £2m, Newcastle University. The RIF investment has supported the appointment of four Chairs and four post-doctoral researchers.

This collaboration aims to both use and build digital software that will give us: (a) new ways of explaining the complex life of texts over time and through space, and in and out of different languages, and (b) new immersive experiences for readers. At the heart of this is a re-imagining of what a reader can be - an auditor, a performer, a creative writer - along with a desire to develop new skills of seeing/hearing/making stories that are based on and anticipate a very high level of interactivity, and a rounded (embodied) understanding of how meaning is made.

For more information about what we are doing, visit our website: https://research.ncl.ac.uk/atnu/

Collaborators: James Cummings, Tiago Sousa Garcia, Rachel Hammersley, Nigel Harkness, Nick Holliman, Laura Kirkley, Jennifer Richards, Michael Rossington, Julie Sanders, Paul Watson, Magnus Williamson.