Research and innovation

Impact and Engagement Report

Read our report to find out about some of our current and recent research projects, student engagement and community activities.

Discover our impact
engagement and impact report
Discover our impact

School celebrates success at REF 2021

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Our research

As a School we place impactful research at the heart of everything we do and provide innovative leadership in the field of performance and across the arts and cultural industries. Our research is characterised by being socially engaged – deeply rooted in and connected to the arts and culture, and the roles that these play in society.

We are acknowledged as world-leading in key areas of our research and impact activity and over the next ten years we will build on this strong base to develop a more regenerative culture that embraces the vast potential offered by digital transformation.

Our research represents an arc that ranges from the individual artist to the general public via creative practitioners, producers, managers, leaders, audiences, markets and policymakers. It offers a strategic response to the global challenges facing our planet and its people – complex and urgent issues that demand creative, pioneering, interdisciplinary and imaginative approaches. Our Impact and Engagement Report provides rich insights into some of the research projects and engagement activities undertaken in the school over the last six years.

We have a strong interdisciplinary ethos which leads us to collaborate with colleagues from across the University, as well as with universities and cultural sector partners around the world. Our vibrant and growing community of PhD researchers is an integral part of our research culture and reflects the rich diversity of our School’s research interests.

Research activity in the School is conducted under three interlocking themes which define our unique research identity: Cultural value, engagement and policy; Cultural places, spaces and environments; and Performance pedagogies, processes and practices.

Research groups

Research in the School of Performance and Cultural Industries is represented by six research groups.

The ‘Place’ Research Group investigates the dynamic interactions between culture, people and places.

More on PLACE Research

The Digital Research Group takes an interdisciplinary approach to investigating the theoretical and practical uses of technology.

More on Digital Research

The Participation Research Group explores the nature of participation, its theoretical underpinnings and its practice.

More on Participation Research

The PAR Research Group explores how knowledge and understanding developed through practising, making and doing can be theorised, valued and shared.

More on Practice as Research

The Pedagogic Research Group is multidisciplinary, investigating principles, theory and practice of teaching and learning in HE, focusing on creativity, performance, and the cultural industries.

More on Pedagogic Research

The Centre aims to explore, generate and share research on the overlapping areas of cultural policy and cultural leadership, bringing a critical perspective to explore their relationship.

More on Centre for Cultural Policy & Leadership

Impact and engagement

With industry in its name, the School’s research is rooted in strong local, regional, national and international collaborations with external partners ensuring that the impact of our work is felt on society locally and globally. We are proud of the deep relationships our researchers have forged with a broad range of industry partners in culture, environment, health, policymaking, economics and business and we are committed to engaging with the challenging opportunities for real-world change and transformation that these partners demand. To learn more about our Impact and engagement, visit our Impact Archive page.