UCA unveils new research centres focused on innovation and impact

UCA Joint Vice-Chancellors, Professor Mark Ellul and Professor Melanie Gray, said: “These new research centres showcase the power of creativity to connect people, places and technologies. They will provide a platform for us to collaborate with industry, academic and community partners on projects that deliver social, cultural and economic benefit. We are proud that these Centres will build on UCA’s strengths, reflecting both our creative heritage and our vision for the future.” 

The Centre of Creative and Immersive Technologies, led by Director Andrew Bossom, unites UCA’s existing areas of research excellence in Creative Technology (CreaTech), including Augmented Reality (AR), Virtual Reality (VR) and Extended Reality (XR), games, animation, sound design, digital heritage, AI, machine learning and computer vision. 

This new Centre will expand upon the emerging and distinctive strengths of UCA research, including the benefits of CreaTech to health, wellbeing, social inclusion and future skills development, through the university’s growing industry partnerships. 

Andy Bossom brings extensive experience spanning games, immersive technologies, virtual production, and artificial intelligence. The Founder and Director of the award-winning UCA Games Incubator Studio, Andy has also worked on a variety of UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) projects including XR Stories (EPSRC) and also EU-funded EIT Culture & Creativity research initiatives.Andy was also a co-lead for the £2.3m Games and Innovation Nexus (GAIN) project– a consortium with University of Surrey, University of Warwick and UCA, funded through the UKRI Connecting Capability Fund. 

The Centre for Place-based Creative Innovation, led by UCA’s Professor of Architecture Catherine Rossi, will promote interdisciplinary, arts and humanities-informed thinking and co-creative methods. The Centre builds on existing partnerships and will also build new collaboration across regional, local and hyper-local settings, in areas ranging from crafts to architecture. It will also support and extend the societal and civic purpose and benefits of creative engagement through heritage and practice.   

Catherine Rossi brings a strong focus on ideas of place to the role, including her long-standing interest in craft, extensive museum collaborations, and new work on the relationship between design and agriculture.  

The new Centres join UCA’s established Centre for Sustainable Design, led by Professor Martin Charter and the Crafts Study Centre, led by Dr Stephen Knott, in their shared mission to foster UCA’s diverse and inclusive research practices across making, creative technology, sustainability and place, through effective civic, community and industry collaboration.  

UCA’s Director of Research, Knowledge Exchange and Innovation, Professor Jane Pavitt, added: “We are thrilled to announce the launch of these new centres supporting UCA’s distinctive and inclusive research and innovation. By anchoring arts, place-based research and creative technology within our local communities, UCA furthers its mission to inspire and innovate through creative partnership.” 

Click here to visit UCA's Research Centres.