Research at UCA
At UCA, we're proud to say that research is one of our biggest strengths.
Our vibrant community is home to seven world-leading research centres that span creative disciplines from crafts to design to animation. Meanwhile, our research degrees give graduates an unparalleled opportunity to work alongside renowned creative experts, combining theoretical study and creative practice in an environment that offers industry-grade creative facilities.
Our Schools and Research Centres
All of UCA's specialist Schools have vibrant research cultures, and we're also home to a range of research centres and clusters. Find out more about them below.
Research in our School of Architecture aims to directly inform both teaching and professional practice in the field. Recent projects include Gabor Stark's study of Art in the Expanded Public Field, and Sam McElhinney's development of the Isovist spatial analysis software.
Opened in 2018, our growing Business School for the Creative Industries is home to our Centre for Sustainable Design, and is working to build emerging research specialisms in a few other key areas.
Our School of Crafts & Design is home to an active community of maker-researchers. Led by Professor Colin Holden, the researchers based here are experts in a diverse range of fields from Ceramics to Silversmithing, Textiles to Product and Interior Design.
The School is also home to our International Textile Research Centre and Crafts Study Centre.
UCA's School of Fashion & Textiles is developing its research plans as it moves into an exciting new phase. Recent projects include Chris Rutter and Evelyn Bennett's Light Dial performance project, Neil Bottle's All That Remains textile design work and Shelly Goldsmith's exploration of psychological theory through garments in Locus of the Dress.
Our School of Fine Art, Photography & Visual Communication supports research across a range of disciplines. It has a dedicated research centre that captures and contributes to pressing debates in the fields of Fine Art, Photography and Visual Communication, and to education in these areas. International research projects based here include, ‘Fast Forward: Women in Photography’ and postdigital publishing platform ‘The BookRoom’.
Visit the School of Fine Art, Photography & Visual Communication research page
Research work in this school is focused on establishing links between theory and practice. Its projects include Dr Stephen Connolly's Machine Space film and performance project, and Maren Hahnfeld's Eden films.
The school is also home to our renowned Animation Research Centre.
Visit the School of Film, Media & Performing Arts research page
Our Animation Research Centre explores animation in all its forms through archive research, conferences, exhibitions, academic publishing and investigations into immersive technology, block chain and movement capture.
Our Crafts Study Centre (CSC) is an internationally recognised museum of contemporary craft and crafts research hub.
Our Centre for Digital Scholarship investigates the challenges facing digital infrastructure, curation and engagement with digital resources in the visual arts.
The centre runs the The Visual Arts Data Service (VADS), and explores how new and emerging technologies can enhance learning, teaching and research in the visual arts and beyond.
Visit the Centre for Digital Scholarship research page
Our International Textile Research Centre works to develop networks between contemporary textiles practitioners in the UK, Japan and across the world.
The Centre for Sustainable Design organises conferences, workshops and training programmes focused on sustainable innovation and product sustainability. It is based within our Business School for the Creative Industries.
This cross-disciplinary research group was founded in 2017 by Harry Whalley and Tom Northey. It hosts regular seminars, concerts and talks and supports projects investigating music and sound.
Practitioners in this cluster are responding to marginalised and complex narratives and challenging dominant ones. Here, filmmaking is a tool for attention, investigation and imagination.
Our Conflict and the Creative Arts Research Centre works across the arts to investigate the relationship between the arts and the multiple and diverse contexts of conflict.
Visit the Conflict and the Creative Arts Research Centre page
Research News
REF 2014 Results
Our latest Research Excellence Framework (REF 2014) results make impressive reading.
10
We were named as one of the top ten research communities in art and design.
93%
93% of our research was internationally recognised for quality.
64%
64% of our research submissions were classed as- world leading and internationally excellent.
Find out more
Discover more about research at UCA.
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