The CIP Pilot award will support the CIPs to work in collaboration with cross-sector partners to tackle shared challenges and opportunities faced by their local communities. The five research themes address the key pillars of the UK government levelling up agenda: education and skills, health and wellbeing, environment and climate, and civic identity and pride in place.

Áine Brady, local coordinator for the Queen’s Communities and Place (QCAP) pilot community in the Market area of South Belfast, will be the CIP at Queen’s. Her project is entitled: ‘Using the Arts to Empower Communities to Break Cycles of Silence.’

Áine works connecting the community and the University to deliver outcomes across the initiative. She previously spent 10 years working in the Children & Young People’s Unit in Belfast City Council and before that worked for a number of NGO’s in the children’s rights sector. Áine has been the Chairperson of the Market Development Association since 2017 and is responsible for the strategic direction of the organisation and management of the staff team.

Speaking about the award, Áine said: “I am delighted to be the AHRC Community Innovation Practitioner at Queen’s. This project will harness the power of creativity and partnership to drive positive change and improve outcomes in our local communities and society as a whole. Co-creation sits at the heart of this project, ensuring the community voice informs the methods used and proposed outputs. I am looking forward to getting underway.”

Each CIP will generate a case study on their project, offering insight into the partnerships, processes, and policies that shape and are shaped by the local communities they are working with. They will also work with a podcast producer to create a podcast capturing the voices of the people involved in their collaborative R&D. Learning from the pilot will inform a series of policy papers on culture, communities and levelling up by the programme in 2025.

Professor Kathryn Higgins, Director of QCAP at Queen’s commented: “I wish to congratulate Áine, our new CIP at Queen’s. This success is testament to the University’s and QCAP’s commitment to inclusivity, collaboration, and innovation, creating lasting solutions for local challenges. It also aligns with Strategy 2030 to create positive societal impact through our research and community engagement.”

AHRC Creative Communities Programme Director Professor Katy Shaw details the value of the CIP Pilot: “The CIP pilot is a significant investment by AHRC that recognises the evidence provided by our report that shows how co-creation and collaboration are key to addressing the biggest challenges and opportunities facing our research ecosystem today. By building more inclusive models of innovation, and by opening the door to research for more people and in more places, we can diversify who does research, who benefits from its findings, and show how co-creation can catalyse our creative communities across the UK.”

Each of the five Higher Education Institutions have been awarded £58k by the AHRC to host the CIP Pilot. The funding was secured by the AHRC Creative Communities Programme based at Northumbria University Newcastle, acquiring an additional £470,000 of investment, on top of a £1.3m award, to develop new knowledge about community and cross-sector partnership working in research & development.

For more information about the CIP Pilot, please visit: https://www.creativecommunities.uk/research_articles/community-innovation-practitioners/