Inclusion Action Research

Since it was formed, Bristol+Bath Creative R+D has been tackling questions and ideas on how to make the programme and the creative technology community of Bristol and Bath a more inclusive space to think, make, and do.

As a team we have been asking big questions about, what we mean by ‘inclusion’ in the first place, and who we are trying to be inclusive of. We have also been reflecting on how B+B R+D is governed, who applies for our research and prototype call outs, and who joins our cohorts.

The programme has long supported Inclusion Fellows alongside Industry Partners, and Prototype teams to explore themed questions as part of our Pathfinders. Over the last four years we have also engaged in community mapping and experimented with new recruitment practices, both for our funding opportunities and for staff recruitment.

We have developed new funding streams to meet the needs of our community and are working through the difficult task of changing our governance structures to try and better reflect that community too. In addition, the team has had to learn hard lessons through getting things wrong and learning from our mistakes.

The programme also launched State of Play, an ongoing data gathering process to understand who we are as a cluster. The findings from this data have influenced the design of many aspects of this programme. You can see a summary of this data here. Alternatively, you can view the large text of this data here.

We are pleased to launch two different open calls for paid contributions to help gather more insight into these areas from other organisations and individuals. Engaging with one of our three themes to test a new idea for inclusive practice or to reflect on an experience you have had recently. All of these learnings will be brought together in a series of observations, recommendations, resources and toolkits over the next 12 months.