[Public-engagement] City as Lab workshops: telling stories about the city using digital and data (cross-Faculty invitation)

[Maria Richards]

Dear colleagues,

Please see below a message about two workshops being run through City as Lab, which may be of interest.

Best wishes,

The Institute for Policy and Engagement
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City as Lab<https://uniofnottm.sharepoint.com/sites/CityasLab/> is a new creative engine for digital research and engaged academic practice at UoN, connecting researchers, communities and partners in collaborative projects that tackle real-world challenges in the Nottingham city region. Developing from the Digital Nottingham initiative, City as Lab brings people together to create, co-produce and test new ideas, tools and technologies that put local challenges at the heart of activities. In 2023-24, City as Lab is inviting colleagues to participate in two challenge themes: 1) Telling stories about the city using digital and data; 2) Improving the lives of young people. Please see below, inviting participation in the first theme.

Telling stories about the city using digital and data

City as Lab will run a 9-month programme to July 2024 to support engagement with collaborators and partners around an identified challenge where the outcome of your activity could be conceived as a new 'story' about the Nottingham city region. The goal is to harness data to surface diverse stories (across disciplines and with different partners) that provide insight, and shape understanding, of the city region for people, places and policymakers in Nottingham and Nottinghamshire

By participating, you will

  *   Be able to apply for HEIF funding to enable KE and collaborative activities, partnership development and public engagement (from £500-£5K) - e.g. equipment, event costs, PDRA time
  *   Be part of an interdisciplinary community developing people-centred, place-led approaches using digital/data interventions
  *   Have access to City as Lab pilot space (from January 2024) on the university's new city-based Castle Meadow Campus (for activities such as ideation, partner engagement, showcasing and exhibition).

There are two potential routes to involvement:


  1.  You already have data about the Nottingham city region that relates to a challenge area that you would like to find ways to communicate or share with a particular community (challenge areas could include health, skills, sustainability, community connection, economic development, inclusion, environment, etc etc). You may be seeking to find ways of involving a particular stakeholder group for instance. This sharing could be via workshops and engagement events and/or it could be through the development of digital assets or visual materials that support the wider communication and broader stakeholder engagement as an important step in knowledge exchange or to support a specific impact initiative. Projects will need to define a specific output format as part of their proposal.


  1.  You would like to engage with a specific community group to generate new data to support a particular city-based story and challenge question (the scope of this is wide so do interpret both 'data' and 'challenge' broadly!).  This engagement could the take the form of workshops, events, consultation activities, focus groups, creative activities etc (the only limit here is your imagination and your preferred methods) and/or it could be through the development of new creative outcomes that illustrate this new data, as above.  For instance, a creative activity that involves a community group in the development of creative materials related to a particular research and knowledge exchange concern (mental health, sexuality, climate change etc. etc.)

For each of these routes, we would encourage you to think about how you might embed digital methods, approaches or expertise within your activity (from data collection to data exhibition and dissemination).  We are also particularly interested in promoting and supporting interdisciplinary working and our programme of engagement will help promote this across the scheme.

To apply to participate: Sign up to one (or both) of the two workshop strands scheduled in October using the following form by Wednesday 11th October https://forms.office.com/e/1GCYzzewQX

Event 1:  I HAVE DATA                     19th October (E06 Monica Partridge)  10 - 13   (lunch provided)
Event 2:  I WANT DATA                   20th October (E06 Monica Partridge)   10 - 13  (lunch provided)

At the workshops we will work with you to develop a short proposal that you will submit either at the end of the day following your session or very soon thereafter (the proposal requirements will be light touch). If selected for funding you will have approximately 6 - 9 months in which to complete your activity and will be required to complete a short reporting form. Towards the end of the programme of activity there will be the opportunity to bid for further funding to contribute to a City as Lab showcase of these stories.




Professor Paul Grainge
Academic Director, City as Lab

Professor of Film and Television Studies
Department of Cultural, Media and Visual Studies
University of Nottingham
Room B75, Trent Building
University Park
Nottingham, NG7 2RD

paul.grainge at nottingham.ac.uk<mailto:paul.grainge at nottingham.ac.uk>

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