An interdisciplinary, cross-university team has been awarded funding from the Beltane Public Engagement Network for their Future Nature project, as winners of the inaugural Creative Sparks programme.
Future Nature is an immersive experience, co-designed with young people to create an understanding of their current and future society. The team brings together academic expertise in interactive design, ecology and modelling, urban research and renewable energy, who working together with storyteller Sian Bevan developed this ambitious project. The team involves researchers from three universities: Andrew O’Dowd from Edinburgh Napier University, Mina Sufineyestani and Olaitan Akinyele from Heriot-Watt University; and Guillaume Latombe and Wu Huang from the University of Edinburgh.
Creative Sparks is a networking and funding programme, run by the Beltane Public Engagement Network. Now in its twelfth year, the Beltane Network is the cooperative partnership between the four Edinburgh Universities, designed to support and advance a culture of public engagement with research at its partner universities.
The purpose of the Creative Sparks programme is to connect researchers with local creative partners to inspire new and engaging public engagement with research. The project was funded by the European Commission as part of the Explorathon programme, increasing awareness of the impact of science on everyday life, boosting public recognition of researchers’ work and sparking interests of young people in science & research.
For more information, contact the Beltane Public engagement Network lead within your institution:
ENU – Dawn Smith, dawn.smith@napier.ac.uk
HWU – Laura Wicks, engage@hw.ac.uk
QMU – Kim Stuart kstuart@qmu.ac.uk
UoE – Fiona Murray ero-public.engagement@ed.ac.uk
