Following on from the First Round applications for Research Sprints, several projects were shortlisted for Round 2.
Each project will develop their proposal and partnerships following a project presentation event on Monday 25th June 2012. After resubmitted their proposals, up to three of the shortlisted projects will selected to present to the Catalyst Research Sprint panel in July 2012. One project will be selected to go forward as a Research Sprint beginning November 2012.
The Seven Shortlisted projects for Round 2 Research Sprint are as follows:
1. Project: ACCESS ASD [Main contact: Mark Luraschi, Lancashire County Council, Adult & Community Services Directorate]
To what extent can digital technology be effective in reducing barriers to societal and civic engagement amongst people on the Autism Spectrum?
- There are few existing services available to support adults with a disability on the autism spectrum (ASD) who are living in the community. Even getting information about what support is available can itself be difficult.
- People with autism risk isolation from social networks and support ‘Access ASD’ will provide a means of helping them to connect with other people and with sources of information and support.
- Digital technology will be used to enable adults on the spectrum to break down some of the barriers to their engaging with other people and gaining access to opportunities that are available in the community as a whole.
- Focussing on those adults with ASD living in the community, the project will devise accessible and affordable digital solutions to extend the contact that people with autism have with the society around them and so extend their life opportunities.
2. Project: AIRTIME [Main contact: David Tyfield, Lancaster University]
- Cumulative effects of everyday activities are difficult to address.
- Daily lack of exercise, reliance on fast food, stimulants, energy, the car, and throw away consumption can accumulate into frighteningly complex, individual and global phenomena such as cancer and climate change. But people are often implicated and affected in ways that are below their perceptual and moral radar.
- We take the example of urban air pollution and try to visualise it through quantitative, qualitative and 'qualculative' transdisciplinary citizen art- science, utilising historical and contemporary open data about air quality from Manchester.
3. Project: LIVING CAMPUS [Main contact: Ben Matthews, Lancaster University Students Union (LUSU) Involve]
How can technology support aspirations and life choices in young people?
- Young people don’t know what they want to do or what they want to be.
- They don’t realise their potential, in many cases pegging their potential to a limited pool of others.
- They don’t know or have access to the right networks to help them get a job
- They might not have had the opportunity to hone their inter-personal skills
- They have very little idea of what is “out there”
All of the above lead to a poverty of aspiration in young people that limits life choices and horizons.
4. Project: THE LIVING FUEL MAP [Main contact: James Marriot, Platform, London]
- The complexity of our Energy system Is difficult to comprehend and engage with.
- Through our research and campaigning on the impacts of the Baku‐Tbilisi‐Ceyhan pipeline we have consistently seen how the movement of oil and gas is made invisible to not only observers like ourselves, but also the urban and rural communities whose lives are affected by it (whether through militarisation, pollution, or indirect economic effects).
- Where does the gas that feeds our domestic cookers actually come from? Through which port and refinery does crude pass before it arrives as petrol in our buses or cars? Whose livelihoods has it changed and how? How much gas does actually come into the UK from Russia and how does it get here? What are the tracks of tankers crossing the Mediterranean as they bring oil from Libya, Syria and Iraq to Italian, French & Spanish ports? These questions are of central interest to concerned individuals and groups in Europe, as well as democratic and social movements in oil/gas exporting and transit countries in North Africa, the Middle East and Former Soviet Union.
- Much of the raw data that can answer these questions is publically available from government departments (http://www.statistics.gov.uk) and ship trackers (http://www.marinetraffic.com), but it has never been brought together into an accessible and visually stimulating form that allows active citizens to engage and input.
5. Project: METAMORPHOSIS OF MORECOMBE BAY [Main contact: Martin Wain, Butterfly Conservation]
- We would like to enable easier volunteer commitment to butterfly and wildlife groups, to target groups like Young People, Schools, Urban Community Groups, Health and Wellbeing groups, and also to find out what stimulates volunteer participation.
- To Map Morecambe Bay as a Living Landscape and create a Landscape Story that becomes accessible to visitors, locals and data collectors.
- We would like to use the data we have, and that collected by our volunteer butterfly recorders, to map our biodiversity across the landscape, e.g. first migrants, butterfly emergence, wider wildlife sightings, the changing landscape through time. We could combine this with cultural history, local stories and geo referencing and make it widely available.
- To develop a Green Tourism Project using the very special butterfly and wildlife interests that we have around Morecambe Bay.
- The challenge is to enhance visitor experience, to enable access to butterfly and wildlife sites and information, to get feedback from visitors, and to give a value to our butterflies and wildlife and so embed it in the local economy. To reach schools and education groups would also be a challenge.
- To work with a wide range of groups to develop our ideas, incorporating Local Business, Tourist groups, Local Authorities, Landowners and land managers to make these developments widely useful and available.
6. Project: TRANSPORT IN LANCASTER [Main contact: John Angus, Storey Gallery]
- The Lancaster district has had significant transport issues for many years, which has a negative impact on the local economy. There have been many proposals and debates about appropriate solutions, and there are currently plans for a new link road to the M6, but much local concern that this will not deal with the problems.
- We suggest a project involving the local populace in contributing their personal transport experiences in action via digital communication devices, in order to build up a composite communal intelligence on mobility in the local area.
- An aspect of the project would be artist-led, with the artists being part of a team that could include sociologists and digital communication developers. Many artists are interested in engagement with social issues, rather than producing objects for gallery display, and there is increasing recognition of the value of their contribution.
7. Project: STORY ON A PLATE [Main contact: Corina Sas, Lancaster University]
The project aims to address several challenges:
- Social challenge: weight-related health issues are bringing into question our domestic lifestyle choices and food practices. Behaviour change related to sustainable, ethical food practices of gathering, preparing, cooking, sharing and managing waste can have an impact from wellbeing to connectedness to concern for environmenatl resources.
- Educational challenge: children need to be interested and motivated to become aware and engaged in ethical food practices.
- Research challenge: the research topic requires the integration of findings from different fields
- The project will address two core research themes i) understanding parents' and childrens' attitudes towards sustainable food and exploring ways to support them, ii) developing a set of tools aimed at supporting sustainable food practices
