British Academy Talk: Midlands Hub: The S.H.E.D: From ECR project to Community Interest Company

The British Academy Early Career Researcher Network brings together ECRs across the humanities and social sciences disciplines, regardless of their funding source or background.

Dr Rhiannon Jones was invited to give a keynote workshop to talk about the founding CEO of Designing Dialogue CIC (S.H.E.D) this was delivered alongside invited speaker, Sarah Webb, Company Director of S.H.E.D, who is a creative and cultural industry specialist.

The talk explored the opportunities and challenges of developing a spin out company from a H.E.I. and how a model for best practice has been developed through partnership working with external stakeholders.

The session was designed in two parts, the first will present S.H.E.D as a case study – it’s journey from being a ECR project, through to becoming an established voluntary sector organisation that tours nationally and has engaged with over 20,000 audiences and acts as a bridge between High Education and the public. How it has created opportunities for knowledge exchange, public engagement and research. S.H.E.D was a finalist for the Shed of the Year in 2000, Green Gown Award Finalist 2021, University Alliance Award finalist 2022 and has been presented as a case study for Design Council UK, All-party Parliamentary Group Design and Innovation (APDIG), Council Higher Education Art and Design (CHEAD), and National Centre for Cultural and Academic Excellence (NCACE) and Cumulus, Global Art and Design Association.

The second part of the talk, Sarah Webb provided insights into what it is really like to work on a research project through the eyes of an external stakeholder working with H.E for the first time. Rhiannon and Sarah will reflect on working together in the creative industry, different reporting needs, priorities, use of language between academia and industry and the day to day reality of running a CIC and delivering its projects in partnership with academics and a University.