Impact case study database

Birrell’s body of research has deepened cultural understanding of and shaped public attitudes towards the contemporary global concern of forced human displacement. By providing alternatives to dominant media narratives and modes of engagement, the research has benefitted two main groups: enabling curators to engage audiences in new ways; and creating new opportunities within the creative and cultural industries. Birrell’s work has enabled the development of new partnerships and helped to preserve cultural traditions that shed light on political and cultural issues. The research has also enabled two organisations within Scotland – the CCA and Creative Scotland – to deliver their strategic objectives and reach new and larger audiences.

Birrell’s work has been used by commissioning curators in Scotland (Glasgow’s CCA, the Edinburgh Art Festival (EAF) and Inverness Museum and Art Gallery), Europe (Athens and Kassel, as part of documenta14) and the United States (Virginia Museum of Contemporary Art) to engage the public with urgent global issues of the refugee crisis, migration and the barriers to it. Four of Birrell’s works – Symphony of Sorrowful Songs, Fugue, Criollo and The Athens-Kassel Ride: The Transit of Hermes – featured in the international quinquennial documenta14 (d14), which took place in Athens and Kassel throughout 2017 and attracted a global audience of 1,200,000 (making it the most frequented contemporary art exhibition of all time). Explorations of neocolonial and neoliberal attitudes from global north to global south were at the heart of d14, with the humanitarian crisis of the escalating war in Syria taking centre stage. Birrell’s research was pivotal in enabling Adam Szymczyk, d14 Director, to widen and deepen public understandings of forced human displacement, provoking rich public discussion on the European refugee crisis and simultaneously demonstrating the efficacy of art in providing alternative understandings of the plight of refugees worldwide. Specifically, for Szymczyk, Birrell’s research provided ‘a larger metaphor for what [ d14] wanted to achieve.’ As Szymczyk states, Birrell’s project ‘allowed us to make a very clear statement’ in relation to the humanitarian crisis and was ‘paradigmatic for the type of approach that we wanted to explore in documenta’ acting as ‘a kind of embodiment of the idea of the project of documenta 14.’ The d14 research was reviewed in the New York Times and The Observer and Birrell was interviewed by CNN. His Symphony of Sorrowful Songs was one of just two selected by internationally acclaimed artists Naeem Mohaiemen (2018 Turner Prize nominee) and Didem Pekün to discuss in their e-flux article on d14, with Pekün stating: ‘As the concert finished, I walked out in a trance state. Leaving the hall, I saw a number of friends who were personally wounded by political problems of their geographical locales, and we looked at each other quietly.’ [S1]

This engagement is mirrored in other public exhibitions of Birrell’s work, with outputs prompting extensive discussion and debate in broadcast, print and online media, and exhibition visitor comments. The Museum of Contemporary Art (MoCA) in Virginia Beach, USA, programmed Birrell’s work as part of the 2019 group show, Charged! (featuring just 6 artists), a decision based specifically on what they saw as its ability to engage the public in difficult dialogue and reflection. Heather Hakimzadeh, Curator at MoCA, has said ‘The aim of the exhibition was to explore the ways in which artists connected emotionally to their audience through technology.’ She invited Birrell to exhibit Triptych because ‘it included an element that was missing in the other works in the exhibition: stillness. Triptych provided emotional undercurrents that demanded silence and listening skills to facilitate reception.’ MoCA is in a region of the United States which has a heavy military presence and the museum has what the curator describes as a ‘moral obligation to our community to discuss uncomfortable issues in a manner that encourages many voices and differences of opinion,’ something which Birrell’s work was able to fulfil. She says, ‘Through Triptych the understanding of displacement and loss could be conveyed with deep emotional resonance in a space that could enable further discussion and exploration,’ the work making ‘a meaningful contribution to the dialogue we have begun in the museum.’ [S2]

The effectiveness of Birrell’s research is further evidenced by the collective voices of journalists and audiences, who repeatedly comment on the work’s ability to move its audience: ‘its overriding sense of a world in endless exile makes it an essential experience.’ Neil Cooper, The List, 2018; ‘What is evoked is a sense of absence, of loss.’ The Scotsman, 2018; ‘A cumulative emotional impact likewise builds in Ross Birrell and David Harding’s Triptych […] it feels desperately heartfelt.’ Hettie Judah, The I. The most frequently used audience description for the Edinburgh Art Festival was that it was ‘moving’, a word included in 13% of comments. Audiences described it as ‘An overwhelming, powerful and beautiful piece. [The] singing almost moved me to tears.’; it was ‘Very powerful and moving.’ Refugees who visited the EAF exhibition were also moved: ‘It made me think of my country. In a sad way, but the exhibition was wonderful.’ [S3]

Birrell’s work has also supported a wide range of new opportunities for solo Syrian artists and the Syrian Expat Philharmonic Orchestra (SEPO), all of whom are refugees themselves. Symphony of Sorrowful Songs centred around a recital by classical musicians, who had fled the Syrian civil war. SEPO performed in collaboration with the Athens State Orchestra, on the opening weekend of d14 (April 2017) in the 2,000-seat Megaron Concert Hall in Athens. Reflecting on the experience, Soprano Racha Rizk describes the opportunity not simply to perform but to represent the work, in remembrance and tribute to those suffering in Syria. Following the d14 concert and showings of the film, she was invited to perform in Canada and with the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra. In the days prior to the d14 concert, SEPO and Rizk also performed a concert of Arab music at the Eleonas Refugee Camp in the South East of Athens. Syrian composer and violinist Moraly’s performance of Fugue has led to a number of other high-profile professional opportunities to participate in visual art contexts, including performing: at the opening press conference of d14 in Kassel; as part of Australian-Aboriginal artist Gordon Hookey’s book launch also part of d14 in Kassel; in the Scottish Parliament as part of the EAF 2018; and as a participant in ‘Residing in the Borderlands,’ a series of talks and screenings by cultural experts from diasporic communities, at SAVVY Contemporary, Berlin 2019. Exhibitions of Triptych, which includes elements of the d14 performances, has extended the global reach of both the research and the musicians. [S4]

To realise his work, Birrell has created employment for film crew, production companies and photographers in Europe, Buenos Aires and New York, documenting Criollo and The Athens-Kassel Ride projects, enabled through GBP99,000 Open Project funding from Creative Scotland, e.g. support crew member Mark Wallis was required to learn new skills, including acquiring horse trailer driving certification, and has subsequently been hired by one of the leading Long Riders, Peter van der Gugten, to provide support and to film a long ride from Mexico to Canada. [S5] The Athens-Kassel Ride also prompted the first ever Arravani Festival, organised to celebrate the Arravani breed. The festival was held in the mountain village of Prastos, Arcadia, in April 2017, and was attended by 50 Arravani riders from across the region, members of an Arravani Society in Germany, and around 500 local villagers. The first ever festival of its kind, the Arravani Festival brought wider public attention to the Arravani breed and provided information on the principles of Long Riders and the Charter of Reken, which calls for the right to ride across borders. As participating Long Rider and Board member of the VfD (the largest network for recreational riders in Germany), David Wewetzer has used The Athens-Kassel Ride as the focus of 20 presentations at regional meetings of the VfD across Germany, highlighting the political and cultural challenges of the Long Rides. In 2018, fellow Long Rider van der Gugten self-published a two-volume book documenting his experience of The Athens-Kassel Ride. The riders also made their own website to document the ride. [S6]

By enabling the curator of the Edinburgh Art Festival to engage the public with the refugee crisis, Birrell’s research has supported EAF to build a new relationship – which they continue to sustain and develop – with The Welcoming, an Edinburgh based refugee resettlement charity. As part of their activities, EAF also held a workshop and festival visit with a Syrian men’s group in partnership with the charity the Thistle Foundation in Craigmillar, a national Centre of Wellbeing. Due to the relevance of the subject matter, Birrell’s research also paved the way for EAF to use the Scottish Parliament as a venue for the first time – something they had been attempting to do for a number of years – hosting a concert performed by SEPO and thereby extending its audience beyond the usual visual art audience to reach both a music/ performing arts and broader civic audience. [S7]

A central part of Birrell’s work has focused on preserving cultural traditions that are at risk of being lost. His work with SEPO, Rizk and Moraly seeks to preserve and celebrate the music and poetry of Syria. The Athens-Kassel Ride: The Transit of Hermes honours the people throughout history who have used horses in long-distance travel and exploration and the cross-border routes they followed. The project was developed in collaboration with four participating Long Riders – van der Gugten, Wewetzer, Szolt Zsabo and Tine Boche – who used the project to promote best practice in Long Riding at public events along the route. The team was joined for agreed stages by local riders and, when they arrived in Kassel on 10 July, they were welcomed with a public reception attended by 2,000 people, including 30 riders from local equestrian associations. The ride was welcomed by the CEO of documenta gmbh and the Culture Minister of Hessen, and attracted a substantial amount of press interest, including TV and radio news coverage in Hessen and in Slovenia. The ride was also the subject of an exclusive deal with d14 and Zeit Magazine, which has a print circulation of 2,000,000 and selects just one artist for each iteration of documenta. Birrell’s Ride featured as the cover story on 10 June, published to coincide with the opening weekend of d14 in Kassel. [S8]

Finally, Birrell’s research has played an important role in enabling arts organisations in Scotland to increase their audience figures and meet their strategic objectives. Birrell’s ‘highly topical’ work has been identified by EAF Director, Sorcha Carey, as a leading contributor to a 95% rise in international press coverage in 2018. [S7] The festival also saw an increase of 8% in visitor numbers from the previous year. [S3] The Transit of Hermes at CCA for Glasgow International 2018 was attended by approx. 6,000 people, the second largest attendance recorded at the CCA since its inception in 1992. Because of its trans-European nature and connection with d14, the CCA exhibition addressed their key objective to show international work and support international networking for Scotland’s artists and curators. It also fulfilled one of their programming aims: to highlight and include discussion and work around immigration and the changing demographics of Europe, Scotland and Glasgow. As CCA Director Francis McKee states: ‘One of the underlying themes of the exhibition was border crossing which was easily read in the light of immigration issues across Europe and that chimed well with our broader public engagement programme which focuses on diverse communities, refugees and asylum seekers in Glasgow.’ The show also enabled the CCA to support objectives of its funder, Creative Scotland, to internationalise Scottish art, in this case by bringing Creative Scotland-funded international projects by Scottish artists/ researchers back to Scotland and making it available to local audiences. Amanda Catto, Head of Visual Arts at Creative Scotland, confirms that the project met their objective to directly support artists ‘to undertake projects of scale, ambition and international significance’ and to support ‘the opportunity for an artist based in Scotland to achieve high levels of professional/ industry recognition for their work.’ Creative Scotland also recognised the ‘benefits of the work in terms of public engagement and audience development/ diversification in Scotland through further touring and presentation of the work.’ [S9]

MEARU’s body of work since REF2014 has focused on indoor air quality and systems of ventilation in energy-efficient housing, with positive impacts resulting for all those concerned with its procurement, management and maintenance, as well as on the health and wellbeing of residents. The subheadings below capture key areas of impact.

MEARU research on the ventilation habits of dwelling occupants in Scotland was used as the underpinning evidence for regulatory changes in Scottish building standards for domestic ventilation. Research findings directly influenced 2015 updates to the Technical Handbooks and Guidance, which specify how to achieve the requirements of the Buildings (Scotland) Regulations 2004. Specific changes that resulted from the GSA findings include: ‘Ventilation Awareness in Dwellings,’ which stipulated the provision of CO₂ monitoring equipment in principal bedrooms, plus guidance on its use as part of a ventilation strategy; and enhanced specifications for trickle vent efficiency to promote improved airflow. The Building Standards apply to newly constructed, airtight dwellings in Scotland; 86,450 such dwellings were completed between Q4 2015 and Q1 2020. Stephen Garvin, Head of Building Standards Division, confirms that the GSA research ‘has resulted in improved ventilation capacity in those buildings, and (we predict) improved awareness of and interaction with ventilation components by occupants, contributing to better air quality, and health and wellbeing.’ The MEARU team was commissioned as a result of this research to undertake a second study exploring the performative shortcomings of decentralized mechanical extract ventilation and findings from this research are currently being used to inform new BSD policy. [S1, S2]

Through their collaborative approach to research into low energy design, health and wellbeing, MEARU has developed multiple relationships with housing providers and architects (including grant funded collaborations with 9 architecture practices and 10 housing associations/ developers, 2014-20), supporting upskilling, increased economic competitiveness and improved environmental standard of buildings. The 2015 ‘Hab-Lab’ Knowledge Transfer Partnership with Glasgow-based John Gilbert Architects has resulted in a 20% increase in practice turnover, the direct employment of 3 new staff members, and significant reduction in carbon emissions from around 5,000 homes. The partnership has also enabled the development of new expertise within the firm, improving the delivery of new build projects, with the research directly contributing to the development of technical guidance and policy. Testimony from a Director of John Gilbert Architects confirms the relationship enabled the whole practice’s design work to become more ‘evidence-led’: ‘It is clear that the work we have undertaken with Glasgow School of Art and MEARU has been a key catalyst to this change and has affected all our staff. In short, the impact of MEARU has been significant on our practice and on our architecture over the last 5 years.’ [S3]

Collaboration with Gannochy Trust and ABC architects (2016-2019, funded by Construction Scotland Innovation Centre) drew directly on MEARU’s Innovate UK BPE projects to inform the design of 48 new healthy homes, including application of a novel, combined BPE and computational modelling process to inform design choices and bespoke specification by GSA for an innovative passive stack ventilation system to safely maintain healthy air quality, air flow and temperature, including in bedrooms. The completed homes, incorporating these design improvements, won the Large Residential and Sustainability Award at the GIA Design Awards 2020, and have been “life changing” for tenants. [S4] BPE research with Queens Cross Housing Association (completed 2015) has directly influenced organisational policies and practice, particularly in the areas of air quality, system performance and new resources to help inform residents about the importance of good ventilation. The ‘Ventilate Right’ video created by the MEARU team (with investment of GSA QR funds) has been distributed to residents by Queens Cross Housing Association and made publicly available, with over 3,000 views to date. [S5] MEARU research has also been used in a RIAS Practice Note on indoor air quality and ventilation in airtight homes, disseminated to approximately 480 architecture practices in Scotland. [S6]

MEARU’s research has enhanced the understanding of policy makers, influencing and informing the 2018 White Paper created by the UK-wide All-Party Parliamentary Group for Healthy Homes and Buildings, Building our Future, which reflects MEARU’s research findings in its recommendations. MEARU researchers presented evidence to the All-Party Parliamentary Group on two occasions (2016 and 2017, invited through the HEMAC network – see ‘professionals,’ below) and shared their research at a Scottish Government ‘Evidence in Policy’ event in November 2019. [S7] On the basis of his research with MEARU, Sharpe sits on the Building Regulations Advisory Committee for Ventilation and Airtightness and the British Standards Institute (BSI) retrofit working group. He was an invited member of the Scottish Government Energy Efficiency Standard for Social Housing (EESSH) Review group in 2017. Sharpe sat on the Royal College of Physicians and Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health working group on ‘The effects of Indoor Air on Children’s Health across Life-course,’ co-authoring the final report. He also acted as a topic expert on the National Institute for Clinical Excellence (NICE) Public Health Advisory Committee on Indoor Air Quality Guidelines. Both resulting reports, published in early 2020, have raised awareness of air quality within housing, receiving widespread coverage in mainstream and trade media. Since April 2020, Sharpe (at Strathclyde from February 2020) has advised UK Government on its Covid-19 response through his involvement in SAGE (Environmental and Modelling Group), drawing on the research he carried out over many years at GSA and contributing to 27 papers, 12 on built environment and ventilation. These papers have informed Government policy and public advice and have been adopted by industry bodies to provide advice to building owners and managers and the public. For example, CIBSE issued four Coronavirus (Covid-19) advice documents influenced by the SAGE group during 2020. [S8]

MEARU’s broader dissemination of research through engagement with architects and construction industry professionals has also helped to enhance industry understanding and awareness of indoor air quality and the performance of energy efficient dwellings. This has included articles in trade magazines – including The Architects’ Journal (7,000 paid subscribers), Scottish Construction Now, CIBSE journal, PassiveHouse+ (print circulation 17,000) and the REHVA journal (distributed to 120,000 engineers from 27 European countries) – and through trade show presentations (e.g. EcoBuild, ASBP Expo, Vision London, RIBA Guerrilla Tactics event, Zero Carbon Hub and Better Homes Dublin). MEARU also contributes to industry committees, including the NHBC, an organisation providing warranty and insurance for new homes. [S9] MEARU furthered its reach by establishing the AHRC-funded Health Effects of Modern Airtight Construction (HEMAC) international multidisciplinary network in 2016, which combines built environment, indoor air quality and medical fields to support the design of healthy low energy homes. A third of the steering group and over half of the network are made up of non-academic professionals, including architects, sensor and ventilation product manufacturers and building professionals.

MEARU’s work has also improved public awareness of indoor air quality and health in UK homes, through widespread coverage in the media. Sharpe discussed the issues and challenges on BBC Breakfast in April 2016, with additional coverage on BBC news and in other news media, including the Belfast Telegraph and The Scotsman. Outcomes from MEARU’s contribution to public health guidelines have also received media attention. [S10]

Taken together, the research constitutes an authoritative and original body of knowledge documenting and contextualising the development of design of modern merchant ships. This body of knowledge has transformed marketing and sales processes for global shipping companies, enabled a new approach to stock acquisition for the world’s largest ferry operator, stimulated cultural tourism through contributions to major new exhibitions and enhanced public interest and understanding in maritime design. Impact has been global, spanning the UK, North America, Scandinavia, China and Japan.

Ship design and construction is a costly and competitive activity, representing a considerable financial risk (USD2,000,000+) for clients and investors. Conventional marketing strategies were insufficiently refined in the specificity of technical and contextual information and something else was needed to help companies mitigate the risks. As a result of his research, Peter has been invited by 4 major Danish shipping companies to produce accessible literature to promote technological innovations, products and services to – and build and strengthen relationships with – clientele in international markets. These authoritative works of maritime history scholarship have been able to convey comprehensive knowledge to convince clients who themselves are technical and business experts. Specific examples include:

• Knud E.Hansen has worked with Peter for over a decade, using his publications as corporate gifts and marketing tools. Since August 2013, KEH has gifted approximately 850 of Peter’s books as part of an enhanced sales process, gaining 28 major commissions for complete designs plus over 900 other commissions from leading European shipowners and major Chinese shipyards, including Jinling Shipyard in Nanjing, for which the company designed ultra-large ro-ro ferries for DFDS, Grimaldi Lines and Finnlines. The tendering process included the client providing a score for professional reputation, which the books effectively demonstrated. In 2016 the company commissioned a third book, Ship Design Through Eight Decades, to celebrate their 80^th anniversary and to present as an exclusive corporate gift. As KEH’s Managing Director noted, Peter’s work has helped to ‘strengthen the image of our company and encourage new clients better to understand our background, expertise and key skills’. [S1]

• MAN Diesel & Turbo, since renamed MAN Energy Solutions, a marine engineering firm and propeller licensee, bought 300 copies of Peter’s 2015 book, The Story of the Kappel Propeller, which itself was commissioned by the Technical University of Denmark and provides a comprehensive understanding of what lead to the development of this innovative propeller type. Senior Manager Jens Ring Neilsen has said that MAN includes the book as part of their general promotion of the product, as it ‘accurately informs … potential customers about the lengthy, complex and precise research processes through which the Kappel propeller was developed’ and ‘allows clients to feel knowledgeable about the propeller’s background and thereby makes them feel more confident about its effectiveness’. Prior to using the book as a sales tool, the company sold 50 propellers in 13 years (2003-2017). Since including the book in its sales strategy, sales have increased exponentially, with 70 propellers selling in a 3-year period (2017-2019) [S2]

• In late 2013, A.P. Møller-Maersk, one of the largest shipping companies in the world, commissioned an expanded English-language version of Peter’s book Dansk Linjefart, which featured Maersk ships, translated as Danish Liners Around the World (2014) and used by Maersk as corporate gifts. Henning Morgen, Maersk Group Historian, describes the value of Peter’s research as ‘useable and credible in the production of postings on social media, reaching a global audience that includes… employees, clients and other stakeholders’, helping ‘in particular… to foster better customer relations’ and enabling ‘large numbers of people to develop knowledge about our background and values’. Maersk social media reaches the company’s 80,000 employees in 130 countries and 3,075,000+ customers, stakeholders and followers. [S3]

• Another major Danish shipping company, DFDS, commissioned a substantial book, DFDS 150 (Lyngby: Polyteknisk Forlag, 2016) for their 150^th anniversary, and bought large numbers of copies to use as corporate gifts. [S4] According to Gert Jakobsen, Vice President Communications at DFDS, the book is ‘the DFDS Group’s point of reference as regards the company’s history and is widely used in all 21 countries in which DFDS is represented, from Norway to Turkey, from Ireland and the UK to the Baltic countries … It forms the basis from which daily answers to questions and requests from the public, individuals, media, learning institutes or politics are answered’ and ‘has supplied and continues to supply historical information used in our communications via social media’ which reaches over 18,000 people.’

Peter’s co-written book with Japanese maritime historian Tsuyoshi Ishiyama, Japanese Ferries, formed the basis for a presentation on Japanese ferries, their design, and the Japanese domestic ferry market at the 2013 ShipPax Ferry Shipping Conference, attended by shipping professionals from around the world. A presentation led to an invitation by the world’s largest ferry owner (by gross tonnage and freight capacity) Stena Ro-Ro, to present to its senior managers, commercial and technical staff at its headquarters in Gothenburg in December 2013. The Sales & Purchase Manager at Stena Ro-Ro has described this presentation as ‘opening the door to something which has given us new experience and new challenges’, resulting in the decision to purchase a second hand ferry from Japan. Peter’s research was the catalyst for this new approach to stock acquisition, enabling both the acquisition of this ship for Stena RoRo and the ship sale for its Japanese owner in 2019. Shipbrokers specialising in ferry sale and purchase estimate the ferry’s value at approximately USD12,000,000. An equivalent ferry, bought new, would cost over USD100,000,000, thereby saving Stena RoRo over USD80,000,000, relative to building equivalent new tonnage. [S5]

Peter was commissioned by the new Danish national maritime museum, Museet for Søfart to write the official book about its site and context, the design of the new building (by the leading Danish architect Bjarke Ingels, costing DKK330,000,000), and its permanent displays. Publication of the book coincided with the opening of the new museum in October 2013. 5,000 copies of the book were produced by the leading Swedish architectural publisher Arvinius+ Orfeus in Danish and English editions entitled respectively Museet i Dokken and The Museum in the Dock, for sale to museum visitors and as a corporate gifts. The museum’s architects also purchased 200 copies of the book which they use as part of their marketing strategy for the international showcasing of their practice and, as Bjarke Ingels’ architect David Zahle states, ‘to gain fresh commissions.’ As the Chairman and CEO of ‘Maritim Museums Byg Aps’, a body established for fundraising and managing the construction of the new museum, has said, ‘the publication of the book has greatly helped to put the project on the world map.’ [S6]

In 2017 Peter was invited by Victoria & Albert Museum senior curator, Ghislaine Wood (now Acting Director, Sainsbury Centre), and her American colleague Daniel Finamore (Peabody Essex Museum, Salem, MA) to act as expert consultant on a major international touring exhibition, Ocean Liners: Speed and Style. For Wood, Peter’s books on ocean liners, Ship Style and Cruise: Identity, Design and Culture, ‘were an important source of inspiration and knowledge’ which led to the invitation to participate. The exhibition used themes and case-studies derived from Peter’s books and he contributed two chapters to the exhibition catalogue. 16,500 copies of the catalogue were produced and the exhibition was seen by over 500,000 visitors in Salem, London and Dundee, generating substantial revenues for the 3 venues. For the V&A, this is a significant outcome when compared against their benchmark of success (the ‘David Bowie Is,’ exhibition (2013-18), shown at eleven venues and attracting 2,000,000 visitors). As the exhibition’s curator notes, ‘As the inaugural show of V&A Dundee, it was at the centre of the £80million regeneration programme … Visitor feedback confirmed that the exhibition was successful in enhancing their understanding of the design and cultural impact of the ocean liner (97%) and how it had inspired artists, designers and filmmakers (96.6%), as well as capturing a sense of life on board an ocean liner (95%).’ For 67% of visitors, it was their sole or main reason for visiting Dundee. [S7]

The exhibition has also led to ‘significant tangible benefits’ for the Peabody Essex Museum (PEM), its initial host. Finamore, the museum’s Associate Director, has identified Peter’s contribution to enhancing public awareness of the subject, reaching larger audiences, preserving maritime art and artefacts, and improving the museum’s professional profile amongst leaders in the field, including maritime scholars and collectors. Since the Ocean Liners exhibition, the Peabody has received 7 offers of significant collections, 2 of which they have accepted, and attracted the involvement of prominent American collectors and their families. Ocean Liners also enabled the museum to establish a new relationship with a major regional bank, who became a USD100,000+ sponsor of the exhibition and are now poised to sponsor a second show scheduled for 2021. Finally, the exhibition has significantly increased outreach, including 140 placements in print media, yielding circulation of 7,650,356; mention in 40 known blogs; and 591 mentions in social media with a potential reach of 6,200,000 views. As Finamore has stated, ‘the impact of our exhibition and book project on PEM was among the most effective we have undertaken, and our consultations with Bruce Peter helped assure the impact and overall success of this project.’ [S8]

Following his contribution to Ocean Liners, Peter was commissioned by Wood to write two chapters for the monograph accompanying her next major exhibition Art Deco by the Sea, inaugurated at the Sainsbury Centre for the Arts in Norwich in 2020 and, like Ocean Liners, intended to generate knowledge and to achieve economic impact. Covid-19 has prevented these objectives from being realised as anticipated; however, the exhibition had attracted 15,000 visitors by late-November 2020 and expanded its national and international reach through its selection for the BBC’s Culture in Quarantine series. Wood describes this as ‘the most significant showing of Art Deco in Britain since the Thirties exhibition at the Hayward in 1976’ and states that Peter’s ‘great empirical knowledge of architectural history and the histories of transport were a vital part of the project.’ [S7]

Peter has enabled the expansion of public knowledge of maritime design history, reaching large popular audiences through his role as expert contributor to TV programmes for major UK broadcasters: Queen Mary: Greatest Ocean Liner (Scottish Television for BBC 2, 2016); Great British Royal Ships: Her Majesty’s Yacht Britannia (Channel 5, 2017, 1,000,000+ viewers); and QE2: The World’s Greatest Cruise Ship (Channel 5, 2018, 1,000,000+ viewers). The programmes were subsequently re-sold internationally by Channel 5’s parent company, Viacom, and have been viewed in much of Europe and the USA (via PBS). Programmes made in recent years add to a suite of earlier shows that continue to be broadcast, generating economic activity through programme-making and sales and through accompanying commercial advertising slots. Approximately 25,000 copies of Peter’s books published since 2013 have been sold around the world, generating over GBP1,001,000. [S9] As well as public programmes, Peter was also invited by the Dorchester Hotel Group – operating nine luxury hotels in the UK, Italy, France and the USA – to record one of eight interviews with the art collector and curator Cathy Wills, based on his contributions to the Ocean Liners and Art Deco by the Sea exhibitions. The interviews were sent to 17,000 global clients of the Dorchester group to raise brand awareness, and made available on the Dorchester’s website. [S10]

Participatory and co-design research carried out by GSA researchers has created a novel way for complex health and care challenges to be explored. The research has created new services to support health and care responses – including for Covid-19 – and has supported health and care professionals to engage more effectively with stakeholders. It has validated existing and generated new evidence to underpin decisions and interventions. Specific tools have also influenced undergraduate teaching. Most significantly, through the co-founding of DHI, GSA research has transformed expectations about how health and care services are designed.

As part of a 2020 DHI project, GSA researchers collaborated with Public Health Scotland, NHS National Services Scotland, NHS Greater Glasgow & Clyde, NHS Lothian, Storm ID and Sitekit to co-design and develop 3 new Covid-19 services vital in supporting the NHS Scotland response to the pandemic and helping local Health Boards and national agencies to identify and manage outbreaks. Services included: a National Notification Service that aggregates test results and sends them out to the public through text and email; Simple Tracing Tools, that allow positive test results to flow down to each Scottish Health Board, automatically creating index cases, and allowing them to be assigned to contact tracers; and a Clinical Assessment Tool, enabling front-line staff in NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde to undertake structured assessment and examination of people presenting with Covid-19 symptoms.

The GSA team was instrumental in creating a simulation stage between concept design and live deployment of digital services and, by doing so, development time was reduced to a 6-week turnaround compared with nearly a year for NHS service development. Alongside this significant time saving, benefits of the tools include: relieving front-line NHS staff of the administrative burden of managing test results, enabling them to focus on higher impact health protection duties; equipping all 14 Scottish health boards with the digital means to capture contact tracing data; and, in Glasgow, undertaking over 3,000 patient assessments. DHI’s Chief Technology Officer has said of the GSA contribution: ‘The participatory design and group sense-making methods, converted for online collaboration, were crucial in binding together public health professionals to communally take managed risks in response to the crisis.’ Kate Mark, Public Health Scotland, confirms the uniqueness and value of the approach: ‘To the best of our knowledge, national public health services have not been co-designed by participants from across the health and technology professions [and] specifically, not in response to a national pandemic. Without the participatory design leadership from The Glasgow School of Art the services may not have been designed as quickly, may not have been satisfactory and could have cost more to design and develop. The Simple Tracing Tools service supported the easing of the first Scottish lockdown and informed the design of the national Test and Protect [content management system].’ [S1]

GSA research has also supported the implementation of a video capsule endoscopy *technology which replaces or complements existing colonoscopy services, through the SCOTCAP Service Evaluation (May 2019 to March 2020). Working alongside the universities of Aberdeen and Strathclyde, who carried out a clinical trial and patient evaluation, GSA used the results of their participatory design process to develop recommendations for successful delivery and national implementation. For the final stage of the project, SCOTCAP Adoption (June to August 2020), GSA created a blueprint for a scaled version of SCOTCAP to support a national service model. Initially piloted in NHS Highland, Grampian and Western Isles, SCOTCAP has since been launched in NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde and NHS Lanarkshire in December 2020. Benefits of successful implementation include patients being diagnosed much closer to home through early and effective community screening, as well as allowing clinical resource to focus on the most urgent cases. Consultant General and Colorectal Surgeon & Director of Research Development & Innovation, NHS Highland has said: ‘With Scottish Government’s backing, we are now rolling out the colon capsule service … We can make it so accessible. I really believe that we can change the incidence of bowel cancer in Scotland.’ GSA’s collaborative approach has also been recognised by the Innovative Procurement Partnership Winner of 2019 Scottish Digital Health and Care Innovation Award and the 2020 Holyrood Connect Industry Collaboration Award. [S2]

In a collaborative project to improve social marketing interventions to encourage gay and bisexual men who have sex with men (GBMSM) to undertake regular HIV testing, GSA’s approach ensured the existing international evidence-base was validated with local lived experience from intended intervention recipients, and added new evidence around the needs, preferences and key messages generated through their involvement in co-design. This resulted in a more informed, evidence-based design brief, commissioned by NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde. Health Improvement Lead at the Sandyford Sexual Health Service has said that the GSA research was ‘instrumental in designing, developing and delivering co-production design work-shops with a broad cross section of GBMSM,’ and that it helped to ‘strengthen local knowledge of the social environment in which testing decisions are being made and to elicit community generated ideas of what the local population would connect with,’ including ‘critical insights into GBMSM’s testing patterns, alongside how best to promote the availability of testing.’ [S3]

GSA’s research methodology supports health and care professionals to understand the challenges for service design and shape solutions in new ways. Examples include:

• Work with Midlothian Health and Social Care Partnership (MHSCP) to innovate frailty services (2019), leading citizen engagement and providing tools to build engagement capacity within MHSCP, such as producing visualisations of the ‘circles of care’ for people living with frailty and their carers. MHSCP is now using these tools to engage health and care staff and third sector partners to identify the unmet needs of citizens and to build services around those needs and aspirations across other service improvement and innovation work. Digital Programme Lead at MHSCP has said that prior to the work with GSA, they lacked the ‘design vocabulary’ to engage effectively with their stakeholders. The approaches they learned from GSA, ‘are such a clear way of engaging staff in reflective conversations during shared sense making and, most importantly, the citizens who co-created them valued the experience and validated the result so they have real worth.’ [S4]

• Following a successful exploration of the national Modern Outpatients journey, Scottish Government engaged GSA researchers in the Scottish Access Collaborative, a Scotland-wide programme tackling improvements and redesign of multiple patient pathways. GSA researchers worked with stakeholders to map ways of working and best practice across health boards in Scotland. Recommendations from the collaborative process have been implemented nationally in Scotland and applied to 14 clinical specialisms, leading to improvements in patient experience and outcomes. As Alan Hunter, NHS Scotland Director of Performance and Delivery, has highlighted: ‘The process for high level mapping of specialties has been innovative and effective … We may have been able to deliver the Specialty Groups without DHI’s partnership but I don’t think we would have been able to do it so well or at the same pace.’ [S5]

• GSA design researchers worked with NHS Grampian (2017/2018) to co-design care and emotional support around miscarriage, working with women who have experienced miscarriage, health professionals and third sector organisations. Feedback from health professionals highlighted the value of working with women with lived experience to develop new insights and practice and found that the resulting interventions created a better understanding of patient needs and a better continuity of care. Improvements in intervention design have been implemented in Grampian and in NHS Greater Glasgow & Clyde and are being considered for national adoption through the National Bereavement Care Pathway (https://www.nbcpscotland.org.uk/updates/march\-2021\-update/\). [S6]

• GSA research has also supported Scottish Care to explore the future of care at home, involving the perspectives of care at home providers and staff, to ensure that exploration of the future and opportunities to innovate were informed by lived experience. Following the work, a social care provider took forward the speculative design future workforce roles developed through the co-design process to shape 4 new roles within their organisation. As Karen Hedge, National Director of Scottish Care highlights, ‘Critically, it was because of [the design methodology] and collaborative approach, that the project led to the creation of new job roles which whilst innovative, were grounded in reality and therefore implementable.’ [S7] In addition, Scottish Care is hosting a one-year secondment for a GSA researcher (Dr Tara French) to embed the way of working into their service development.

GSA’s contribution to the AMRSim project has led to changes in the delivery of veterinary science teaching at the University of Surrey, through the incorporation of a 3D teaching intervention. Staff and students have benefitted from the collaboration. For staff in the Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences, ‘Working in this way provided a fresh perspective and appreciation of infection risk and helped motivate changes in the behaviour of veterinary staff needed to reduce such risk.’ Staff have also been able to use the tool as part of the online learning offer, so vital during the pandemic when students did not have access to a clinical setting. Feedback from students has been very positive, describing the tool as ‘enjoyable’ (100% of feedback) and ‘engaging’ (97%). 82.5% of participants reported a change in attitude towards asepsis and its role in antimicrobial resistance. The percentage of participants who felt ‘very or extremely informed’ about infection prevention control increased from 26% before the use of the teaching intervention to 79% after their engagement with the learning tool. Participants also agreed that they would be more likely to adhere to infection prevention control measures in clinical placements due to their learning. [S8]

As part of a partnership (now with the University of Strathclyde), GSA was the first independent art school to receive funding to establish an innovation centre in digital health and care, marking a transformation in expectations of where health and care innovation should and could be delivered. DHI is part of Scottish Funding Council’s Innovation Centre Programme, which aims ‘to enhance innovation and entrepreneurship across Scotland’s key economic sectors, create jobs and grow the economy.’ The award was made on the basis of GSA’s participatory and co-design research track record, demonstrating confidence in GSA’s ability to create impact in this sector. Since the original award in 2013, first renewed in 2017 and then renewed and expanded to include funding from Scottish Government in 2019, GSA’s contributions to DHI innovation projects have been awarded GBP8,500,000 (income in REF period GBP5,500,00) supporting 12 new posts. DHI’s Chief Technology Officer has said, ‘The GSA provide invaluable expertise in generating insight, helping teams to move beyond the more obvious technical factors and into the underlying, common innovation requirements necessary for whole system change.’ [S1] GSA staff have been involved in a range of DHI projects – involving 3,000 citizens, 1,000 health and care professionals and 75 partners – helping DHI to build reputation and attract further funding. This activity includes a joint project with the NHS to procure data sharing infrastructure, specifications for which drew directly on the GSA design innovation. Contracts worth GBP2,500,000 have been commissioned for this infrastructure, which is now being used by 11 of the 14 Scottish Health Boards across 5 separate services: contact tracing, self-service contact tracing, test result communication, COPD remote monitoring and dermatology asynchronous clinics. [S9]