UEA Research for Community Heritage Ideas Bank: starting with your idea

UEA's virtual Open Day, May & June 2012 - A Research for Community Heritage Ideas Bank: starting with your idea
To explore the potential of research for community heritage we need to start with ideas. Our experience at UEA tells us that the process is much the same, whether the idea originates in the community or in the academy. An idea always leads to further questions and many possible leads. At this stage it is important to ask the right questions, provide the right advice and find a focus. As a part of the 'brokerage' phase in the wider AHRC initiative linked with the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) and potentially other partners, UEA's Research for Community Heritage Ideas Bank enables us to start with the idea. This virtual bank, accessed via webpages hosted on UEA's website, linked via key partner networks and promoted via a communications plan that will include face-to-face events and meetings by a team of postgraduate researchers, will gather ideas from communities and from researchers. Our wrap-around engagement and support activities for all stakeholders, before and after the live deposit period, will underpin and provide a platform upon which researchers and communities can come together and co-create a blueprint for the community heritage projects which may be eligible for the HLF funding.

Why a virtual ideas bank - UEA is located on the hinterland of East Anglia, a region with a population of around 3.4 million people living in rural, town, city and coastal communities in Norfolk, Suffolk, Cambridgeshire & Essex. Hosting one or more open days either on campus or at different locations would not enable us to reach a broad enough audience and might even attract only the 'usual' suspects; that is, those who already engage with the University. The virtual Ideas Bank will give the project another dimension by enabling us to scale up our reach throughout the Region. The Ideas Bank will also be open to all UEA researchers in HUM and in other UEA faculties, particularly the Faculty of Social Sciences of which two members of the research team are members.

This outline assessment of impact is made with the acknowledgement that the Ideas Bank project is just the first phase of a wider funding call that will lead to the development of collaborative or co-produced community heritage projects that could benefit both society and the academy in different ways. The benefits of the project will be mutual, for researchers and for communities. At UEA we have already seen the positive impact that is achieved by creating opportunities for researchers and communities to try things out in partnership projects through the CUE East funded and supported projects (see Collaborating Activities Attachments). The CUE East evaluation states, "82% who had received CUE East support perceived that it would have an impact in terms of nurturing a change of culture at UEA, and also suggested that the support may lead to long-term relationships between UEA and the wider community" Stakeholder Perception Survey, 2011

Communities will benefit from the project in practical ways by having the opportunity to register or 'deposit' their ideas for a community heritage project, guided by UEA, if needed. UEA postgraduate researchers will be visiting community locations, as facilitated by for example, Norfolk Rural Community Council, to talk to communities about how to deposit their ideas. Communities will have their ideas assessed by the University for a potential UEA academic partner from any of UEA's Arts & Humanities Schools and also relevant Schools in the Social Science Faculty. They would not have to navigate the academic maze searching for relevant research expertise as that would be done for them. Their ideas will be put into a Prospective Partners Map that will inform the next step of the project. Those communities with ideas that have the best match with UEA's expertise will have facilitated introductions to researchers for their projects. And those communities that decide they do want to go ahead with an HLF grant application and use UEA expertise will get project development and management advice from UEA's public engagement office, CUE East when preparing their application. In the context of the wider funding call, this initiative, involving academic researchers following the AHRC funded brokerage phase, will help to build at a local level, a sense of place, ensuring that community identity and heritage does not become obscured by the ever pressing demands of coping with the recession and in fact, takes its rightful place in building community cohesion and resilience for the future. In addition, the initiative may lead to potential for tourism opportunities and economic growth.

The project community partners will benefit from the project by having an opportunity to for example, enhance their learning & development programme for staff and volunteers e.g. building research and project management skills. They will also have an opportunity to find out more about UEA's research expertise in community heritage. And they will be able to build on their existing community relations and, in particular, develop new community partnerships centred on possible HLF funded projects that uncover as yet, unexplored community heritage and narratives.

Researchers at UEA will, like communities, benefit from the project in practical ways by having the opportunity to register or 'deposit' their relevant expertise, and also ideas, for potential community heritage projects, guided by UEA, if needed. They will have their ideas assessed by the University for a potential community partner. They would not have to navigate the community maze searching for a partner as that would be done for them. Their expertise and ideas will be put into a Prospective Partners Map that will inform the next step of the project and they will benefit from facilitated introductions to communities.