Bristol and Bath By Design

The primary academic design institutions in the Bristol and Bath region (UWE, and the universities of Bath Spa and Bristol) will collaborate in order to undertake a comprehensive analysis of the value and impact of design in the region. Using quantitative and qualitative methods, the team will strive to articulate the social and economic value of design, in addition to an assessment of the nature and quality of the regional design networks. Working in collaboration with REACT, West of England Design Forum (WEDF), Bristol Media, Creative Bath and The West of England Local Enterprise Partnership (WLEP), the three universities will provide a unique knowledge base that affords a deep understanding of the distinctive nature and characteristics of design in the Bristol and Bath region. The partner institutions' design academics will also exploit their networks with other regional HEIs including Bath University (Architecture & Engineering) and the University of Gloucestershire to provide consultative input into the project. A combination of approaches and methods drawn from both the social sciences and arts and humanities will enable the project team to move beyond the raw statistical sector mapping that has occurred to date through analysing the importance of the region's unique cultural heritage, the social, historical and cultural context within which designers operate. In this way, the project will create a robust framework for the understanding and evaluation of design in the region whose finding will benefit the research councils, the government, HEIs and industry.

The impact of this research project will have wide reaching benefit for the region. A fully developed profile of design industry in the region mapping how design practice enhances broad aspects of the socio-economic landscape. Its cultural and economic analysis will be of great value to our partners, funders and regional agencies. It will provide information to cover the basic gaps in available data from the Office of National Statistics (ONS), which does not currently collect comprehensive data about the design industry and occupations in the widest possible sense. The project will generate robust hard factual data and case studies that will support existing anecdotal evidence. It will have the potential inform the ways in which the ONS map the SME (small and medium enterprises) element of design industry, and design roles in the 'non-creative' industries, such as engineering and aerospace. This research will enable the region's design profile and its influence to become more visible nationally and internationally. This has the capacity to attract more design and creative-led businesses and talent to the Bristol/Bath area.

More widely, the impact of the project will directly support the vision and business development of the project partners and other related organisations in the region. For example, the LEP supports business growth of key sectors: creative and media (national lead); advanced engineering, aerospace and defense (national lead); micro-electronics and silicon design; environmental technologies and marine renewables; and tourism - all of which involve the design disciplines. It will also drive innovation and creativity and the development of new technologies, products and services in 3 main ways: People, Local Business and Place. LEP partners are working together to support: 95,000 new jobs by 2030; 3.4% annual growth by 2020; £1+ billion private sector investment over the next 3 years; well-motivated workforce with the skills business needs; and thereby provide foundations for a long-term sustainable economy. We believe that design will play a major role in the region's future development and the project will help in that process by providing accurate statistical information and a qualitative analysis of the design ecology.

The project will increase regional capacity in multidisciplinary research specifically across multiple design and business disciplines through the collaborative development of the research team (Research Fellows, Associates, Administrator), providing transferable skillsets and expertise applicable to both industry and academia. The research will also produce recommendations for a 'toolkit' document that will highlight the ways in which regional economies can establish policy, investment and planning frameworks to enhance the value in their design-led creative industries. This type of shorter action-oriented publication (typically aimed at regional policy level, LEPs, local authorities, regional investment agencies) has the capacity to provide research findings during the course of the project that could enable policymakers to make a difference by describing the value of the local design communities.