Centre for Applied Research in the Arts

What is research?

The University seeks to produce internationally excellent and world leading research. According to the UK’s Research Excellence Framework (REF), research is ‘a process of investigation leading to new insights, effectively shared’.  In CARA, our research aims to explore the ways that the arts can have significant real-world impact.

What do research partnerships look like?

Research partnerships take different forms depending on the kind of work being carried out. Some projects are established by the University but require input from practitioners and professionals, for example, as members of an advisory board or committee of stakeholders. Other projects include direct contributions from partners as co-researchers, creative practitioners or industry partners. Some projects are generated by partners in collaboration with researchers (usually called co-created research).

How are research partnerships funded?

Researchers make applications to one or more funding bodies in order to finance a research project. These can include large, high-profile funders (for example, those associated with the organisation UK Research and Innovation2) and/or smaller, independent funders, some of which are only available locally or regionally. All funders have their own application procedures that must be followed.

The University has a Research and Innovation Funding Office (RIFO) that provides support to researchers who are preparing funding bids. There is an internal University process for the development and review of funding bids before they can be submitted. Some bids are announced with very short turnaround times, leading researchers to approach partners with requests for information at short notice. Please be prepared for this possibility.

Competition for funding is high, and bids are frequently rejected. As a result, researchers may need to apply to a number of funders before securing funding. Securing funding for a project can take a long time, and researchers will endeavour to keep you updated with the progress of funding applications.

CARA is committed to fair remuneration for artists. We do not ask artists to create work for our projects for free. If you are invited to create work in collaboration with a CARA research project, we will ensure that a fee for your work is included in the funding bid to support the research.

What now?

If you have any questions or are interested in collaborating with researchers at the University on a project as part of CARA, please email the CARA Steering Group at CARA@hull.ac.uk. We look forward to working with you!

Transitions in Music Education is a project working in partnership with Hull City Council, Hull Music Service, and East Riding Music Service. It aims to explore the perspectives of pupils, parents, and music teachers on musical engagement, particularly regarding learning an instrument. The project aims to focus on two key transitional points in the UK education system: the move to secondary school (Year 6 to Year 7) and the move to GCSE Level (typically Year 9 to Year 10). According to reports from the Hull and East Riding Music Services, there are significant declines in pupil continuation of instrumental lessons and involvement in musical activities across these transition points. The research team is led by Dr Mark Slater, and includes Dr Elaine King, Dr Helen Prior, Professor Andrew King, and Ellie Dabell (PhD student).

This research project explores STROKESTRA™, a music rehabilitation programme for stroke patients and carers. The STROKESTRA programme is managed by the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra (RPO) and facilitated by professional RPO musicians with clinicians from the Hull and East Riding Community Stroke Services (HERCSS).

The research aims to identify how STROKESTRA is implemented, experienced and facilitated as well as to evaluate its impact on the wellbeing and post-stroke recovery of patients and carers. The research team is led by Dr Elaine King (Music) and involves Dr Helen Prior (Music), Caroline White (Health and Social Work), Rosie Dunn (Health and Social Work) and Dr Graziana Presicce (Music). The research is funded by the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and a 50th Anniversary Research and Development Award from SEMPRE (the Society for Education, Music and Psychology Research).

Preliminary findings about the project were reported in a presentation at the SEMPRE 50th Anniversary Conference (London, September 2022).

A full report of the research is available here.

For more information about the research project, please contact the Principal Investigator, Dr Elaine King.

The Chinese Whispers Project has a cultural and creative agenda: it facilitates respectful interaction between people from different generations and cultural backgrounds; and it promotes the learning of Mandarin language and culture in community members (both children and adults) through creative practice, specifically group singing.

A team of researchers is currently pursuing three strands of enquiry about the Project:

1. Educational (to design and deliver a “singing curriculum” for learning Mandarin through song)
2. Psychological (to investigate experiential aspects of language learning in the context of choir singing)
3. Creative (to explore issues of translation and cultural fusion through music composition)

(Psy)CliMuse aims to explore the ways in which music might be used to help with the fight against climate change. While music is known to influence our moods, emotions, and behaviour towards others, research is only beginning to explore how these influences might be used to change environment-related behaviours. We are taking a range of approaches, from mapping theory in environmental psychology with music psychology research, to conducting empirical studies; this project aims to explore both music written with the intention of influencing climate-related attitudes and behaviours, and music with no obvious link with the environment, to see when and how music can help us to make better environment-related decisions. The research team is led by Dr Helen Prior and involves Dr Matt Barnard, Dr Simon Desbruslais, and Dr Mark Slater; we also work with researchers from other areas of the University.

Music Technology Education Connect (MTEC) is led by Professor Andrew King at the University of Hull working alongside Dr Helen Prior (Music) and Dr Mark Minott (education). MTEC is a collaboration between Technology in Music Education (TiME) directors Kate Rounding and Richard Llewellyn, Leicestershire Music Hub, with expert consultants from the Institute of Education (UCL) Professor Evangelos Himonides, Dr Carol Johnson at The University of Melbourne, and Dr Caroline Waddington Jones at The University of York.

The project began in September 2023 the project is targeting sustainable and accessible ways for providing support to the educators using technology in music education. Responding to the 2022 National Plan for Music Education (which cites the use of technology as one of four main development objectives) this project will provide a foundation for a national study that will have international implications. A proof-of-concept study is being developed that will be trialled in early 2024. That pilot project has already identified the support needs and is now developing the training for educators using technology in music education at key stage 3. The second stage is to develop the technological framework and deliver the training followed by an analysis of the results by the research team. Project outcomes will be delivered in June 2024 and will be showcased at the 7^th International Biannual Music Education Technology (MET) conference supported by the Society for Education and Music Psychology Research. This event will be hosted by the University of Hull.

The 50-minute play, Safer, written by Dr Sarah Jane Dickenson, has been described by audiences as ‘thought-provoking’, ‘powerful’, ‘uplifting’, ‘sad’, ‘really dynamic’, ‘funny’ and ‘fresh’. It is also – at times – disconcerting and tough to watch.

Founded in 2018, the Hull Roundheads is the first LGBTQIA+ specific sports team in the city. Since the start, the rugby club has focused on offering an LGBTQIA+ friendly community to enjoy sport and compete. The club’s founding member Dr David Eldridge, applied for the new research grant launched by the British Science Association and funded by the Wellcome Trust – named ‘The Ideas Fund.’

The project has piloted in schools and colleges, offering a performance of the play and a workshop after – led by Dr Lucy Fielding. This educational strand is working with young people to discuss themes of inclusion, exclusion and toxicity; specifically addressing banter. This aspect of the project aims to support schools and colleges improve their understanding and capacity to be inclusive both within and outside of a sports setting, centralising the voices of young people.

The VOICE project has been exploring the value of storytelling as a tool of self-advocacy for people with learning disabilities in Hull. A mixed group of people with and without learning disabilities have been exploring storytelling as a social tool to connect and increase a sense of community and wellbeing where local advocacy services have become less accessible to those with learning disabilities. 

The charity Menopaus’ull – a branch of the Neighbourhood Network – is working with researcher Dr Lucy Fielding to create a performance that centralises the voices and experiences of its members, all of whom have experienced or are currently experiencing the menopause. The success of the work Menopaus’ull is providing is apparent in its growing numbers to women in the local area, however there is still much more to be done across the country to allow women to feel better informed about the menopause.

The overwhelming consensus of inadequate information or support for this natural change to the body has left many feeling isolated from their families, communities and in some cases their own bodies. The performance created in this project will highlight the resilience of these incredible women, sharing their stories through fictionalised characters.

It will celebrate women and highlight the need for improved support and awareness about the menopause for everyone, whilst expanding the growing community to combat the isolation felt by so many through a variety workshops that run in tandem with the research.   

'Augmented Fashion: Immersive Interactions for Sustainable Heritage in Fashion and Textiles' is a £1.3 million, AHRC-funded 48-month research project (£499,000 from AHRC + £844,349 matched funding from all partners across UK & China). It is a continuing project from AHRC's UK-China Creative Industries Partnership Development grant and Professor Yang Jiang is the Principal Investigator of both projects.

The project aims to determine how immersive interactions can be used to communicate the experience and value of creative, artisan fashion and textile products, with a focus on culture, provenance, heritage, the human hand and sustainable clothing consumption. Fashion and textiles has embraced computer technology, with online sales and fashion film increasingly being used to market creative designs. However digital technologies within this sector have been used primarily to drive consumer demand for fast fashion, often involving narratives and experiences around performance and spectacle for pushing sales. This research project investigates the opportunities that technology offers to redress the balance by using digital methods to inform and shape an alternative and sustainable future for the international fashion and textile industry based on different economic and societal models.

With support from the ideas fund researchers Jason Hayhurst and Dan Wonnacott are working with Butterflies Memory Loss Group members to express the human senses through virtual reality art and celebrating this in a virtual art gallery to a wider audience with audio reactive brushes and spatial audio and a creative visual experience.

The New Music Biennial 2017 was supported by a 697k grant from multiple agencies such as Paul Hamlyn and Arts Council England that had two project work streams: Composer Residencies; and Minute of Listening. The project was led by the Performance Rights Society Foundation with support from Sound and Music and evaluated by a team of researchers at the University of Hull led by Dr Andrew King.

The Flight of the Monarchs project was led by Dr Rob Mackay. The project used new methods in eco-acoustic composition, together with public-facing art installations to create practice-as-research outputs that are a form of environmental advocacy (designed to confront audiences directly with the plight of one particular species). Mackay first recorded the threatened Monarch butterfly in the El Rosario nature reserve in Mexico; he then used sound compositions to create an installation for the Amy Johnson Festival in Hull (on the theme of flight). Other works within the project consider the environmental factors that contribute to the species’ decline – and incorporate scientific literature on the Monarch, together with evidence of eco-activism taking place. Mackay has worked alongside Mexican film maker Jessica Rodríguez and poet Rolando Rodríguez to make further installations – including a portable wooden structure housing speakers and screens, that allows viewers and auditors to experience something of the Monarch’s natural environment.

Connect Resound was an action research project that was initially funded by a 110k grant from the Nesta Digital Research and Design Fund. The scheme of work was a collaboration between The University of Hull (Research), North Yorkshire Music Action Zone (charitable), and UCan Play (technology) to investigate how digital technology can enhance access to expertise and widen participation in music education. The project team, led by Principal Investigator Dr Andrew King, focussed upon the technological framework and the teaching behaviours as part of the evaluation. A Remote Music Network was then established between national music hubs in England supported by a 60k grant from Arts Council England. The project was further enhanced by a 273k grant in 2017 from Paul Hamlyn to roll-out the project nationally.

The Risky Cities project used innovative arts and humanities approaches to build climate awareness and help communities become more flood resilient, today and for the future. Funded as part of the AHRC UK Climate Resilience Programme, the project developed learning histories for one flood-prone city (Hull, UK) and use them in community-based arts and heritage interventions as well as large-scale cultural productions developed in collaboration with project partners, Absolutely Cultured and the National Youth Theatre.

Music Connections is funded by the Ferens Education Trust. The project aims to use the specialisms of Music staff at the University to support classroom teaching, and promote student interest in university study. The project is generating specially curated video content which can be shared via Microsoft Teams. The project is led by Dr Peter Elsdon (Music) with graduate administrator Lewis Chadwick.

Music Footprint is a research project exploring the environmental footprint of musical activities. We have been working with members of Hull’s Energy and Environment Institute to explore the carbon footprint of Music’s activities within the School of the Arts, pinpointing ways of reducing our environmental impact. We hope to expand the project to regional musical groups and activities, identifying ways of pursuing music while minimising its environmental costs. The research team is co-led by Dr Helen Prior and Dr Mark Slater, and also involves Dr Matt Barnard and Dr Simon Desbruslais.

Dr Christian Billing

Dr Peter Elsdon

Mr Jason Hayhurst

Professor Yang Jiang

Dr Andrew King

Dr Elaine King

Dr James McLean

Helen Mitchell

Dr Helen Prior

Dr Mark Slater

Dr Yanyi Lu

Ellie Dabell

PhD student (music) | Project: Transitions in Music Education

Ellie McCann

PhD student (music) | Project: Chinese Whispers

James Rushworth

PhD student (music) | Project: Chinese Whispers

Tongjia Jiang

PhD student (music) | Project: Music Audience Environmental Behaviours