Key local and developmental issues in Galway and the west of Ireland are being tackled in a new EU project involving University of Galway.
The project, IN SITU – Place-based innovation of cultural and creative industries in non-urban areas, will run over four years.
Public input is being sought to increase the capacity of cultural and creative industries to act as drivers of innovation, competitiveness, and sustainability in their local region.
Dr Pat Collins, University of Galway, the project’s Principal Investigator said, “At the core of this project is a recognition that culture and creativity exist everywhere […]
“What we are looking at here is how we can use culture and creativity as a legitimate developmental tool for places like the west of Ireland”.
University of Galway is recruiting publicly engaged researchers for the project. The intention is to commence interesting conversations about key local development issues facing Galway and the west and highlighting the past and future roles of culture and creativity in addressing placemaking.
“Beyond the research aspect, there is an important practical element to this project. We will be inviting members of the public and local creatives to join with us in looking at how culture can help us address some key issues at the local level in the west of Ireland”.
Last summer UrbanLab teamed up with the Galway International Arts Festival to bring Luke Jerram’s Mars exhibition to Persse’s Plaza on Nuns’ Island to inspire the people of Galway to consider new uses for the old distillery.
The IN SITU consortium spans 13 institutional partners in 12 countries and is accompanied by a number of partners in Europe and further afield.
The project interlinks research and practice through place-based hubs for networking, capacity building, and monitoring case studies in six regions across Europe, in Ireland, Portugal, Iceland, Finland, Latvia, and Croatia.
The project has been granted four million euro in funding from the European Commission under the Horizon Europe programme. It is being coordinated by the Centre for Social Studies at the University of Coimbra in Portugal.
