Trinity project among 8 announced in Government’s Shared Island initiative

Posted on: 01 December 2022

His project will bring together academics, cultural data specialists and arts sector organisations from England, Ireland and Northern Ireland to develop a data system for enhancing how cultural engagement is understood, which aims to impact on the development of policy, tourism and creative industries.

The Taoiseach Micheál Martin T.D. and Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science, Simon Harris T.D., have announced funding for eight new research projects under the Shared Island strand of the Irish Research Council’s New Foundations programme. Projects will bring researchers together to inform development of political, policy and economic cooperation, as well as deepening social and cultural understandings on the island of Ireland.

Dr Steven Hadley from Trinity’s School of Creative Arts is pursuing the project ‘Audience Data for Cultural Policy: A Shared Island Approach to the Creative Industries’.

Limited statistical data currently exists on audiences for cultural events on the island of Ireland. Survey work shows that people participate in a variety of activities, but this data is not linked to actual attendance (e.g., ticket purchase) or geography and is not suited to the development of policy which promotes cultural connections and understanding on a shared island basis. Steven’s project will bring together academics, cultural data specialists and arts sector organisations from England, Ireland and Northern Ireland to develop a data system which will revolutionize our understanding of cultural engagement and impact on policy, tourism and creative industries development.

Dr Steven Hadley

The awards, totalling €150,000, focus on the Shared Island priorities set by Government as part of the revised National Development Plan (2021-2030) and key issues from the Shared Island Dialogue series convened by the Government to foster inclusive civic dialogue on a shared future on the island, across two themes:

Theme 1: Political, policy and economic cooperation on the island

Theme 2: Civic, social and cultural connections and understanding on the island

Among the other research projects being funded are Dr Conor Little, University of Limerick who will lead a project examining the development of the policy agendas of the shared institutions of the Good Friday Agreement; Dr Maebh Harding, University College Dublin, will bring together a network of legal scholars across Ireland, Northern Ireland and Britain to address emerging and complex issues of gender and law in both the immediate and long term; and Professor Sheila O’Donohoe, South East Technological University is to establish a research partnership between two universities on the island of Ireland focused on sustainable finance solutions to tackle biodiversity loss. Full details of each project can be found here on the IRC website.

The Shared Island strand of the New Foundations programme sees researchers develop partnerships either North/South on the island of Ireland, East/West between Ireland and Britain, or through an international collaboration relevant to the island of Ireland and the Good Friday Agreement.

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