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Cross-pollination is one of nine knowledge exchange projects funded in January 2022 by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC), under a programme designed to support the cultural and social regeneration of places around the UK and capture the value and contribution of the arts and humanities research to local regeneration and development. Cross-pollination is a design-led, creative approach (a way of co-creation) where parties across different sectors share and identify common and complementary interests, competencies and live projects in order to incubate new activities/projects and collaborate on joint work. It is a flexible and adaptable approach, with two key principles: • It adopts an asset-based development mindset which focuses primarily on existing (individual and collective) strengths as a way forward, rather than needs or weaknesses. • It focuses on connecting and enhancing existing initiatives to create a ‘sharing economy’. The approach was originally developed in the Scaling up Co-design research project, funded under AHRC's Connected Communities programme. The team combined expertise from different domains (design, placemaking, technology, media, housing, and voluntary action) and looked to engage with a variety of communities, particularly marginalised communities, to deliver small collaborative projects in different places across the UK. Within a year, through this approach, the original team of 6 Community Sector Organisations and 4 academic partners, grew to connect with 22 new collaborators and deliver 10 projects. See the scaling up report and booklet. Since then, the cross-pollination approach has been adapted and used in many different situations. Visit the Glass-House web page on cross-pollination to read more about the approach and how it has been used. Recently, it was used as part of a Higher Education Innovation Funded project focussed on Incubating Civic Leadership. You can view the project video here: In this project the focus is on creating cross-pollination champions who can support and cascade collaboration in their local places, working with three key partners in Glasgow, London and Merthyr (read more about the team here). We will use this space to post updates, reflections and project outcomes.
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