Today (Tuesday, March 8) sees the launch of a new two-year pilot programme that will support the innovation potential of students, staff and recent alumni of the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland.

Innovation Studio will facilitate new opportunities for idea development and knowledge exchange at the RCS. Through a series of workshops, panels, online discussions, interdisciplinary collaborations and seed funds, Innovation Studio will support creative experimentation, skills development and collaboration.

Innovation Studio will provide focused support and funding to unlock interdisciplinary approaches to local, sectoral, national, and global challenges. It offers the artistic community at RCS additional tools and provocations as they seek to expand their sphere of influence and impact in a changing economy.

Innovation Studio’s aims include:

• Support the RCS community to leverage new innovative projects, partners and sources of funding.
• Facilitate the development of new strands of innovative research, business ideas and project development with partner charities and organisations.
• Establish an innovation hub and support service co-created during the pilot with RCS staff, students and alumni.
• Facilitate the development of an active innovation network at RCS.

Three Innovation Challenges, each lasting around four months, are at the heart of Innovation Studio and are thematically linked to the UN Sustainable Development Goals: Green Recovery; Placemaking and Health & Wellbeing.

The Green Recovery Challenge will run from March until June this year. Each challenge will involve a series of online events, including panels, workshops, funding opportunities, one-to-one mentoring sessions, and more. The central challenge programme will be supported by highly tailored training and development programmes, a Crowdfunding Lab (year 1) and Ideas Incubator (year 2).

Professor Stephen Broad, Director of Research and Knowledge Exchange at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, said: “Our multi-talented students, staff, and alumni have the innovation potential and industry expertise to support Scotland’s Covid recovery and transformation.”

Deborah Keogh, Innovation Studio Project Director at RCS, said: “This programme gives our community 24 months to test and trial new work and new working partnerships. The themes have helped to open up thinking and ideas around how artists can lead societal change through the creation of their work and sharing it in new contexts. This will also build on a body of work that is already underway in different pockets of the Conservatoire.

“Innovation Studio aligns with the new Scottish Government National Strategy for Economic Transformation with a vision to deliver a Wellbeing Economy. We look forward to sharing stories and case studies as the project builds over the next two years.”

Visit Innovation Studio