The Culture, Heritage & Arts Impact Network (CHAIN) has been has been a driving motivator for encouraging and strengthening collaborative projects with the cultural world since 2023. In this, it has three core objectives:

1. Building research community of impact generating research.
2. Connecting researchers coordinating existing partnerships, to strenghten and create new interdisciplinary connections.
3. Stimulating new relations with societal partners, in projects that have eye for inclusion and bottom-up collabarition.

Themes

Four themes are central to the impact network:

Heritage and climate – what are the relationships and tensions between heritage, climate and sustainability? From the impact of climate change on cultural heritage to the ways in which heritage practices provide resilience and inspiration in times of climate change.

Heritage and socio-cultural change– what are the socio-cultural roles of heritage? From heritage as an engine for social change to research on controversial (colonial) heritage and questions of diversity and inclusion in the cultural establishment.

Institutions: public and private – what effects does public or private funding have on questions of value, canonisation and economic (in)equality? Research into the ethical aspects of cultural funding.

Creative industry: precarity and resilience – what insecurities and opportunities do artists and other workers in the creative industries experience? From the impact of precarious work and economic inequality on artistic freedom and power relations, to the ways in which resilience and innovation contribute to the sustainability and inclusiveness of the creative industries.

Steering group CHAIN