The rapidly worsening problem of the accumulation of wast plastics in the environment has been highlighted by recent media attention. Waste plastics impact on health, the environment and the economy currently, it represents inefficient use of the planet's reserve of oil. This ambitious, pioneering proposal explicitly frames the opportunities to realise a sustainable and resilient plastics circular economy within a 'socio-technological transitions' approach that integrates innovation and creative design thinking across technological, policy, consumer behaviour and supply chain management domains. It leverages against a network of key stakeholders combining government, industry and academia to achieve its aims and is geographically focused within a representative region of the UK. Integration and management of logistics is a fundamental dimension of organisational strategy within manufacturing, and an understanding of the supply chain is crucial for the development of a circular plastics economy. Within the supply chain, the potential of the exemplar projects needs to be assessed, particularly with respect to energy, carbon and cost implications, so that hotspots can be identified and managed, and impacts relative to the baseline can be assessed. A 2015 ReNEW report into the Circular Economy in Northern Ireland (NI) estimated that more than 13,000 jobs could be created if the province moved to an innovative circular economy, prompting Derry City and Strabane District Council to develop a "zero waste circular economy" strategy. However, the need to support the value chain within the UK is critical: as exemplified by Closed Loop Recycling Ltd., who, despite significant investment, went into administration (2015) due to the higher cost of recycled PET vs that of the virgin material. Parallels can thus be drawn with the renewable energy market where low cost oil and gas hampered growth thereby necessitating policy interventions. Furthermore, improving the resilience of the sector by improving the connectivity of the supply chain and providing raw material assurances as well as understanding longer term stakeholder expectations of the plastics circular economy are important considerations. Unlike renewable energy it can be argued that the size of such an economy needs to contract until it is matched by the sectors ability to sustainably produce the monomer constituents. Such technologies exist but at present these are generally not economical. This highlights the sector's need to transition to a downsized circular economy when compared to current potential levels and hence it is important to consider policy innovations needed to both support 'just transitions' which lead to the creation of 'green and decent' jobs.

Hubs of Innovation and Entrepreneurship for the Transformation of Historic Urban Areas HUB-IN aims to foster innovation and entrepreneurship in Historic Urban Areas (HUA), while preserving the unique identity of the historic sites regarding their natural, cultural and social values. HUB-IN adopts the innovation and entrepreneurship as the main drivers of urban regeneration in HUAs and it´s fully aligned with the International agendas for Cultural Sustainable Development (UNESCO) and Cultural Heritage Strategy (Council Europe). HUB-IN will have two main stages. In the first stage, a network of Hubs of innovation and entrepreneurship (Hubs) will be developed in the HUAs of eight city partners and in the second stage, the resulting methods and tools will be upscaled to a global network of HUAs of follower cities. The Hubs of Innovation and Entrepreneurship (Hubs) will test, demonstrate and pilot activities of co-creation and co-design in three meaningful clusters with potential for sustainable transformation of HUA: i) Cultural and creative industries, ii) New lifestyles and iii) Endogenous Natural & Social Resources. HUB-IN defines 12 specific goals, that will be achieved by the following methodology: i) Building an ecosystem of interconnected Hubs to accelerate urban regeneration in eight HUAs, ii) Creating value in pilot Hubs, piloting social innovation and accelerating sustainable entrepreneurship in HUAs, iii) Packaging, upscaling and exploiting the results and create collaborative global network of Hubs of innovation and entrepreneurship in HUA, iv) Creating the HUB-IN digital space. HUB-IN expect to contribute to reverse trends of abandonment and neglect of historic heritage in a systemic way through the creation of networks of Hubs where innovation will be the main driver. HUB-IN will also have a direct impact on the creation of new sustainable opportunities for local traditional businesses and for the development of new creative skills and jobs.

This project assesses the architectural legacy of The Troubles, the social-historical phenomenon between 1969 and 1994 when the sectarian conflict in Northern Ireland was at its most extreme. The influence of The Troubles was such that it has had a profound impact on the social, political, economic, cultural and spatial structures of Northern Ireland. There are many visible architectural remnants of the Troubles in contemporary Belfast, most notably the 'peace-walls' between a number of Protestant and Roman Catholic residential communities. Quite distinct from this recognised architectural legacy, this research encapsulates a specific, discrete and barely recognised aspect of the cultural structures of The Troubles: a range of distinct and divisive architecture within individual communities in Belfast, now embedded in the contemporary urban fabric. As Northern Ireland moves forward in a post-Troubles era, a plethora of housing, roads, landscaping and related artefacts continue to divide and spatially fragment communities. The research conceives of a 'community' as a construct of 'People and Architecture', an intrinsic inter-relationship between people and their built environment. Community, housing, and security in Belfast are intricately linked. During The Troubles 70% of bombings were aimed at housing in the 'Belfast Urban Area'. The residential inner-city was subject to fundamental architectural alterations by both civilian and security authorities. These interventions resulted in a profound material impact upon inner-city communities, creating architectural and spatial disconnection that has promoted deprivation and disenfranchisement within these communities. These areas that are at now at the focus of the 'Together: Building a United Community Strategy, the core policy framework for post-conflict Northern Ireland, which emphasises the role communities will have to play in shaping their own future. Whilst there has been much work in the areas of planning policy, sociology and human geography concerning The Troubles, there is a distinct lack of architectural research in this area, particularly concerning architectural design and the relationship to communities during conflict. This study addresses this gap in knowledge, and equip local communities and policy makers with a crucial knowledge-base that is pertinent to contemporary policy formulation. The overarching aim of this research is to effect material change in the community life of some of Belfast's most deprived urban areas. The research conceives of a city-wide study that will examine the architectural legacy of The Troubles and engage local communities with these findings in order to inclusively inform related policy formulation. This suggests four questions: What do these architectural artefacts look like? What do communities have to say about this architecture? How can this research inform the related and relevant policy discussions? What are the lessons for other communities, at both national and international level? These questions formulate the following objectives: to engage this area of arts & humanities research with community and policy stakeholders; to foster community empowerment through structured, active inclusion with policy makers; to illuminate and illustrate the urban impact of conflict in Belfast's communities; and, to develop a transferable method to engage local communities as active-researchers of their built environment. A 'community' as a construct of 'People and Architecture' involves a complex inter-relationship between community, design practice and policy ambition. A cross-disciplinary research team addresses this research context. Academics from architecture, photography, social policy, planning policy and conflict studies are working with community project partners and government agencies. This team have developed a co-designed, collaborative methodology with embedded pathways to community, policy, public and academic impact.

This project aims to maximise the policy impact of research already undertaken on walkability, particularly the development of a Real Walkability Network, which has initially been generated as part of the PARC project based on a study area of East Belfast. This project aims to extend the applicability of the developed policy tools to cover the two main cities of Northern Ireland, Belfast and Derry, so that the model then covers 37% of the population and some of the most deprived communities in the region. The project will disseminate the use of this model to practitioners in order to increase the evidence base for interventions in the built environment aimed at promoting physical activity. It will provide a range of benefits for both the academic community and the end users of research. For academics, it will make important contributions to ongoing research on understanding the environmental correlates of physical activity and through engagement with practitioner communities will aim to create a virtuous circle of research, implementation and feedback. For end users it will provide benefits in terms of the establishment of a useful decision-making tool that will enhance the evidence base for environmental interventions for improving physical activity and will provide training and capacity building in its use with the aim of establishing sustainability for its ongoing deployment. The value of the project is reflected in the large number of public bodies that have been willing to become partners, including Belfast and Derry City Councils, Department of Regional Development, Dept of Health Social Services and Public Safety, Public Health Agency and Belfast Healthy Cities, as well as cities in England, who have provided match funding and in kind support of over £88,000. The project will run for 12 months and employ two research assistants to help undertake three separate work packages: Work Package 1: Model consolidation and validation. (Months 1-5) This work package will involve the appointment, training and placement of 2 research assistants to be based in Belfast and Derry City Councils respectively, during which time they will consolidate and extend the model developed for East Belfast so that it has operational coverage of the entire 2 local authority areas. The model will be subject to validation using random checking of critical elements, such as land use and footpath coverage. During this time the research assistants will interact with staff of local authorities and other statutory agencies to begin to build up an understanding of the extent, form and availability of spatial data and the information needs of different partners, including potential links to regional strategies on obesity, active travel and physical activity. Work Package 2: Project integration and sustainability (Months 6-10). Work package 2 will involve a process of integrating the walkability models and other elements of spatial analysis into the existing physical activity-related programmes of the partner organisations to improve their effectiveness, efficiency and accuracy. This stage of the project will also involve developing the capacity of project partners to ensure the sustainability of the place-specific walkability models. Work Package 3: Knowledge dissemination and engagement with wider practitioner communities (Months 11-12) Work Package 3 will involve an evaluation and a report of the benefits, costs and opportunities arising from the operational deployment of walkability models and their integration with other central and local government responsibilities and initiatives. On the basis of this evaluation, a series of workshops will be run in Northern Ireland and the UK. Finally, the findings of the project will be presented at three conferences to disseminate the findings to different academic and practitioner communities.

Future Screens NI comprises the two higher education institutions (Ulster University and QUB) and a number of key industrial partners central to the creative economy in the region, including NI Screen, BBC, Belfast City Council, Belfast Harbour, Causeway Enterprise Agency, Digital Catapult, Catalyst Inc., RTE, Games NI, Kainos, Invest NI, Techstart NI, Matrix and Tourism NI. The Northern Ireland Assembly defines the creative industries as 'those industries which have their origin in individual creativity, skill and talent and which have a potential for wealth and job creation through the generation and exploitation of intellectual property'. The Partnership has, from this, developed a definition of, and a working model for, the creative industries in NI which is focused on participation, cultural and economic growth, and social and economic regeneration placing the Partnership as a leading developmental catalyst in this NI sector. In the context of Northern Ireland, the creative industries are more than just another key economic sector, generating, according to DCMS figures, £1.01 billion in gross added value of the NI economy, and employing 2.9% of the entire NI workforce. For a region emerging from a period of profound conflict, and social and cultural division and dysfunction, the creative industries sector has continued to offer an alternative and successful paradigm, a new model for cultural expression, personal growth, and economic attainment. The cluster of organisations involved in Future Screens NI may be defined as: (a) audiovisual-led, complemented by the strength of the digital sector and the impact of technology in other more traditional sectors, eg. in tourism, heritage, textiles and crafts; (b) operating across NI as a region, driven by the Belfast travel-to-work-area (add ref to NESTA) but with a region-wide remit linking, in particular, to the North West of the province; c) a spatially defined multi-industry cluster that is distinctive within the UK, shaped by the complexity of cultural space in the aftermath of 20th-century conflict, a plurality of commercial and cultural relationships including across the border with the Republic of Ireland, the role of economic development bodies such as Invest NI and Catalyst Inc., and the significant investment of the HEIs and FE colleges in the creative industries; d) comprising emerging animation, games and immersive technologies industries, which although small by international standards, is one of the fastest growing sectors of the NI economy. The overarching aim of Future Screens NI is to develop a new understanding of the role the creative industries can play in advancing the NI economy both in terms of financial growth and the creation of new employment opportunities. It will do this by researching new technologies and opportunities, developing appropriate educational and training models, placing NI creative businesses in front of international markets, and working with government and other key agencies to ensure sustained growth. The importance of this intervention is that it establishes the creative industries in NI as a neutral space where contemporary and emerging industrial forms can be advanced in secure settings in a transitional period which is still informed by underlying political tensions. The role of the Cluster as a safe space for high-risk creative endeavour in a low-risk innovation environment, one that fosters experiment and cultural opportunity, cannot be overestimated. As Benedict Anderson (1991) has shown, communities interact through concepts of imagined connection and Future Screens NI will actively work as a hub to create new forms of imagined community which advance and normalise political stability while creating real employment and building economic growth.