Professor Keri Facer, University of Bristol
Keri Facer is Professor of Educational and Social Futures at the University of Bristol. Her work is particularly concerned with how different forms of knowledge can be combined to develop sustainable and ethical ways of living in contemporary societies. From 2002-2008 she was research director of Futurelab; from 2007-2009 she led the UK Government’s £3m ‘Beyond Current Horizons’ Programme, a strategic foresight programme exploring long term futures in education. Her recent publications explore the distinctive temporality of education and she supervises students in fields ranging from Smart Cities and Big Data in education, to Social Movement Building and Interdisciplinary collaboration. She is an interdisciplinary recidivist, with a commitment to building collaborations across disciplines and sectors. She has been AHRC Leadership Fellow for the UK-wide Connected Communities Programme since 2012.
Dr Katya Braginskaia, University of Bristol
Katya Braginskaia is Senior Research Fellow at the University of Bristol. Her current work focuses on evaluating collaborative research practices between universities and civil society organisations engaged in community-building and impact activities. She has previously worked as Research Associate and Co-Investigator on the Public Faith and Finance project at the University of Bristol.The research and impact work was funded by the Barrow Cadbury Trust and an ESRC Impact Acceleration Account. She also co-edited Public Spirit website, a forum for researchers, policymakers and practitioners from the voluntary and community sectors to debate recent developments in faith and public policy. Her interdisciplinary research interests include comparative analysis of faith activism and social cohesion, diversity and representation of refugee communities and minority interests. She is particularly interested in developing a better understanding of community-based initiatives and approaches to integration, innovation and co-production.
Dr Helen Manchester, University of Bristol
Helen Manchester is Senior Lecturer in Educational and Social Futures who specialises in participatory, co-produced research with community and voluntary organisations and cultural institutions. She is interested in learning futures, urban learning and digital cultures. A significant part of her research involves working with others in the city to explore the co-design of cutting edge creative digital technologies with groups who might generally feel themselves to be excluded from the digital environment. She is also exploring the issues faced by the young and the old both now and in the future to design research that increases their visibility and chances to connect with each other in intergenerational work. She is currently working on a variety of projects around the theme of urban/civic learning and smart technologies, including the Urban ID project and the REPLICATE project, funded by Horizon 2020. Helen has led a variety of research projects including two AHRC-funded research projects. ‘Teenage Kicks’ explored young people’s take on cultural value as part of the AHRC Cultural Value programme and Tangible memories: Community in Care, funded by the AHRC Digital Transformations and Connected Communities Capital fund.
Dr Ges Rosenberg, University of Bristol
Ges Rosenberg is an Engineering System & Design Research Fellow in the Department of Civil Engineering at the University of Bristol and a member of the Cabot Institute. He investigates, develops and applies systems approaches for the design and analysis of engineering technologies and policy interventions, mostly directed towards infrastructure and urban systems. With a focus on creating value, sustainability and resilience, his research investigates socio-technical decision-making and problem structuring methods, the use of collaborative/participative approaches in co-design, and the potential for creating value through better management of systemic interconnectivity. He made a significant contribution to the development of the framework for Interdependency Planning and Management that now comprises ‘the Green Book supplementary guidance: valuing infrastructure spend’. Current research interests include developing a systemic, participative framework and interdisciplinary toolset to diagnose urban challenges on Bristol’s Urban ID (Integrated Diagnostics) project, and investigating the impacts and opportunities of advanced manufacturing on sustainability and resilience at a city scale on the Re-distributed Manufacturing for the Resilient and Sustainable City project.
Katherine Dunleavy, University of Bristol
Katherine Dunleavy is the coordinator for the Connected Communities Programme based at the University of Bristol. She has a background in Classics and is currently interested in work around administrative systems and professional development.