Leeds Creative Labs
Leeds Creative Labs is a funded opportunity for artists and creative professionals to collaborate with researchers from the University of Leeds. The programme is an initiative developed and led by the Cultural Institute at the University of Leeds since 2012.
The project has previously paired hip-hop dancers with economists, ballet choreographers with biochemical engineers, and visual artists with astrophysicists.
Current opportunity in partnership with the Priestley Centre for Climate Futures
Applications are now open for the latest edition of Leeds Creative Labs, delivered in partnership with the Priestley Centre for Climate Futures.
This year, we will support up to six artists to collaborate with six academics to explore themes around “Climate Futures”.
Application guidance and forms for both artists and academic can be found on this page.
If you would like to make an application by video or audio recording, please respond to each question in the application form and email the Cultural Institute at culturalinstitute@leeds.ac.uk.
Your audio or video should be no longer than 15 minutes. Please do not use WeTransfer as we cannot guarantee the video will be downloaded before the expiry date. We suggest using YouTube or Vimeo.
Key details
- Deadline to apply: 23:59, Friday 14 February 2025.
- Partners selected and collaborations announced: Monday 10 March 2025.
- Who is it for? Artists and creatives from around Yorkshire and academics or PhD researchers at the University of Leeds (who must be employed at the University until at least 31 July 2025).
- When is it? March – July 2025. See requirements and dates section for details.
- Where is it? Leeds.
How it works
Following a round of applications by artists and academics, a process of matchmaking is made by an expert panel. This is based not only on the applicants’ professional and creative interests but also on their shared sense of curiosity and ambition to explore ideas without limits.
Once pairings are made, Leeds Creative Labs will host a collaborative introductory workshop at the University of Leeds.
Pairings will have between 4 April to 2 July 2025 to work together for the equivalent of three working days, with times and dates arranged by each pair to suit their own circumstances.
Pairings are not expected to respond to a specific brief. Instead, both academic and creative partners enter the experience on an equal footing and have the rare opportunity of supported but open-ended space in which to explore and create ideas together without an agenda. With no expectation of an output, the process allows partners to establish the focus of their engagement with each other from the outset.
Up to £200, administered by the Cultural Institute, will be available for each pair to use for assets, software, materials, trips, room hire, research costs or anything else that is useful to support their collaboration.
Each pair will work together to consider their objectives and approach. In the past artists have visited labs, and academics have visited artist studios or rehearsals, together with external discussions or workshops.
Pairings will then be invited to speak at a sharing event held at the University of Leeds on Thursday 3 July 2025 to share their experiences at the end of the programme.
Information and application form for artists
Why you should apply
If I had designed the perfect professional development opportunity for myself at this stage of my practice, I couldn’t have done better than Leeds Creative Labs.
Previous participants of Leeds Creative Labs have shown that sharing ideas and experiences between creatives and academics opens new ways of thinking. It can inform and add new dimensions to creative processes by taking the opportunity to step out of usual ways of working and sharing ideas with a collaborative partner.
While there is no expectation of final output, the Leeds Creative Labs programme has incubated an astonishing diversity of concepts and outputs – from the development of new teaching practices, innovative research methodologies, and large research grant capture to the creation of new artistic works and digital products and platforms. Read about previous projects.
Artist Fees
Each artist will receive a fee of £1,250. This fee will be paid in two instalments: 50% at the beginning of the programme and 50% following the final sharing event and feedback submission.
Is this programme for me
The Priestley Centre for Climate Futures at the University of Leeds is a world-leading climate centre that collaborates with organisations and individuals to transform research into real-world impact.
We invite applications from artists across all disciplines, as well as makers and creative professionals within the arts and culture sector, who are passionate about integrating the arts into climate futures work. We are particularly interested in hearing about your previous projects related to climate themes or your perspectives on the vital role of the arts in addressing climate futures.
We welcome applications from those who have applied before but were not selected, as well as from previous participants. However, preference will be given to new applicants and those who have not yet had the opportunity to participate.
Apply
Artists: apply for Creative Labs
23:59, Friday 14 February 2025.
If you would like to make an application by video or audio recording, please respond to each question in the application form. Your audio or video should be no longer than 15 minutes.
Information and application form for academics
Why take part?
By deviating from traditional ways of working, the Creative Labs approach has allowed new partnerships to be forged, opened interdisciplinary ways of thinking and had an impact both on the creative work of the artists involved and, on the research, and the researchers conducting it.
Since 2012, over 130 individuals from many practices and disciplines have collaborated. Outcomes reported by previous participants of Leeds Creative Labs include:
- Refreshed thinking in academic practice and peer learning
- Renewed sense of joy and excitement in research and collaboration
- New academic research and impact
- Academic outputs such as conference papers and journal articles
- Large research grant capture, in part as a result of embedded public engagement and well-established pathways to impact through developed partnerships
- Increased capacity and resource as a result of skills development
- Pedagogical approaches instigated and developed
- Leadership skills refined
- Increased profile for researchers, partners and organisations through awards, press and media.
What are we looking for?
Academics that are driven by a sense of inquiry and a willingness to work with artists on an equal footing. We look for projects that go beyond using art to display research findings to find a more equitable way of approaching collaboration.
Apply
Academics: apply for Creative Labs
23:59, Friday 14 February 2025.
If you would like to make an application by video or audio recording, please respond to each question in the application form. Your audio or video should be no longer than 15 minutes.
Requirements and dates
Artists and academics will also participate in the evaluation of the programme which includes completion of evaluation questionnaire at the end of the programme and permission for photography and filming during key events.
Participants will also be required to allow any work created as part of the Leeds Creative Lab programme to be accessible in the public domain.
Participants must be able to commit to the following dates:
- Friday 4 April 10am to 1.30pm: Labs launch and Workshop
- Tuesday 16 April to Friday 7 June: Collaboration period
- Thursday 3 July, 10am to 2pm: Share event at University of Leeds.
Watch a recording of our online information session for more information.
Previous Leeds Creative Labs
Sharing a playful, creative approach with new colleagues, who had never worked in this way, was joyful.
Digital creativity collaborations
In early editions of Leeds Creative Labs, we brought together creative, digital innovators with arts and humanities researchers. Participants discovered inspiring areas of shared interest and their creative practice and research took on new dimensions as a result.
- Leeds Creative Labs: Digital Creative Edition 2012
- Leeds Creative Labs: Digital Creative Edition 2014
Pilot projects from these collaborations produced a variety of ideas, ranging from a video game on the ethics of drone warfare developed with digital artists Invisible Flock, to smartphone tools for training actors with Cursor Ltd.
Performing arts collaborations
Leeds Creative Labs was expanded in 2015 to include collaboration with arts partners, facilitated through the university’s DARE partnership with Opera North. The Cultural Institute connected creative partners from across the performing arts sector including dance, opera and theatre together with academics from biological sciences, chemistry and education as well as arts and humanities.
- Leeds Creative Labs: DARE Edition 2015
- Leeds Creative Labs: DARE Edition 2016
- Leeds Creative Labs: DARE Edition 2017
Science-led collaborations
Since 2017, we have developed editions of Creative Labs which are led not by the artistic field of the creative partners, but by particular strengths in scientific research at the University of Leeds. We have run the following editions with interdisciplinary researchers and engineers:
- Leeds Creative Labs: Biological Sciences Edition 2017
- Leeds Creative Labs: Climate Edition 2018
- Leeds Creative Labs: Biological Sciences Edition 2018
- Leeds Creative Labs: Bragg Edition 2019
Virtual collaborations
The model changed once more in 2020, when for the first time all participants collaborated remotely. This enabled creative partners from across the UK to participate. In 2021, we opened the programme to postgraduate taught students for our first ‘Masters’ edition. Students of different disciplines within our Faculty of Arts, Humanities and Cultures explored their creativity through the programme.
- Leeds Creative Labs: Virtual Edition 2020
- Leeds Creative Labs: Masters Edition 2021