Visioning a Creative and Cultural County

Below are our reports and other publications that we are producing as the project progresses.

We are also collating useful resources from other relevant authors and organisations across the arts, cultural, and heritage sectors and the creative industries, and making them accessible in a spirit of sharing.

VCCC project outputs

Sector outputs 2025

Sector outputs 2024

Sector outputs 2023

VCCC project outputs

A blueprint for developing Leicestershire County Council's Cultural Strategy

By the VCCC project team (2024)

Policy Brief — Pathway to the Development of a Cultural Strategy for Leicestershire County Council (LCC)

By the VCCC project team (2024)

Mapping Leicestershire's cultural assets

By Sophie Frost and Daniel H. Mutibwa (2024)

Visioning the Future of University-Local Authority Cultural Partnerships Beyond Austere Times

By Daniel H. Mutibwa, Cat Rogers and Amanda Hanton (2024, pp-19-30)

Leicestershire County Council's Cultural Blueprint and Priorities 2025-2027

By the VCCC project team and Culture Leicestershire (2025)

Cultural, Creative, Heritage, Place-making and Policy sector outputs (2025)

The UK Creative Industries Public Funding Allocations and Investment Review

By Daniel H.Mutibwa (2025)

Public participation in policymaking

By John Evans, Ceri Davies, and Daniel H. Mutibwa (2025)

Improving public funding allocation to reduce geographical inequalities

By Charlotte Hoole, Andy Pike, Anne Green, Sheila Agarwal, Sarah Ayres, Jon Burchell, Ceri Davies, Jonathan Davies, Mike Emmerich, James Gilmour, Daniel H. Mutibwa, Megan Russell, Abigail Taylor, and Sanne Velthuis (2025)

Funding local areas: What do the English public think about changes to how funds are allocated to local government?

By Ceri Davies and John Evans

The UK's Modern Industrial Strategy: Creative Industries Sector Plan

By the Department for Business and Trade and Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (2025)

AHRC Creative Communities — Devolution Policy Provocation Paper: Belonging and Community Resilience

By Helen Apsey and Katy Shaw (2025)

AHRC Creative Communities — Devolution Policy Provocation Paper: Belonging

By Helen Apsey and Katy Shaw (2025)

AHRC Creative Communities — Devolution Policy Provocation Paper: Environment

By Helen Apsey and Katy Shaw (2025)

AHRC Creative Communities — Devolution Policy Provocation Paper: Health and Wellbeing

By Helen Apsey and Katy Shaw (2025)

CreaTech: How the fusion of emerging technologies and the Creative Industries can transform the UK’s approach to skills, innovation and business

By Eliza Easton, Allan Watson, Tom Webster, and George Windsor (2025)

Skills mismatches in the UK's Creative Industries

By Lesley Giles, Heather Carey, and Dave O'Brien (2025)

Migration in the UK Creative Occupations and Industries

By Sara Maioli, Daniel Simandjuntak, Jonathan Jones and Giorgio Fazio (2025)

Annual Museum Survey 2019-2024

By Arts Council England (2025)

The art of the possible: Catalysts, collaborations and capabilities in academic-policy engagement

By Sarah Chaytor, Robyn Parker, and Olivia Stevenson (2025)

How digital adds value for cultural audiences, communities and organisations

By Alec Ward, Anra Kennedy and Jane Finnis (2025)

Digital transformation in government

By Anneliese Hodge and Lydia Harriss (2025)

Evaluating the societal outcomes of digital technologies: Building blocks and reflexive questions

By Claudine Tinsman, Gina Neff, Helen Kennedy, Dee Goddard, Ros Williams, Reema Patel, Dan Richards, Jonathan Corpus Ong, Abi Millings, Rhia Jones, Scott Hale and Sara Wajid (2025)

The new politics of AI: Why fast technological change requires bold policy targets

By Carsten Jung (2025)

High Street Heritage Action Zones Programme Evaluation

By Historic England (2025)

Place-based prosperity: The institutional investment roadmap for Midlands growth

By The Midlands Engine (2025)

Our Civic Agreement in action: Achievements 2023–2025

By Universities for Nottingham (2025)

Generating hope: Local power in partnership

By Callin McLinden, Sandy Forsyth and Joe Fyans (2025)

Data and Transparency for Combined Authorities: Briefing Paper. The Local Policy Innovation Partnership Hub

By Rebecca (Bec) Riley (2025)

Policies 'for' and 'with' left behind places

By Danny MacKinnon et al (2025)

Higher education and the arts and culture sectors

By Siobhan MacAndrew, Dave O'Brien, Mark Taylor and Ruoxi Wang (2025)

What can we learn about the innovation performance of the Creative Industries from the UK Innovation Survey?

By Rita Nana-Cheraa and Stephen Roper (2025)

Hidden talents: Core competencies of knowledge mobilisers working in public policy

By Jonathan Breckon, Sarah Chaytor, Alison Clarke, Hannah Durrant, and Olivia Stevenson (2025)

Spillover impacts in the publicly funded arts and culture

By Centre for Economics and Business Research (2025)

Measuring social and cultural infrastructure

By Dimitrios Panayotopoulos-Tsiros, Owen Garling, Rosa Marks, Anna Alexandrova, Diane Coyle, and Michael Kenny (2025)

Public sector relocation: Lessons from the BBC’s move to Salford

By Max Nathan, Henry G. Overman, Capucine Riom and Maria Sanchez-Vidal (2025)

The social value of tourism

By Denise Baron, Mike Crowhurst, Sunita Pfitzner, Damayanti Chatterjee, and Amy Norman (Visit England) (2025)

Innovation evidence review

By Chloe Billing (2025)

Living and working more sustainably in a greener economy

By Matthew Lyons (2025)

Growth, reform and trust: Creating places that deliver the promise and potential of local government reform

By Inner Circle Consulting and Distict Council's Network (2025)

Measuring success in co-production: Learning by doing

By Co-Production Collecctive, The Evaluation Exchange and Compost London (2025)

Where we meet: How we celebrate, sustain and reimagine community centres

By Summer Simpson and Sara Masters (2025)

Engaged scholarship and its discontents

By Tebeje Molla Mekonnen (2025)

Policy and research engagement in UK Higher Education: Policymaker and expert perspectives and priorities

By Georgiana Mihut, Sevda Ozsezer-Kurnuc1, Rebecca Morris, Tom Perry and Emma Smith (2025)

Leading the crowd: A report on the role of public investment in Crowding In

By Martin Prendergast and Francis Runacres (2025)

Leave to Achieve: How universities can contribute to social mobility in their regions

By Dani Payne (2025)

Lessons in local growth: How strategic authorities can achieve inclusive growth in England’s regions with the social economy

By Jessica Craig and Natalie White (2025)

Academic-policy engagement at the local level: The Leeds approach to developing Areas of Research Interest

By the University of Leeds, Leeds City Council and Universities Policy Engagement Network (UPEN) (2025)

Health starts in the neighbourhood: Reforming the system from the ground up

By Local Trust (2025)

A more collaborative way of governing? Why the UK’s Council of the Nations and Regions matters

By Alex Walker, Michael Kenny and Dewi Knight (2025)

The case for Total Place 2.0

By Stuart Hoddinott and Nick Davies (2025)

Best bang for your buck: Considerations for cost-efficiency in knowledge co-production

By Denis B. Karcher, Christopher Cvitanovic, Alistair J. Hobday, Rebecca Shellock,Robert L. Stephenson and Ingrid van Putten (2025)

Good Practice Standards for Public Engagement in Data for Research and Statistics

By The Public Engagement in Data Research Initiative (PEDRI) (2025)

Natural capital approaches to decision-making for collaborative landscape governance

By Jayne H. Glass, Kerry Waylen, Mark S. Reed, Leo Peskett and Brady Stevens (2025)

Guarantee of potential: Place-based employment support within a new local policy ecosystem

By Colin McLinden (2025)

What leads to research impact? A conversation with SOAS

By Duncan Green (2025)

Knowledge in action: Exploring the benefits of co-producing policy with academia, local government, and communities

By Jessica Redmond, Jack Layton and Sarah Chaytor (2025)

Private Investment in Culture Survey 2025

By Patrick Towell, Sarah Thelwall and Sophia Woodley (2025)

The kids aren't right

By Ryan Swift, Daniel Galloway, India Gerritsen and Marcus Johns (2025)

Accountability matters: Securing the future of devolution

By Zoe Billingham and Mark Sandford (2025)

Navigating trade-offs in the global economy: A framework for a world between orders

By Marley Morris and Laura Chappell (2025)

The direction of AI innovation in the UK: Insights from a new database and a roadmap for reform

By Carsten Jung and Bhargav Srinivasa Desikan (2025)

Digital cultural heritage: Imagination, innovation and opportunity

By British Council (2025)

Are AI bots knocking cultural heritage offline?

By Michael Weinberg (2025)

Building capacity, delivering impact: The use of the Policy Support Fund in universities

By Laura Bea and Sarah Chaytor (2025)

Inclusive practice in knowledge mobilisation: Finding people and expertise to meet policy evidence needs

By Robyn Parker, Olivia Stevenson and Kayleigh Renberg Fawcett (2025)

Charity Digital Skills Report 2025

By Zoe Amar and Nissa Ramsay (2025)

Cultural Website Sustainability Benchmark Report

By Kate Mroczkowski and Scott Stonham (2025)

First steps for engaging communities on climate change: A toolkit for local authorities

By Alex Cameron-Smith, Louise Comrie, Charlotte Wallace, Kyle Kline and Rebecca Fraser (2025)

Adopting the practice of test and learn: Achieving meaningful change starts with changing how you think

By Public Digital (2025)

Everybody needs good neighbourhoods 2: A counterfactual analysis of the impact of resident-led neighbourhood-based initiatives in deprived communities

By Local Trust (2025)

Generating coherent and effective R&D and innovation policies

By The British Academy (2025)

The importance of social investment for UK economic strategy

By The British Academy (2025)

Mapping the economic returns of R&D in the UK

By The British Academy (2025)

Perception & potential: Public attitudes towards creativity in the UK

By Amy Tarr, Harry Gault,Ed White and Sarah Gregory (2025)

How universities can help drive local and regional economies

By Institute of Economic Development and AtkinsRealis (2025)

How can a research program influence public policy? Evaluating a decade of research impact using an evidence-based theory of change

By Eric Jensen, S. Noles, Mark Reed and P. Lang (2025)

How can we better account for experiential knowledge in co-production frameworks?

By Zachary Johner, Nicole Klenk, Christopher Cvitanovic and Maud Borie (2025)

Co-production and transformative change: lessons and challenges

By Lyla Mehta, Nathan Oxley, Shibaji Bose, Mihir Bhatt, Nobuhito Ohte, Pankaj Joshi, Synne Movik and Mahendra Banani (2025)

UK in a changing Europe: Policy landscape 2025

By Ruth Curtice and Anand Menon (2025)

Why place matters: Neighbourhood effects on crime and anti-social behaviour

By Sophie Davis, Manon Roberts and Freya Smith (2025)

Sustainable communities: Findings from the resident interviews

By Ellie Benton and Ruby Russell (2025)

Centralisation, local decline and the future of community power

By Callin McLinden (2025)

Defining inclusive innovation: Challenges and lessons for innovation districts

By Diana Morales, Luke Green, David Marlow, Carlos Cadena Gaitán, Sabina Deitrick, Michael R. Glass and Louise Kempton (2025)

Families with no recourse to public funds are trapped in hardship

By Maudie Johnson-Hunter (2025)

The impact of AI overviews in the cultural sector

By Beth Downs and Chris Unitt (2025)

The seven essentials of effective place-based growth

By Rebecca Riley (2025)

Cold spots: Mapping inequality in SHAPE provision in UK higher education

By Lynton Lees, Pablo Roblero, Ruairí Cullen and Sarah Cowan (2025)

Responsible AI in Practice: The Journey of Arts Council England

By Oonagh Murphy and the New Technologies and Innovation Team (2025)

Elitist Britain 2025: The educational backgrounds of Britain’s leading people

By The Sutton Trust (2025)

Early days of the immersive exhibition network

By Amy Densley, Tom Abba and Verity McIntosh (2025)

Health and Wellbeing Forum Report

By Creative Industries Council and Arts Council England (2025)

Cultural, Creative, Heritage, Place-making and Policy sector outputs (2024)

Cultural strategies and local cultural decision making

By John Wright (2024)

Surveying the creative, cultural and heritage ecosystem in the West Midlands

By Jonathan Vickery (2024)

Creative corridors: Connecting clusters to unleash potential

By Bernard Hay, Emily Hopkins, Jolyon Miles-Wilson, Hayley Sims and Tom Stratton (2024)

Cultural recovery evidence review

By James Davies (2024)

How does Arts and Humanities research influence public policymaking?

By Arlene Holmes-Henderson and Luke Sewell (2024)

How do we define effective public involvement in cultural decision-making

By Leila Jankovic, Lucrezia Gigante and Claire Burnill-Maier (2024)

Social and cultural infrastructure for people and policy

By the British Academy (2024)

What do we mean when we talk about a good digital society?

By Scott Hale, Rhianne Jones, Helen Kennedy, Rachel Middlemass, Abigail Millings, Gina Neff, Jonathan Corpus Ong, Reema Patel, Dan Richards, Kim Snooks, Sara Wajid and Ros Williams (2024).

The possibilities of 'good' Generative AI in the cultural and creative industries

By Kate Miltner and Tim Highfield (2024)

Local cultural decision-making in 'left behind areas'

By Culture Commons (2024)

UK arts, culture and heritage: Audiences and workforce

By Siobhan McAndrew, Dave O'Brien, Mark Taylor, and Ruoxi Wang (2024)

Public libraries and the creative industries

By Libraries Connected (2024)

Small arts organisations, social value and policy: A policy case study of the London School of Mosaic

By Lauren England, Chandra Morrison and Ed Charlton (2024)

Pandemic culture: The impacts of COVID-19 on the UK cultural sector and implications for the future

By Abigail Gilmore, Dave O'Brien and Ben Walmsley (2024)