University of Greenwich Excels with Significant UKRI Funding Success

UKRI’s Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC)’s World Class Labs programme is supporting the upgrade of the UK’s creative and heritage facilities. This funding has helped build the SHIFT (Shared Hub for Immersive Future Technologies) lab at the University of Greenwich. It delivers state-of-the-art collaborative co-production facilities for creative and cultural research.

Professor Andrew Knight-Hill, Professor of Music and Sound Arts at the University of Greenwich says:

“In the year since we have opened our labs, we have hosted workshops, training courses, concerts, conferences and festivals engaging diverse audiences in the application of virtual technologies.

“It has catalysed collaborations across our faculty, enabled us to create new academic and technical professional jobs, attracted international visiting professors and fellows and bolstered local and international partnerships across public and private sector.”

Partnerships with world leading technology companies, such as MoSys, enable Greenwich researchers to access and apply cutting edge innovations in creative technology, and in-turn the research that they undertake feeds back into the tech R&D process by delivering greater understanding of creative workflow and the applications of this technology.

Working with the Local authority in the Royal Borough of Greenwich the university has secured funding from the Mayor of London via a Cultural Impact award, to host a programme of public arts events across 2026, connecting its research activities with the local community.

Professor Knight-Hill says:

“AHRC support via the World Class Labs scheme has really made all the difference in enabling us to realise our potential and demonstrate the tangible benefits that arts and humanities based Creative Practice Research has, to deliver tangible real-world change across economies and society.”