Research and analysis

DCMS Areas of Research Interest

Updated 26 May 2026

Foreword

The Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) supports the UK’s economic growth, civic life and national identity through the sectors it champions and the policies it develops and delivers. These sectors form a vital part of the UK’s social, cultural and economic infrastructure. From arts, culture and heritage to media, creative industries, sport, civil society, youth, tourism and the visitor economy, DCMS works across policy areas that shape how people participate in society, experience place and connect with one another.

These sectors are powerful drivers of growth, innovation and international influence. They are also foundational to citizens’ quality of life, community cohesion and the UK’s cultural confidence at home and abroad. Taken together, these sectors are not only contributors to growth, but are fundamental to how the UK functions as a modern society, shaping the conditions for participation, trust, resilience and national identity in an increasingly complex and digital world. In this way, DCMS sits at the centre of a set of interconnected economic, cultural, technological and civic systems that are critical to the UK’s long-term growth, resilience and international position.

The breadth of DCMS’s portfolio means that high-quality research and evidence are essential to effective policymaking. In recent years DCMS has developed a strong reputation as a mature and sophisticated commissioner and user of research and evidence. This refreshed set of Areas of Research Interest (ARIs) reflects that commitment. They highlight the questions where new knowledge, data and analysis can most usefully inform policy development, strengthen the evidence base for decision-making, and ultimately improve outcomes for citizens and communities across the UK.

The ARIs are designed to support engagement between DCMS and the wider research and evidence community. Each policy portfolio identifies specific research questions and evidence needs relevant to its policy responsibilities. Alongside these portfolio-specific priorities, the document also highlights cross-cutting themes such as growth, place, participation, prevention, value, trust and resilience that reflect shared challenges across DCMS sectors. Together these themes show how research can help illuminate the relationships between growth, participation, place, trust and quality of life across the UK.

A distinctive feature of DCMS’s work is the importance of place. Cultural institutions, community organisations, heritage assets, sports facilities, visitor destinations and media ecosystems all form part of the social and cultural infrastructure that supports thriving communities. Understanding how these assets contribute to local identity, belonging, opportunity, participation and wellbeing; how these benefits are distributed across places and communities; and how local partners can help shape and sustain them  is a central priority for the department. Programmes such as the UK City of Culture and UK Town of Culture competitions illustrate the transformative role that culture and creativity can play in shaping place-based growth, civic pride and community engagement.

DCMS has also led internationally in developing new approaches to understanding the value of culture and heritage. Through its Culture and Heritage Capital programme, the department has pioneered methods that capture the full range of benefits generated by cultural and heritage assets. This work recognises that these sectors create multiple forms of value, including economic, social, cultural and environmental benefits, and generate wider spillovers across communities, places and the wider economy. By strengthening the evidence base for understanding these multi-capital benefits, the programme is helping to embed more holistic approaches to decision-making across government.

Technological change is a defining context for DCMS policy. Artificial intelligence (AI) and digital technologies are transforming how cultural and creative content is produced, distributed and experienced, and are opening new frontiers for research and innovation across DCMS sectors. These developments create significant opportunities for innovation and growth. They also raise important questions about trust, governance and responsibility in the digital age. DCMS therefore has a strong interest in research that explores the broader socio-technical and socio-cultural implications of these technologies, including how responsible AI adoption can support citizens and creators, strengthen the integrity of the information ecosystem, and build public trust and media literacy, while contributing to the development of a good digital society.

Across all of these areas, understanding ‘what works’ in policy and practice remains a central objective. Addressing this question requires robust evidence, rigorous evaluation and methodological innovation. Many of the challenges facing DCMS sectors cut across disciplinary boundaries, and the department therefore welcomes insights from across the social sciences, arts and humanities, engineering, data science and other relevant fields. Interdisciplinary research, international comparisons and new approaches to data and evaluation all have an important role to play in strengthening the evidence base.

The ARIs also recognise the importance of diverse perspectives in the development of evidence and policy. DCMS is keen to engage with researchers, practitioners, industry, the voluntary and community sector and citizens themselves. Co-creation, participatory and deliberative research approaches and collaboration with communities can help ensure that policy is informed by lived experience as well as academic expertise, particularly in areas where the department’s work directly shapes cultural participation, civic engagement and community life.

These ARIs form part of a wider evidence ecosystem that brings together government, academia, industry, civil society and citizens to generate and apply knowledge for public benefit. Through these partnerships, research can help ensure that policy is informed by the best available evidence and that the benefits of DCMS sectors, economic, social and cultural, are understood, strengthened and shared as widely as possible. They also position DCMS as an active partner across government in shaping and applying evidence to support shared priorities, including growth, resilience and social cohesion.

As Chief Scientific Adviser to DCMS, I look forward to working with researchers and partners across the UK and internationally to strengthen this shared evidence base and to ensure that research, data and analysis are fully embedded in how DCMS designs, develops and delivers policy. The ARIs set out here highlight areas where new insights and collaboration can support growth, strengthen communities and improve outcomes for citizens across the UK, and I encourage researchers and partners to work with us in addressing these questions.

Professor Tom Crick MBE

May 2026

Introduction

The Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) is focused on three high-priority outcomes: 

Growth and good jobs in every place. We will work to support the growth of our highly innovative sectors and support the creation of jobs across the UK. This also means ensuring that people everywhere have the skills to succeed in our sectors.

A more socially cohesive country with an inclusive national story. We will empower local partners, the media and people to drive change, build cohesive communities and an inclusive national story.

Richer lives with choices and opportunities for all. We will support young people to succeed in our sectors, and help to ensure opportunities are not limited because of where people live, or how much money they have.

To deliver these outcomes, DCMS leads on shaping the future of the UK’s creative industries, cultural, heritage, media and sporting sectors that collectively support millions of jobs and are accessed by millions more. DCMS supports civil society and youth, providing opportunities for young people nationwide, and is the cross-government lead on loneliness, helping to ensure a more connected society. The department also has a focus on taking a place-based approach to its work, ensuring that communities and local people are at the heart of all policy decisions and interventions. 

The department supports sport at every level, champions world-leading cultural and creative industries, and strengthens community cohesion. DCMS sectors are worth £170 billion, support 4 million jobs and are a source of soft power and pride for Britain abroad. The productivity they generate places DCMS at the heart of the UK’s economic model. DCMS is also committed to growing culture and community across the UK, promoting social cohesion and empowering people in all parts of the country. The benefits this generates are crucial in helping to break down barriers to opportunity and provide a successful future for young people in the UK. 

DCMS’s work is implemented through a wide-ranging policy portfolio that supports some of the most exciting sectors in the UK. The ARIs that follow are organised by the sectors and policy areas that DCMS leads, but they should also be read through this shared outcomes lens, reflecting the many connections and crossovers across the department’s work.

DCMS aspires to use the Areas of Research Interest (ARIs) as a critical vehicle to build a strong evidence base across its policy portfolio and range of responsibilities. In order to deliver on its goals, DCMS requires access to high-quality research, evidence and technical knowledge to support decision-making and policymaking at all levels. 

This includes research to better understand the impact of previous DCMS policy interventions, the current state of the evidence base, and the implications of emerging change for future policy responses. In addition, the department needs to horizon scan to ensure its sectors are resilient and that change at scale can be planned for. DCMS encourages collaboration across government, the wider scientific communities and external partners in the advancement of our evidence base.

This document articulates key DCMS research questions and evidence needs. It has been developed in conjunction with other government departments, our arm’s length bodies (ALBs), and academic and research networks. 

ARIs are an important tool for communicating research needs externally and facilitating engagement. They will enable the department to demonstrate the social and economic value of its sectors and better understand the challenges and opportunities they are likely to face in future. More broadly, DCMS sees these ARIs as part of a wider evidence ecosystem linking government, academia, industry and civil society to generate the robust interdisciplinary evidence needed for effective policymaking. In this context, evidence should be understood not only as an input to policymaking, but as a form of national capability and infrastructure, enabling more adaptive, effective and accountable decision-making across government.

The ARIs are also closely linked to methodological development. Appropriate methods, which produce robust analysis, are central to effective policymaking. DCMS is a keen supporter of methodological innovation across a variety of areas. In particular, DCMS’s pioneering Culture and Heritage Capital (CHC) programme provides a major foundation for this work, developing methods, evidence and tools to better capture the economic, social and cultural value of our sectors, in line with appraisal and evaluation practice across government.

The ARIs reflect DCMS’s Monitoring and Evaluation Strategy. This aims to ensure DCMS uses high-quality evidence in all our decision making. Researchers should be aware of, although not confined by, key government guidance including: The Aqua Book, The Green Book, The Magenta Book, and the Code of Practice for Statistics. As a government department, DCMS considers its policy decision-making through the lens of central government guidance. For any policy, DCMS must consider the cost and calculate the return on investment both in economic terms and also in terms of wider societal values and delivery.

What are Areas of Research Interest (ARIs)?

Areas of Research Interest (ARIs) set out policy issues, evidence needs and research questions identified by UK government departments, agencies, and devolved governments. DCMS published its first ARIs document in 2018; these ARIs were then refreshed in 2023. 

Broadly, the aim of an ARIs document is to define and describe departmental areas of research interest connected to a series of policy area themes and underpinning questions. ARIs support DCMS in making informed policy decisions. DCMS hopes that the ARIs, as set out, will enable the department to:

• build a dialogue around departmental research interests with experts in academia, industry and community contexts, as well as institutional stakeholders such as research institutions, national academies and think tanks;
• promote departmental research interests in a way that gives experts the opportunity to get involved in activities to identify evidence related to them;
• foster an internal culture of gathering and using research and innovation within the department, sustaining a continuous dialogue with producers of research and knowledge;
• communicate departmental research interests to other government departments (OGDs) and arm’s length bodies (ALBs) to foster cross-work around them;
• map and inform future research work at DCMS, and in partnership with other research providers. 

The ARIs highlight evidence and knowledge needs. These needs are either in terms of knowledge gaps or areas where DCMS is keen to gain a stronger set of evidence, particularly on more complex issues. Most questions will be framed for departmental delivery outcomes needed in the next 2-5 years, although some ARIs have longer term trajectories. 

How the ARIs are organised

Within DCMS, responsibility for policy is organised across a set of portfolios:

• Civil Society and Youth
• Creative Industries and Artificial Intelligence 
• Culture
• Gambling and Sport
• Media and International
• Visitor Economy, Heritage, Loans, Art Collection

These policy portfolios map onto eight separate groups of ARIs:

• Civil Society and Youth
• Creative Industries and Artificial Intelligence (as it relates to the creative industries)
• Culture 
• Gambling
• Media and International
• Sport
• Visitor Economy
• Heritage

These eight sets of policy portfolio ARIs are listed alphabetically. The alphabetical presentation of the policy portfolios is designed to be clear that no policy portfolio’s ARI questions has more importance than another. ARIs within policy portfolios are also not listed in any specific order of priority. While ARIs are organised by policy portfolio, many of the most important questions cut across these boundaries, particularly in areas such as culture and heritage, where shared challenges and opportunities span multiple parts of the department.

Each theme includes a brief summary and overview of the scope of the relevant policy teams. This offers an insight into the organisation of the department, allowing the research community to understand which areas of work might align most with their research interests. Policy and analytical teams own and compile their ARIs, which leads to some variation in how they are presented and framed, while retaining a common overall structure for external users. The ARIs are intentionally mixed format: some are framed as research questions; others describe evidence needs that may be addressed through synthesis, secondary data analysis, new data development, evaluation, or methodological innovation. For each policy grouping, the key questions that teams feel they face have been listed, broken down by key policy and activity areas. Each will have its own time horizon, with some questions reflecting immediate policy needs, some associated with medium-term policy evaluations, and others grounded in horizon scanning needs. 

Questions and challenges are articulated from a policy perspective and DCMS encourages researchers to reflect on how their research activities and output might best contribute to tackling these policy challenges. Different researchers, methodologies and disciplines will provide a range of evidence and insight to tackle the challenges articulated by the ARIs. DCMS welcomes and encourages a diversity of perspectives and viewpoints. The challenges raised by the ARIs cannot be clearly mapped to particular research traditions. DCMS encourages researchers to develop new perspectives and understandings to allow the department to tackle these challenges and embrace new opportunities for change.

Working with us and how to use these ARIs

DCMS welcomes the opportunity to extend its networks as widely as possible and ensure it reaches a diverse range of stakeholders. DCMS is happy to receive general expressions of interest from experts from all career stages who are interested in collaborating with DCMS. This includes interdisciplinary research spanning the social sciences, arts and humanities, engineering, data science, and other relevant disciplines.

Engagement will take a range of forms. Evidence submissions addressing ARIs may reflect a range of approaches to answering ARIs, including but not limited to: evidence synthesis and systematic reviews; re-analysis of existing datasets; natural experiments and quasi-experimental designs; implementation research; and cost–benefit and distributional analysis. Other forms of engagement can include participating in roundtables or working on research development with the department. 

If you are keen to register your interest in working and connecting with DCMS and/or submitting evidence, then please complete the ARI engagement survey.

Review the survey template at Appendix A to ensure that you can correctly prepare the information you will supply, particularly if you are submitting evidence. If unable to access the link, email csa@dcms.gov.uk with your submission structured in the format set out in the survey.

Appendix B contains a data protection privacy notice, explaining in detail how we process your data.

The first page of the survey aids DCMS in understanding your expertise and policy interests. If you are exclusively interested in being added to DCMS’s network list, please fill in only the first page. The first page also contains a section to provide information on potential future collaborations you would like to discuss. The second page of the survey allows you to submit structured evidence that meets our evidence needs as described in the ARIs, and which seeks to develop DCMS’s knowledge and evidence base. If you have research evidence relevant to DCMS, please complete the full survey as a starting point for DCMS to engage with your work. It is possible to provide evidence that speaks to more than one policy area/question. 

Submitting evidence in this format allows us to understand the policy area your findings are most applicable to, your research aim and approach, your key findings and whether these are generalisable, scalable or transferable to different contexts. DCMS is interested in studies that evidence the benefits of a policy intervention or that indicate that a policy has not met its intended aspirations. DCMS wants to understand impacts and potential in all policy areas in terms of meeting needs for individuals, industry, cultural and civil society organisations, and society more broadly. DCMS is keen to discuss research design at an early stage and we are open to hearing about ongoing research. 

If you are interested in discussing research that is not covered within the ARIs, contact the Chief Scientific Adviser’s Team at csa@dcms.gov.uk.

Where individuals and research groups have provided evidence, DCMS will seek to acknowledge this. Our hope is that contributing to policy delivery can be a mutually beneficial process with real world impacts. In addition, we will ensure that opportunities to join the College of Experts or to submit bids for commissioned research are advertised via the network lists generated through the ARIs.

• ARI engagement survey
• CSA email: csa@dcms.gov.uk
• ARI Database 

Cross-cutting themes

The DCMS ARIs reflect each policy portfolio’s priorities. A number of themes are shared by many of the individual policy portfolios’ lists of ARIs. These common themes are a starting point for potential research collaborations. Together, they reflect the role of DCMS sectors in supporting economic prosperity, social cohesion and quality of life across the UK. They highlight the interconnected nature of DCMS policy areas and the need for integrated, cross-disciplinary approaches to evidence and analysis. The cross-cutting research themes include:

Growth 

This theme focuses on the economic contribution of DCMS sectors and their role as priority growth sectors within the UK’s Industrial Strategy. These sectors make a substantial contribution to employment and gross value added (GVA) in the UK. Productivity and innovation are central to this theme and are reflected across DCMS policy portfolios’ ARIs. Examples of research areas include ‘what works’ to support and accelerate growth in DCMS’s sectors; how these sectors can contribute to productivity and wider economic performance, including through spillovers into other sectors and wider social, cultural and economic benefits; and the distribution of growth and its benefits, including for individuals, communities, and places. This includes the role of DCMS sectors in contributing to the UK’s soft power, international influence and global competitiveness, as well as major cultural and sporting events in driving growth, place-making, international engagement and long-term social and economic impacts.

Place, pride and social cohesion

This theme focuses on place as a central analytical lens across DCMS sectors. This includes understanding these sectors as part of the UK’s wider social and cultural infrastructure: the spaces, services, institutions, and practices that support belonging, participation, cohesion and quality of life across places and communities. As a result, DCMS welcomes research that examines the relationship between sectors and place, the mechanisms for impact, the scaling of successful activities, and how local benefits relate to national-level impacts and can be compared across places and contexts. Possible approaches include research on: spatial disparities, e.g. in and between urban, coastal, rural, and deprived areas; local economic ecosystems and cluster development; community asset models; and the interaction between national policy and local delivery capacity. DCMS is also keen to support research that tests scalable place-based interventions and examines distributional impacts.

Participation and engagement

This theme focuses on participation and engagement across DCMS sectors, including analysis of demographic differences in participation in our sectors; barriers to engagement with DCMS sectors; tracking change over time; and the effectiveness of interventions in generating change. Participation is a core cross-cutting concern for DCMS because it shapes who benefits from its sectors, how opportunities are distributed, and how far policy interventions support inclusion, belonging and quality of life across different places and communities. Positive outcomes from engagement, such as health and wellbeing, educational development, and social and community cohesion, alongside the role of participation and engagement in preventing or mitigating harms, are also a shared research interest across DCMS. 

Prevention and early intervention

This theme focuses on the preventative role of DCMS sectors in supporting improved outcomes across public services, including health, crime, education and employment. As part of the UK’s wider social and cultural infrastructure, these sectors can improve life chances, reduce inequalities, and contribute to lowering long-term demand on public services and improving system sustainability. DCMS is interested in research that strengthens understanding of how participation and engagement translate into preventative outcomes, particularly for children and young people and for groups facing disadvantage. This includes understanding causal pathways, identifying ‘what works’ in designing and targeting interventions, and examining how impacts vary across places and populations. This theme also includes quantifying the longer-term and cross-sectoral benefits of DCMS sectors, including fiscal, social and economic impacts, and developing robust approaches to capturing reduced demand on frontline services. It reflects a wider cross-government focus on prevention and the role of upstream investment in improving outcomes and long-term public value.

Value, valuation and valorisation

This theme focuses on understanding the broader social, cultural and economic value generated by DCMS sectors. This includes not only how value is understood and measured, but how it is applied in decision-making, investment and policy design. Demonstrating the value of our sectors is essential for the department and for individual policy portfolios. DCMS understands value in the broadest sense, encompassing social, cultural and economic dimensions. The Culture and Heritage Capital programme is one example of this theme in practice, helping to develop rigorous and practical methods for capturing and applying that value in policy and investment decisions. This also includes understanding the value of the social and cultural infrastructure supported by DCMS sectors, and how that value is distributed across places and communities. Across DCMS, this means developing frameworks to articulate the value of our sectors, alongside new methodologies to assess and, where appropriate, quantify their impact across market and non-market, financial and non-financial, dimensions. Research here may include analysis that values the impact of DCMS on specific groups, households, communities and businesses.

Major events and national moments

This theme focuses on major cultural and sporting events, alongside national and civic moments of commemoration, as a cross-cutting area of interest for DCMS. These activities can generate significant economic impact, support place-making and regeneration, strengthen social cohesion and national identity, and enhance the UK’s international engagement and soft power. DCMS is interested in research that improves understanding of the short- and long-term impacts of major events, including legacy effects, distributional outcomes across places and communities, and the role of data and evaluation in supporting more effective planning, delivery and learning across government. This includes strengthening data, evaluation and analytical approaches to support more consistent comparison and learning across events, places and time. This also links to wider work across DCMS, including the Culture and Heritage Capital programme, in developing approaches to capture the full range of economic, social and cultural value generated by these activities.

Artificial intelligence and digital technologies

This theme focuses on the impact of artificial intelligence (AI) across DCMS sectors and policy areas. AI has had, and will continue to have, differentiated impacts across all of DCMS’s policy areas, from sport and gambling to civil society and youth. The department is interested in how AI reshapes production, distribution, valuation, and trust within and between all of its sectors. This includes questions about responsible innovation, governance and accountability in the deployment of AI across DCMS sectors. Examples include questions around algorithmic distribution of content, synthetic media and provenance, and the implications for trust, labour markets and sector sustainability. This theme also reflects the growing importance of AI, platforms, digital infrastructure, cyber and trusted information across DCMS sectors, and the need for DCMS to strengthen its capability and shape cross-government thinking in these areas. More broadly, DCMS is interested in how digital technologies shape the conditions for a good digital society, including questions of participation, trust, inclusion, governance, public value, and resilience.

Resilience

This theme focuses on societal resilience and the role of DCMS sectors in responding to shocks and long-term change. Recent geopolitical developments and the experience of major national shocks, including the COVID-19 pandemic, have highlighted the importance of societal resilience. DCMS sectors play a role in strengthening the social, cultural and information infrastructures that support national cohesion, trusted information ecosystems and community capacity during periods of disruption or crisis, including contributing to national security objectives and wider resilience in a changing geopolitical context. This reflects a wider cross-government focus on societal resilience and the importance of a whole-of-society approach to managing shocks and disruptions, including the role of trusted information, cultural participation and community infrastructure in sustaining national cohesion. This cross-government focus also includes DCMS’s work on sector stability, financial sustainability and the ability of organisations and markets to adapt to shocks and structural change. Possible research activity in this area includes developing data and datasets that provide detailed, systematic, and interrogable insights into our sectors, including on sector resilience; understanding the financial health of DCMS sectors; and robustly tracking change over time. DCMS therefore needs to understand sector risks in terms of both potential impacts and emerging opportunities. 

Environmental sustainability

This theme focuses on the role of DCMS sectors in supporting environmental sustainability and the transition to net zero. A sustainable Britain, as part of a sustainable world, is a core aim for DCMS. Our sectors have a vital role in the transition to net zero and in meeting the challenges of climate change, including through their environmental impacts, supply chains and influence on behaviours and consumption patterns. This research theme runs across all of DCMS’s policy areas and includes understanding how environmental sustainability can be embedded within sector practice, business models and policy interventions. This also includes improving the evidence base on the environmental impacts of DCMS sectors, identifying effective interventions to support sustainable practices, and understanding how cultural and behavioural change can contribute to environmental outcomes. This further includes understanding opportunities for innovation, green growth and more sustainable business models across DCMS sectors. Finally, this includes better understanding trade-offs and synergies between environmental, economic and social outcomes across DCMS sectors.

What works and evaluation

These cross-cutting themes are also shaped by a focus on a ‘what works’ orientation for research questions. It is important for policymaking to understand the relationship between interventions and outcomes. This relationship is often framed by a theory of change. This orientation to research questions also underpins DCMS’s broader strategy for Monitoring and Evaluation of its programmes and interventions, including the use of quasi-experimental and comparative approaches. In the context of ‘what works’, DCMS also welcomes international and comparative research, with attention given to the challenges of policy transfer from and to the UK context. This includes strengthening data infrastructure, access and linkage across DCMS sectors to support more timely, granular and policy-relevant analysis.

Using the ARI database enables themes from across departments to be identified.

DCMS Policy Portfolio ARIs

Each policy portfolio’s ARIs reflect specific policy questions alongside broader analytical and methodological challenges.

• Civil Society and Youth
• Creative Industries and Artificial Intelligence 
• Culture 
• Gambling
• Media and International
• Sport
• Visitor Economy and Heritage

Civil Society and Youth

Youth Sector

DCMS has launched a 10-year strategy for young people in England (10-21, and up to 25 for those with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND)). The Youth Matters: Your National Youth Strategy sets out the various ways in which DCMS aims to achieve the goals set out in the strategy, including improving young people’s physical and mental health, and wellbeing, increasing their community engagement, connections and feelings of belonging, improving their safety and security (both offline and online), and finally - improving their skills and opportunities for life and work. 

As a part of our effort to improve outcomes for young people (through the strategy and our business as usual work) we are keen to get a deeper understanding of the space in which we operate. Future research is required to further build our knowledge on ‘what works’ to improve outcomes for young people; the impact of our services; the resilience and funding structures of the sector; characteristics of services; where they are and who attends them; the digital and algorithmic environments shaping young people’s lives; and the importance of place-based perspectives and insights.

It is important that all of this future research reflects the experiences and perspectives of potential ‘users’ of our interventions. This policy portfolio welcomes approaches and answers to ARIs seeking understandings of young people’s perspectives on ‘what works’, particularly those from the places that are the focus of DCMS policy.

• ‘What works’ to improve outcomes for young people?
• How can targeted youth provision contribute to reducing economic inactivity and other poor outcomes among young people, and what mechanisms are most effective in achieving this?
• What is the impact of youth services to young people?
• How resilient is the youth sector?
• How is the youth sector funded?
• What youth programmes and centres do young people attend? What are the outcomes of participation?
• How do digital and algorithmically mediated environments shape young people’s civic participation, cultural engagement, sense of belonging, and wellbeing?
• Where are youth facilities and programmes? How does this relate to other local and community indicators of need? Where are the cold spots?
• How can we better quantify the need and demand for youth service provision?
• What are the characteristics of organisations working in the youth sector? What services do they deliver, and to whom? What is the quality level of youth services currently provided?

Civil society sector: Health, resilience and growth of civil society organisations

As set out in the Civil Society Covenant, we recognise the value of civil society’s economic and social contributions, including the inherent social value civil society organisations bring, and their ability to build cohesive, inclusive communities. Many of the invaluable activities and services delivered by the sector are provided free or heavily subsidised at the point of use, and therefore may not have clear market values like goods and services provided in other sectors. This can lead to considerable undervaluation. We are interested in research that helps us better understand, compare, and communicate the holistic value of civil society.

• What are the characteristics of organisations working in the voluntary, community and social enterprise (VCSE) sector? What services do they deliver, and to whom?
• What are the factors influencing the sustainability of the VCSE sector?
• How resilient are VCSE sector organisations to shocks that impact their resources or ability to meet demands for services?

Civil society sector: Values and impacts

Building on this, DCMS is interested in strengthening the evidence base on the economic and social contributions of  civil society, including the inherent social value civil society organisations bring, and their ability to build cohesive, inclusive communities. Many of the invaluable activities and services delivered by the sector are provided free or heavily subsidised at the point of use, and therefore may not have clear market values like goods and services provided in other sectors. This can lead to considerable undervaluation. We are interested in research which helps us better understand, compare, and communicate the holistic value of civil society.

• What social and economic value does the VCSE sector provide? What are the most robust approaches to measuring value in the VCSE sector, and how do we develop and maintain an ongoing understanding of this?
• What is the quality and value of services provided by civil society organisations, relative to those offered by other sectors (eg. public sector)?
• What role does civil society play in delivering preventative services and outcomes? How can we measure the savings generated by preventative activity taking place in the sector?
• How and to what extent does VCSE delivery of public services lead to better outcomes for people and communities?

Civil society sector: Effective support and partnership

The Civil Society and Youth policy portfolio in DCMS works to support a thriving civil society (and youth) sector, which is financially sustainable and a respected partner with government in achieving shared objectives. We are interested in research which supports our deepening understanding of ‘what works’ well in this space, and how.

• What forms of funding and non-financial support are most effective in improving the resilience and impact of civil society organisations?
• How can the sector most effectively leverage private sector investment, particularly to areas and places most in need?
• How can different financing mechanisms (including national and local government funding) complement each other to maximise impact?
• What are the most effective approaches and models for enhancing collaboration and partnership between organisations, commissioners and funders at local levels to support better outcomes?

Impact Economy

DCMS recognises the impact economy,  including impact investors, philanthropy and purpose-driven businesses, as a critical partner in delivering the Plan for Change and driving sustainable, inclusive growth. DCMS is working with the Office for the Impact Economy to develop the evidence base underpinning government support for the impact economy. 

• What is the size and composition of the Impact Economy, and how has this changed over time?
• What scale and type of social impacts are delivered by the Impact Economy, and how is this best measured? How do these impacts align to UK government priorities?
• How effective is the Impact Economy in supporting local economic and social development in disadvantaged areas?
• How can Impact Economy financing approaches (e.g., social impact investing, social outcomes partnerships, philanthropy) be grown and scaled, and what current barriers exist?
• What is the current value and potential of giving from high-net-worth-individuals in England? How does this vary by geographical area and demographic groups?
• In what areas have Social Outcomes Partnerships been shown to be most effective when compared to traditional forms of public sector commissioning?

Volunteering, loneliness and community engagement

Across our Volunteering and Tackling Loneliness policy work, we are tackling barriers to participation in volunteering and other forms of social action, including supporting civil society to prepare for, and respond to emergencies. Our aim is to reduce loneliness and isolation by improving social connections and mental health literacy amongst those most at risk, in the places most underserved.

• How do volunteering and civic engagement vary geographically? How is the level and nature of participation changing over time?
• To what extent do different demographic groups volunteer, both formally and informally? What types of volunteering does this include?
• What are the major barriers and facilitators to volunteering and civic engagement for different demographic groups?
• What are the impacts of lower/greater rates of volunteering and civic engagement, overall and in more localised areas?
• What are the benefits of greater equality of access, and for whom?
• ‘What works’ in addressing barriers to participation and in facilitating engagement of specific groups? Are different interventions required for different groups and different areas or contexts?
• What is the relationship between volunteering/civic engagement and community cohesion?
• What are the factors influencing people’s propensity to help in their community in a crisis?
• How widespread is loneliness and isolation, and which groups are most affected by it?
• What is the economic cost of loneliness and isolation?
• What are the benefits of reducing loneliness and isolation?
• What impact do opportunities for social connection have on community cohesion?
• How are boys and young men impacted by loneliness, and what are the risk and protective factors?
• ‘What works’ to increase social connection and tackle loneliness? Are different interventions required for different groups and in different contexts?

Measurement and evaluation

The Civil Society and Youth policy portfolio at DCMS is interested in research and methodologies which can help facilitate and improve our ongoing programme of analytical work and evidence base development. Our work often involves measuring diverse, nuanced, and often less tangible outcomes, in complex real-world systems where identifying and attributing impact can be challenging.

• How can we best measure shared outcomes across government and civil society? What tools should we use?
• What are the best approaches to evaluating local interventions?
• How can we measure the extent and impact of partnership between government and civil society?

Creative Industries and Artificial Intelligence

Growth in the Creative Industries 

Creative industries are a significant engine for the UK’s growth. Supporting growth is central to DCMS’s work on the Creative Industries Sector Plan, as part of the Industrial Strategy. Understanding ‘what works’ to support the sector’s growth, both to the UK economy as a whole and to specific places is a central theme for this policy portfolio.  

• How are micro, SME and large businesses contributing to demand for UK supply chains and how are they investing in supply chain development?
• Which factors encourage micro, SME and large businesses to locate in the UK/retain presence in the UK?
• How can creative industries interventions effectively reach people in local places?
• How does creative industries activity lead to spillovers of knowledge and innovation to other sectors, and how does this support UK economy growth?
• How does innovation of products and processes in the creative industries support the development of new technologies?
• What interventions are most effective to retain and grow the UK’s comparative advantage in creative industries?
• What are the likely impacts of AI on business models, intellectual property, and workforce skills in the UK creative industries?

Creative cluster growth and spillovers to other economic sectors

The Creative Industries are an interconnected ecosystem of businesses and freelancers. The creative industries value chain contains multiple activities, for example from designers, video production, music and performing artists across the UK. Much of this activity takes place in creative clusters. Clusters have been successful in boosting regional economic growth and creating high-quality jobs. Understanding the dynamics of this success, and how clusters can offer more inclusive growth are important areas for future work.

• How do creative businesses contribute to local economies, both directly through their economic activity, and indirectly? 
• How do micro, SME and large businesses support creative clusters, including local creative industries supply chains and skills development?
• Does proximity of a creative cluster to other creative clusters support economic activity and growth in those proximate areas, and if so how?
• Where are the highest performing clusters outside of London, and ‘what works’ to support their growth?
• What interventions are most effective to grow the sector, particularly outside of existing creative clusters?

Access to finance, financial and economic resilience and scale up

Supporting creative businesses to grow is a central part of DCMS policy. We know there are a range of challenges as creative enterprises scale up, innovate new products and services, and find new audiences. Creative industries also face highly dynamic and competitive markets, and thus we welcome research on how businesses increase resilience to economic shocks.

• What is the demand for private investment from creative businesses? Are creative businesses obtaining the finance they need for investments to support growth?
• What are the most common sources of finance sought by creative businesses and what are the barriers they face in obtaining finance? How do these vary across the business lifecycle? What are businesses across the lifecycle doing to overcome the barriers?
• To what extent does investment, or financial provision in creative industry businesses lead to economic growth, and what are the returns to investors? How do these compare to returns in other sectors?
• What attracts investors to invest in the creative industries? What are the barriers for investors and what policies can be used to attract more and diverse investors to support the creative industries?
• What are the barriers to Intellectual Property (IP)-backed lending? How could IP lending support the growth of the creative industries and creative economic activity outside of the creative industries?
• How reliant are UK businesses on Foreign Direct Investment (FDI)?
• How are businesses scaling up? What opportunities and challenges do they face at different stages of scale up as businesses move through micro to small, small to medium, medium to large? At which stage of scaling up are the greatest marginal gains in the economic contribution of creative businesses to the economy?
• What is the financial resilience of the creative industries and its sub-sectors? Do creative businesses have sufficient financial reserves and business models to withstand short term economic shocks? Does this vary by scale and place?
• How are creative businesses responding to higher input costs, including labour? In which sectors and markets are creative businesses passing on costs to customers, and what, if any, are the barriers to maximising profit margins?
• To what extent are creative businesses facing barriers to international trade? How are creative businesses responding to changes in trade policies?

Creative Industries Research and Development (R&D), innovation, tech adoption and digital consumption

Creative industries are among the most innovative parts of the British economy. Capturing the range and extent of R&D in the sector, from createch or AI to new forms of content is essential to ensuring effective support for the sector. Alongside evidence of the effectiveness of interventions, DCMS welcomes comparative international research in this area.

• Which types of R&D activity are carried out by businesses and organisations in the creative industries? How is R&D used to support innovation of new products and processes?
• What drives creative businesses to invest in R&D, including seeking finance for R&D activity and how does this compare to businesses outside the creative industries?
• How do the creative industries compare internationally on their rates of R&D/innovation as a proportion of gross value added (GVA)/gross domestic product (GDP) and by firm size?
• What proportion of creative businesses are aware of and able to access R&D tax reliefs?
• What are the economic returns on investment in R&D in the creative industries? How does this vary by sub-sector and what are the characteristics of creative businesses that maximise returns?
• What are the factors influencing createch development, and to what extent do they enable or inhibit development?
• What are the risks and opportunities to creative business growth posed by new technologies, including automation such as the use of AI?
• What are the barriers to entry into the digital market faced by freelance workers and smaller creative organisations, and how do these differ to those experienced by larger businesses? 
• Are digital markets, including digital intermediation services such as platforms, impacting creator remuneration, and if so how?
• How are creative businesses using technology to increase their productivity? Is this through reducing costs, increasing their access to consumers/audiences or increasing the value of their products or services?
• What barriers do creative businesses face in adopting new technologies?
• What has been effective in supporting businesses to adopt digital technologies? What difference has this made to productivity?
• With the development of online media to distribute content, is creative content still reliant on a hits-based economic model?

Exports, international supply chains and comparative advantage

The UK’s creative industries have a strong base of globally competitive businesses in every creative sub-sector. DCMS aims to support these businesses by maximising the UK creative industries’ export potential in new and existing markets, as well as remaining a top-tier destination for inward investment. DCMS is interested in research that adds to its knowledge base on the export potential and challenges of creative industries sectors, as well as analysis of businesses’ motivations and international supply chains.

• Which creative industry sectors have a comparative advantage/face particular challenges in regards to trade in services and trade in goods, and how does this vary by company size?
• Which countries have adopted incentives which may reduce UK comparative advantage and attract talent from the UK? What are these incentives, are they for a specific sector or creative skills or creative industries, and what is the impact of these incentives?
• Which international supply chains do creative businesses rely on? What are the levels of supply chain resilience in the creative industries, and how easily can they switch to alternative markets?
• Which creative businesses are more likely to export and what are the reasons behind different levels of export propensity? Which policies or interventions have been successful in enabling businesses to export?

Creative industries workforce development, delivery and skills gaps

A resilient, skilled and diverse workforce, fit for the future, is at the core of a thriving creative sector. As a result, DCMS welcomes engagement on skills, training and workforce development. Ensuring creative workers have skills that match business and market needs, and are adaptable to future industry and consumer demand are central to DCMS policy. Support for skills sits alongside DCMS’s commitment to good work in the creative industries, underpinned by understanding working patterns, wages and incomes, and sustainable careers. 

• How is AI impacting creative workers’ skills and career development needs?
• How is mid-career training and development supported for creative workers?
• What skills development issues are facing freelance workers, and how can these be addressed?
• To what extent are those in self-employment working under conditions of employment that mean their work is de facto dependent on employment, and what are the reasons for why this occurs? 
• What are the different contractual arrangements, employment and tax statuses of freelancers in the creative industries, and how do these vary by subsector? To what extent do freelancers move between these statuses and what affects the decision for a particular status? 
• What are the distinct features of creative freelancers/the self-employed compared to those in the wider economy, including difference in approach to contractual arrangements, remuneration models, types of earnings (royalties vs sales), and skills development?
• What is the distribution, median and range of wages/earnings in the creative industries including between freelancers and employees? How does this vary by occupation and are there differences in pay between the same occupation, within and outside the creative industries?
• How and to what extent does creative careers education result in positive employment outcomes?
• How do those leaving education enter work in the creative industries? What is the split between self-employment and employment? To what extent is self-employment a choice versus a necessity and how does this vary by sector? What are the recruitment approaches that businesses are using? Are these focused on a certain level of education generally and for individual occupations? What is successful in helping businesses recruit younger workers outside of higher education?
• What impact do specialist higher education providers have on the supply of skills and knowledge to address skills needs in the creative industries, and how, if at all, does this differ from non-specialist providers and specialist providers for 14-19 year olds?
• How much training do creative employers provide for employees? What are they spending and how are they measuring the returns to training? Is employer-led training sufficient to address the skills gaps in the sector and what barriers to increasing training provision do businesses face?
• How can we quantify the economic risk of workforce skill gaps and how this impacts economic productivity within the creative industries sub-sectors?
• What is the role of foreign workers/migrants in meeting the skills needed in the sector?
• Which are the challenges faced by the sector when recruiting international talent? 
• What evidence is there for the effectiveness of interventions for increasing recruitment and retention across  the creative industries and key linked occupations?
• What is the picture of job quality in the sector, for both employed and self-employed? 
• How does access to creative activities, including through digital and social media, support the development of creative and other skills?
• How important are creative skills to growth across the economy?

Diversity and inclusion in the creative industries

Diversity and inclusion are key issues for the creative industries. Good work and growth in the sector sit alongside the challenge of offering access to the wide range of opportunities in the creative industries. Here there is a prominent focus on ‘what works’ for inclusion and diversity, across a range of protected characteristics along with socio-economic diversity. Inclusion is also dependent on good working environments, and DCMS is keen to understand the extent of poor working conditions and how best to address them.

• How is AI impacting diversity in the creative workforce?
• ‘What works’ in terms of improving diversity (defined as representation of protected characteristics and socio-demographic background to the UK population) within the creative industries sector’s workforce to bring it closer to being representative of the UK workforce and audiences?
• How does career progression differ for those with different protected characteristics and across socio-demographic backgrounds?
• How many employees and freelancers are experiencing bullying, harassment and discrimination (BHD) in the sector at all seniority levels? What measurement techniques are being used in the creative industries and how do these compare with those in other sectors?
• What initiatives are in place to prevent or address bullying, harassment and discrimination (BHD) and how effective are these in tackling BHD in the sector?
• What is the economic value of diversity and inclusive workplace cultures?

Participation and engagement with creative industries

In keeping with other DCMS policy portfolios, the Creative Industries and AI team welcome research on the drivers of, and barriers to, participation in the creative industries.

• What are the barriers to participation?
• What geographical and demographic differences exist in participation?
• What is the effect of targeting increases in particular group participation?
• How sensitive is demand for creative industries goods and services to changes in price?

Cultural and social value of creative industries activities and effects on wellbeing

DCMS has long recognised the value of the creative industries beyond their extensive contribution to economic growth. Programmes such as Culture and Heritage Capital have pioneered methods to capture the value of DCMS’s policy areas beyond their substantial impact on growth and employment. DCMS also recognises the positive wellbeing benefits of engagement with creative industries. We welcome insights on how best to capture these non-economic benefits.

• How can we best measure the non-economic value of the creative industries?
• How does creative content affect cultural identity at both the national and local level?
• How does participation in the creative industries, and in creative activities, affect individuals’ wellbeing and performance?
• Which policies and initiatives have been effective in increasing the non-economic/monetisable value delivered by the creative industries?
• What are the impacts of playing video games on adults and young people? How does gaming and online gaming interactions impact wellbeing, cognitive development and indicate economic performance?

Climate change and net zero in media and creative industries

The creative industries play a key role in the net zero transition, both within their own industrial practices and as part of influencing the broader social and economic transition to a greener future. Ensuring green growth in the creative industries is an important aim for DCMS, requiring a range of diverse research methods and modes of analysis. We welcome knowledge and understanding of where the creative industries’ environmental impacts occur, how they might best be mitigated and the role of the sector in supporting positive changes in society more generally. 

• What impact do the creative industries have on the environment including greenhouse gas emissions and other environmental impacts that occur through for example the extraction and use of raw materials (including plastics), waste, recycling and re-use practices? How can these impacts be measured to enable comparison with other sectors and to identify best practice?
• What beliefs and mindset do creative industries business leaders hold on their environmental impacts? How do these affect business activities and action to reduce environmental impact?
• What skills are needed to implement improvements in creative industries’ environmental impact and to meet net zero targets? What are the best mechanisms for developing these skills in the workforce?
• What initiatives and activities work in reducing the sector’s environmental and climate impacts?
• What is the current and potential future impact of climate change on creative businesses, their operations and productivity?
• How can creative businesses support behaviour change of citizens (and their audiences) to meet net zero targets? What types of information and delivery maximise positive behaviour change?

Film and high-end TV

Alongside the ARIs that cut across all of the Creative Industries and AI policy portfolio’s policy area, DCMS is keen to engage on specific questions facing particular sub-sectors. In the case of film and high-end TV, these centre on the impact of AI and the question of how best to capture the non-economic impacts of the sub-sector in this fast-changing context.

• How will AI and virtual production adoption change the UK Film/HETV landscape?
• How are changes in the landscape of film and TV content influencing their social, behavioural and cultural impacts?

Video Games

For the video games sub-sector, DCMS’s specific questions focus on the most effective methods and means for researching the sector, capturing the sector’s contribution to economic growth, and the high-profile issue of in-game monetisation practices.

• What are best practices in research in the study of video games? What are the most effective routes for data collection and sharing between players, industry and academia, to address these research interests?
• How has the video games sector contributed to economic growth in the UK, and what factors will most influence its future economic impact?
• What are the impacts of current and emerging models of in-game monetisation? How effective are the mechanisms for managing and restricting in-game spending at mitigating the risk of problematic behaviours?

Culture

Place-based analysis, social cohesion, pride in place and devolution

DCMS is keen to enhance its understanding on how to ensure policies are targeted, tailored and effective in the places that need them most. The department is interested in the drivers of economic growth in different places, how cultural and heritage investment can affect socio-economic outcomes in these places and what are the most important prerequisite conditions for effective cultural investment. We seek research on the role and drivers of cultural sectors in creating and delivering community services, and what programmes or approaches are the most effective in delivering an increase in social cohesion, community attachment and belonging. Furthermore, DCMS is interested in the specific place-based factors that enable a successful commercial art market. DCMS also welcomes research offering international comparative analysis for all of these themes. 

• What specific place-based factors enable a successful commercial art market (e.g. galleries, dealers, auction houses, specialists and art fairs) to develop and sustain?
• What are the key cultural and creative drivers of economic growth in places and how do they vary regionally and locally and at different levels of geographic scale? Where is funding best directed to have the greatest impact on local growth?
• What conditions enable effective cultural investment and sustainable cultural infrastructure in different places?
• To what extent does dense regional cultural capital generate localised agglomeration economies that influence the location decision of firms?
• What is the relationship between cultural and heritage infrastructure investment and land value? What is the evidence and measures for assessing the potential for land value change and its positive and negative implications, including opportunity costs, risks of land value rise on arts ecology and local communities, and potential for off-setting future revenue costs through planning gain?
• To what extent does place-based cultural and heritage funding lead to wider local socioeconomic impacts?
• What role do cultural and heritage sectors play in creating and delivering community services, and which programmes or approaches are most effective in increasing social cohesion, community attachment and belonging.
• Which foundational cultural and heritage assets/infrastructure need to be present in places to ensure a fully-functioning economic and social system, and how does this differ in different place types, e.g. city, town, villages, coastal towns, old industrial towns etc.?
• What cultural and heritage assets/infrastructure need to be in place when new housing is developed?
• To what extent do cultural and heritage anchor institutions drive local economic growth and clustering, and reduce market failure?

Participation and visitor numbers

DCMS is committed to increasing access for everyone. To achieve this, we aim to increase participation across culture and heritage sectors. Although there is a significant body of research on participation, DCMS is interested in research that moves beyond headline participation numbers to explore the barriers to engagement, across geographic, demographic and socio-economic factors. Specifically, we seek to understand the reasons for non-participation and how specific interventions can effectively broaden audiences to improve participation in culture.

• What are the most effective strategies for cultural and heritage institutions, including public libraries, to increase engagement and to diversify their audiences, particularly among young people and ethnic minorities, and those from lower socioeconomic backgrounds?
• What are the barriers to cultural sector employment for lower socioeconomic and protected groups and ‘what works’ or could work in terms of increasing access and engagement for cultural sectors?
• What is the UK’s performance in converting international tourist arrivals into culture and heritage venue visits when benchmarked against other comparable nations, and how has this changed over time? ‘What works’ for increasing this conversion into visitors?
• To what extent do temporary museum exhibitions with high relative footfall success generate a longer-term increase in visitor numbers?
• How do different exhibition formats and audience engagement strategies impact visitor attendance, demographic diversity and the overall visitor experience?
• How have the needs and values of children and young people changed, particularly since the COVID-19 pandemic,  and are the metrics used to assess engagement with cultural programmes still fit for purpose?

Climate Change and Net Zero

DCMS is committed to the UK government’s objective of Net Zero by 2050, and enabling our sectors and arm’s length bodies to support the delivery of our net zero ambitions. We are seeking evidence on the most effective pathways to decarbonisation for cultural institutions and our sectors, specifically regarding the retrofitting of heritage assets, sustainable tourism practices and measuring the carbon footprint of digital cultural consumption.

• What is the cultural sector’s impact on climate change, how can this impact be mitigated, and how can the sector contribute to net zero objectives?
• How can standard methodologies on measuring greenhouse gas emissions be applied to cultural sectors? What kinds of new sustainability techniques and measures need to be developed specifically for cultural sectors?
• What is the risk to cultural tangible and intangible assets from climate change and how can these risks be mitigated? Does this differ for different types of cultural assets?

Crime prevention and rehabilitation

DCMS is keen to build the evidence base on the role of culture in crime prevention and rehabilitation. We particularly welcome research on how we can leverage the social benefits of arts and culture participation to reduce crime and violence alongside developing greater insight on responding to crime when it does occur.

The department’s interest in this area focuses on two strands: Firstly, the role of cultural engagement in reducing crimes, including re-offending rates. Secondly, the department seeks to better understand crimes that target cultural assets, specifically theft and damage against museums and cultural property, and where interventions might have the most impact. Our particular emphasis on the role of artificial intelligence (AI) in preventing these offences points to our interest in understanding the opportunities that innovation might offer for crime detection and prevention.

• In what conditions and how can arts and culture-based interventions effectively reduce crime, including serious violence, and what robust research designs and data are needed to evaluate their impact?
• What skills gaps exist among arts practitioners that limit the effectiveness and evidence base of culture programs targeting youth violence?
• What is the nature, scope, and geographic distribution of crime against museums and cultural property in the UK, and what offences are being prosecuted?
• What are the opportunities and challenges for using artificial intelligence (AI) in the UK’s art market to address art crime, including the identification and recovery of stolen property?

Cultural Education

The department is keen to understand how cultural education, whether in educational settings or through less formal routes/environments, helps improve children and young people’s attendance and attainment at school. We are also interested in understanding the value of cultural learning, via the approach set out in the Culture and Heritage Capital programme. In addition, we remain interested in whether cultural learning and enrichment supports children and young people’s mental health and wellbeing, supports community cohesion, and supports them to develop key life skills like creative thinking, resilience, and teamwork. We are interested in how impact can differ, for example depending on the art form or frequency. We are looking to build our evidence base on how specific cultural education approaches can boost skills, support the growth of the cultural sectors and make cultural professions more accessible and impactful on the lives of children and young people.

• What are the effects, if any, of cultural education on outcomes including, but not limited to: attendance/absenteeism; attainment; non-cognitive outcomes (such as creativity); lifelong earnings; employability and wider social impacts like social cohesion. In particular, are there causal, not just correlative, relationships that are based on long-term studies with sustained impacts? 
• What are the barriers to access cultural education, and what are the most effective interventions to close participation gaps, including the role of formal, informal and community provision?
• What are the mechanisms by which cultural education (formal and informal) generates creativity, critical thinking, resilience, teamwork and other skills?
• To what extent does pedagogy, artform, intensity, and context (in-school vs out-of-school) shape benefits/opportunities for young people?
• What type of evidence exists on the economic and social value of cultural education that also aligns with government appraisal guidelines as outlined in the Culture Heritage Capital programme and Green Book? What methods are effective for social cost benefit analysis, to value wellbeing impacts, and the contribution of cultural education to skills pipelines and creative economy growth?

Cultural Events

DCMS supports a number of cultural events, for example UK City of Culture. We are interested in understanding how we can, through these interventions, effectively target local needs and maximise long-term impact, including addressing specific community needs and supporting development of local infrastructure and cultural assets. We also want to better understand ‘what works’ at different levels of urban scale and how participation and  physical engagement can be most effectively forecast. We need to understand the best approaches for stakeholders to engage with each other to secure support and possible funding for cultural events, and how the international outlook of event programmes can be developed.

• Which methodologies could be used to more accurately forecast visitor numbers and engagement at cultural events?
• Which interventions and delivery approaches are the most successful at targeting specific local needs as part of cultural events that lead to long standing benefits to places and communities? ‘What works’ at different scales of need, e.g. cities, towns and villages?
• What are the most effective strategies that have been used in previous UK major events to build strong, collaborative partnerships with stakeholders to secure support and possible funding when applying to host major cultural events (e.g. UK City of Culture)?
• How can hosts of cultural events develop an international outlook for their programmes, including attracting international audiences?
• How can hosts of cultural events foster collaboration across nations and regions?

Cultural Protection

DCMS and our ALBs are responsible for safeguarding the UK’s cultural capital, both the physical infrastructure and the intellectual rights of creators. Further research is required to understand how to determine the cost of inaction, by bridging the gap between technical heritage science (i.e. degradation), and economic valuation. Furthermore, we welcome further evidence on how IP and copyright frameworks need to be adapted to continue to protect arts and innovation, while protecting the rights and revenue stream of the workforce and IP owners.

• Building on heritage science approaches, how can advanced material analysis and risk modelling be translated into standardised tools to articulate the economic and cultural value of preventative conservation and maintenance works?
• How can IP and copyright frameworks adapt to new technologies (e.g. AI and digital platforms) to promote innovation and growth in the cultural sectors while protecting the rights of creators, businesses and the public? How can the commercial and welfare impact be valued within Social Cost Benefit Analysis?
• What are the best methodologies and indicators to measure the benefits of halting ongoing material failure and degradation of theatres, performance venues and museums? In particular building on heritage science approaches, what parts of a theatre and museum operations are most impacted by degradation (including human capital elements)? What is the lifetime of different capital upgrades within these types of buildings?

Financial Resilience

DCMS supports the financial resilience of its sectors by providing targeted funding, driving innovation and investment, and developing supportive policies to help businesses and organisations adapt to economic challenges. We seek to better understand the financial health and the risks faced by cultural organisations; the most significant factors that create barriers/risks to financial health; the circumstances where the government can best intervene; and what challenges for DCMS sectors mean for future financial resilience.

• What are the challenges and opportunities facing cultural organisations in attracting philanthropic support outside London, the South East and major cities?
• What are the most significant factors that create barriers/risks to financial health for cultural organisations? How do these factors differ across different business models? What policy interventions or innovative business models can reduce financial risk for these organisations? 
• What are the key indicators of financial health and sustainability of cultural organisations? At what point do cultural organisations become at risk and might require government intervention to secure their long-term survival?
• How have digital and AI innovations and economic shocks changed the way in which businesses in DCMS sectors operate and what does this mean for future financial resilience?
• What are the implications of digital platform reliance for the cultural sector? 
• How and to what extent are changes to business models and supply and demand offering long- and short-term opportunities and challenges for businesses across the cultural sectors?

Health and Wellbeing

The significance of culture and heritage engagement in enhancing quality of life and wellbeing is well recognised, and steps have been taken to monetise these health and wellbeing impacts. However, further work is needed on these issues, and previous research has identified various areas of research to increase our understanding. Examples include distributional impacts, how intensity/frequency of engagement impacts health and wellbeing, and a better understanding of impacts in clinical settings.

• How effective are existing statutory requirements and duties relating to cultural wellbeing in the planning process, and what additional levers or mechanisms could help safeguard cultural wellbeing during development?
• Investigate and assess the role of cultural and heritage engagement in clinical and community health settings for diagnosis, prevention, admissions, treatment, medication use and recovery. How does intensity/frequency of engagement affect impact on health and wellbeing? Is there a minimal effective “dose” across artforms and age groups? Are there standardised exposure measures and dose–response curves?
• Further research to understand the health and wellbeing impacts of culture and heritage engagement, including digital engagement, on different groups, including distributional impacts,  socioeconomic status, ethnicity, disability/SEND, rurality, and multi-morbidity. Which cultural offers reduce inequalities most, and in which settings (e.g. schools, community, clinical, social prescribing)?
• Further research on monetising the health and wellbeing benefits using Quality-Adjusted Life Years (QALYs) measures and Living long and living well (WELLBY) approaches and other relevant methods. Research on cost-saving to public health services through lower use and increases in productivity.

Methodological approach to valuation and implementation (inc Capital Accounting)

DCMS’s Culture and Heritage Capital programme has made significant advances in developing rigorous and robust methods for valuing the benefits of culture and heritage. This work provides a core methodological foundation for DCMS’s wider appraisal, evaluation and evidence development, and we welcome research that helps strengthen its practical application across different policy and place contexts. Further research is  required to improve current valuation methods and develop and integrate new methodological approaches to measurement and monetisation. This includes how we can embrace developments in AI and big data to improve our analytical capabilities, and how to build capacity across the cultural sector to understand and implement our analysis more effectively.

• To what extent are standard public sector discount rates appropriate for valuing benefits across culture and heritage? 
• How can big data and AI be used to improve measurement and valuation methodology in the cultural sector?
• How can we develop a culture and heritage capital account that measures, values, and tracks the contributions of cultural assets to society, the economy, and wellbeing over time?
• What new methodological approaches could improve measurement of the impact of culture and heritage on individuals and society, including through a Culture and Heritage Capital services approach.
• How can economic valuation techniques (contingent valuation, hedonic pricing, wellbeing valuation, etc.) be improved, including bias mitigation and developments to attain methodological robustness and contextual sensitivity of benefit transfer?
• Explore the intersections and overlaps between natural capital and culture and heritage capital, and how this relationship can be integrated into valuation and policy frameworks.
• How do we build capacity across the sector to understand and apply the Culture and Heritage Capital programme, and better integrate its evidence into planning, regeneration and infrastructure?

The drivers of productivity in cultural sectors and the impact of the sectors on economic growth and productivity

The department seeks research that will help to support cultural sectors and DCMS policies to optimise its contribution to building national prosperity. DCMS is keen to develop a more robust evidence base on the fundamental mechanisms and drivers by which the cultural sector generates and distributes wealth. The department’s interests in this area include the impact of public investments on local economic growth, understanding the spillover effects generated by investments in cultural infrastructure, understanding economic, social, and cultural value derived from R&D in the cultural sectors, and understanding the impact of theatrical touring on national and international economies.

• How does labour move between different cultural sub-sectors including between the private and public sector?
• What methodological approaches and data sources are most effective for mapping the cultural economy ecosystem? Which cultural sectors are growing, mature or contracting? 
• Does movement of labour between sub-sectors create innovation and creative spillovers? Does movement of labour between sub-sectors create knowledge and human capital spillovers? 
• What is the investment landscape (including foreign direct investment) and who are the key investors in the UK’s cultural sector? What are the barriers and opportunities for investing in the cultural sector?
• What data sources/methodological approaches can be used to track/value innovation and knowledge transfer between organisations within the cultural sector? Specifically, how are innovations transferred from subsidised organisations to commercial organisations?
• How does creative knowledge and creativity (R&D) move between publicly- and privately-funded culture and different sub-sectors (e.g. between theatre and film), and different scales (e.g. freelancers and SMEs). What are the measurable economic impacts, e.g. domestic revenue creation and exports? How can creative freelancers and microbusinesses be supported to invest in R&D?
• What common features are associated with organisations making the largest economic contribution within a cultural sub-sector, and what lessons can be drawn for future growth policy?
• What is the structure of the UK commercial art market, and how does it contribute to the wider economy, and what barriers are limiting its future growth?
• What are the most significant risk and opportunity factors likely to shape cultural sectors over the next ten years?
• To what extent have investments in buildings/infrastructure (new buildings, expansion/maintenance or repurposing for cultural use) led to social and economic regeneration of an area?
• What impact does theatrical touring have on national and local economies, both in the UK and Internationally?

The role of digital culture and AI adoption, future engagement and business models

The rapid adoption of digital technologies and AI is reshaping the cultural sector. DCMS seeks to address knowledge gaps regarding the economic, cultural and social impact of this adoption on cultural supply and demand, how to measure meaningful digital engagement, and to further identify barriers to market entry for smaller creative organisations. Additionally, DCMS seeks to consider the evolving audience expectations around digital engagement, specifically how virtual and hybrid experiences complement physical attendance and workforce requirements to adapt to the digital shift.

• What is the impact of digital technologies, including AI, on the supply and demand for culture? 
• What are the barriers to digital market entry for freelance artists and smaller creative organisations, and what policies could level commercial opportunities beyond larger institutions and London? What are the barriers to freelance artists developing equitable R&D relationships with technology companies that enable access to cutting-edge technologies?
• How can digital consumption be better defined, measured and valued to understand if it is meaningful engagement? How can digital demand be measured and valued to understand meaningful engagement, encompassing social, cultural, and economic impacts? How does this differ from or complement physical engagement? 
• What is the investment landscape and who are the key actors in the UK’s digital cultural infrastructure? What are the barriers and opportunities, including bottlenecks in the value chain for digital dissemination and consumption?

Workforce and skills

We are committed to enabling people to have the skills they need to pursue a career in the cultural industry. Existing research has shown issues associated with diversity in the cultural workforce, and various skill needs for businesses and workers. The department is interested in research that provides detailed, sub-sectoral analysis on the cultural workforce and its skills requirements, along with evidence of effective interventions on these topics. 

• What are the major skills gaps in the cultural sectors? How do these gaps impact sector growth and wider social and cultural outcomes? What workforce development interventions (including training) can improve employment in these sectors for lower socioeconomic and protected groups, and what is the effectiveness of interventions for increasing recruitment and retention across cultural sectors?
• What interventions have been effective in the cultural sector for narrowing the digital skills gap in the workforce? 
• To what extent is the lack of diversity in the cultural workforce a direct consequence of early life barriers to cultural education from regional and lower socioeconomic backgrounds?

Gambling

The Gambling Team at DCMS is  the central policymaking body for the gambling sector in Great Britain. A focus for the team has been modernising the regulatory framework for the digital age following the Gambling Act Review. The gambling white paper outlined key reforms, and the implementation of many of these is ongoing. The reforms aim to balance consumer protection with maintaining a responsible and sustainable industry that provides jobs and contributes to the economy. The team also manages policy for the National Lottery and society lotteries, collaborating with the Gambling Commission to protect player interests and maximise contributions to charitable good causes. 

These DCMS ARIs sit within a wider gambling evidence ecosystem. Other key stakeholders in this space include the Gambling Commission, UK Research and Innovation (UKRI), academics and the third sector, and the gambling industry itself. The new statutory gambling levy will provide funding for research in support of tackling gambling-related harm, the majority of which will be commissioned by UKRI. These ARIs are intended to highlight gaps in evidence and knowledge that DCMS would like to address, and we invite researchers and academics to consider these questions in their work.

Consumer behaviour and harms

Understanding the systemic drivers of adverse consequences from gambling is important for protecting vulnerable populations and children. In particular, DCMS is keen to explore how place-based factors, exposure to evolving marketing strategies and participation in the unlicensed market influences behaviour and adverse consequences.

• What systemic differences across communities and places increase the risk of their populations experiencing adverse consequences from gambling?
• What are the differences, if any, in consumer experiences of adverse consequences when participating in the licensed gambling market compared to the unlicensed market?
• What are the primary determinants influencing how children and young people engage with non-regulated and unlawful gambling, and how do these contribute to any adverse consequences?
• How can we better measure exposure to evolving gambling advertising and marketing strategies and its impact on the onset and escalation of gambling harm?
• What are the policy challenges associated with evolving advertising and marketing strategies and how can the government ensure all consumers are protected, especially children and young people and those at risk of or already experiencing gambling harm?

Technology, innovation and game design

Rapid technological shifts, including the rise of artificial intelligence and converging digital sectors, require a future-proofed regulatory framework. Identifying how specific product designs and immersive features affect consumer behaviour is important to understanding opportunities as well as regulatory needs. 

• What are the challenges, opportunities and policy implications presented by the current and future deployment of AI in the gambling industry, and how can we ensure a future-proofed regulatory framework that prevents harm while promoting responsible innovation?
• How do specific product design and marketing features influence consumer behaviour and what are the impacts associated with these features, particularly among children and young people and those at risk of or already experiencing gambling harm?
• What principles or frameworks could we use to anticipate and respond to the policy and regulatory challenges posed by new and evolving technologies that are rapidly converging with the gambling sector?

Regulation and enforcement

Understanding how market changes, such as pricing and product shifts, impact consumer participation and the reach of unlicensed operators is important for effective regulation. It is also important to understand how regulations are currently being enforced at a local level.

• How does consumer behaviour and participation respond to changes in prices or product offering in the licensed market?
• How can policy and regulatory levers be used to protect consumers in Great Britain from unlicensed operators (including operators licensed in other jurisdictions but advertising in GB)?
• How do licensing authorities implement their powers under the Gambling Act currently, and what factors influence their approach to the regulatory regime? What are the challenges of doing this? What regional (e.g. Scotland, England, Wales) differences exist?

Economic and social impact

Assessing the economic and social costs alongside the economic and social benefits of the gambling and lottery sectors is important for balanced, evidence-based policymaking. Research here will evaluate the industry’s economic and social impact relative to other sectors and international markets.

• How can we develop methodologies and utilise existing data to quantify the social and individual costs and benefits generated as a result of the GB licensed gambling sectors, as well as the impact of unlicensed gambling sectors?
• How can we better understand the gambling sector’s contribution to economic growth, productivity, innovation, jobs and fiscal sustainability, relative to other sectors, both at a national and local level?
• What is the holistic economic and social value of the lotteries sector in the UK and how does it compare to the value created by lottery markets in other jurisdictions?

Data

Establishing secure mechanisms for independent researcher access to industry data is fundamental to transparency and high-quality evidence generation. DCMS seeks to identify mechanisms and governance models that ensure this sensitive information is handled with high levels of security, transparency, and usability.

• What statutory mechanisms are needed to ensure independent researcher access to industry gambling data, and what models of governance would guarantee security, transparency and usability?

Media and International

BBC audience trends

Audience behaviour is evolving as media consumption shifts across platforms, formats, and devices. Examining long-term trends by demographic group helps us to understand how different audiences engage with BBC content, how usage varies by genre and platform, and how patterns of consumption change over time.

• What are the long-term trends in how different demographic groups (by age, income, location) consume BBC content?
• To what extent are audiences substituting BBC services with alternative providers, and how does this vary by genre or platform and across demographic groups?
• How might the above behavioural shifts affect the BBC’s ability to meet its universality and civic role objectives?

Audience expectations of a publicly-funded BBC

Perceptions of the BBC’s public role are shaped by views on value, fairness, relevance, and distinctiveness, and differ across audiences. Exploring how these perceptions vary by demographic group and media-use profile helps clarify how different audiences understand and relate to a publicly funded broadcaster.

• What kinds of content and public services do different audience groups consider to be core to the BBC’s public role?
• How do perceptions of value, fairness, or distinctiveness vary across different demographic and media-use profiles?
• How might expectations change if the funding model or access to services changes?

Trust in the BBC

This theme explores how audiences understand and perceive the BBC’s governance, transparency, and institutional culture, and how these perceptions shape trust in the BBC.

• What aspects of governance, transparency, or institutional culture most influence public perceptions of the BBC’s independence and integrity?
• What lessons can be drawn from other large institutions (public or private) about maintaining public legitimacy over time?
• How can accountability mechanisms be improved without undermining editorial or operational independence?

Future of TV distribution

With the increased usage of TV over broadband (IPTV) and the reduced usage of terrestrial television (DTT), DCMS is considering the long-term future of the UK’s TV distribution methods. These ARIs seek to address evidence gaps for how this shift might affect both consumers and businesses.

• What is known about low digital skills audiences and their use of media in the context of an increasing technological environment?
• What is the social value of accessing television in total to the individual user? How is this affected by technological factors (4K vs HD vs SD, linear broadcast vs video-on-demand)? What is the social cost of losing access to TV?
• How do the social use benefits of different TV distribution methods (e.g. IPTV, DTT) vary?
• What is the advertising potential of IPTV in comparison to traditional terrestrial TV?
• What are the environmental impacts as a result of increasing IPTV usage?

TV content policy

DCMS sets regulations for television to ensure that audiences are not exposed to harmful content. These ARIs aim to understand effective interventions for mitigating the spread of harmful content, and identify strategies to boost audience consumption and production of high-quality content, ensuring all audiences are represented and served.

• What effective interventions can be implemented by government and Video Sharing Platforms to mitigate the spread and impact of harmful content, particularly in relation to misinformation/disinformation, hate speech, and content detrimental to children’s wellbeing?
• What are the most effective strategies and interventions for government and/or Public Service Broadcasters (PSBs) to increase audience consumption of high-quality educational and/or children’s content, particularly considering the role of platforms, content discoverability, and media literacy initiatives?
• In relation to children’s TV and video content, are there particular audience segments (by age, location, interest, or other relevant characteristic) which are currently underserved by existing content offerings?

Future TV strategy

DCMS is considering the long-term strategic direction for public service media (PSM). We are seeking research to understand the most effective regulatory mechanisms, including best practices for data collection, to ensure transparent oversight of the sector.

• How can stable and future-proofed funding models be best structured to sustain and incentivise the production of high-quality, distinctive UK Public Service Media content, especially in genres deemed socially valuable but commercially less viable (e.g. local news, children’s programming), and what role do strategic partnerships and innovative content creation approaches play in this?
• What methodologies can we use to best understand platform use and user engagement in the context of video sharing and consumption?
• What regulatory mechanisms (e.g. reporting requirements) would be most effective in ensuring consistent collection, comparability, and accessibility of data from video platform services for Ofcom’s regulatory oversight, particularly concerning platform use and user engagement metrics?

Public service broadcasting prominence - DCMS wants to understand the potential impacts of giving prominence to Public Service Media (PSM) providers, ensuring they remain discoverable on online platforms as well as on traditional linear TV, and to understand the value audiences place on consuming content from PSM.

• What is the social and cultural value to audiences of consuming media from the following sources: a) Public Service Broadcasters (PSBs) b) Local providers, and c) “Trustworthy” providers?
• What regulatory and industry interventions are most effective in ensuring the prominence and discoverability of Public Service Broadcasting content across all online platforms, particularly for news and children’s content, and what are the commercial and audience impacts of such measures?

TV production and commissioning

This theme focuses on the economic health and geographical spread of TV production and commissioning across the UK, as DCMS wants to understand the effectiveness of fiscal incentives for production outside of London and the South East.

• What fiscal incentives exist across the UK (outside of London/the South East) to attract production activity in the television sector? What is the effect of these fiscal incentives on the level of television production in these areas?
• How does television commissioning presence across the UK correspond to commissioning spend levels?
• What is the commissioning spend across all UK screen clusters per broadcaster (commercial, non-commercial) and streamers?
• What are the main drivers of production cost growth across different genres and platforms, and how might this develop over the next decade?
• How do production cost trends vary across UK regions and nations, and what are the implications for geographically distributed commissioning?
• How resilient is the UK production sector to inflation, market consolidation, and technological disruption?

Media and trust

In an increasingly online news landscape, DCMS is keen to understand how audiences navigate digital spaces to find trusted and accurate information, and the factors that influence trust in different media sources and forms of online content. This includes broader questions about what supports a healthy and trustworthy information ecosystem, and how policy can support informed participation in a changing media system. These issues are central not only to media markets but also to public trust, democratic participation and the resilience of the UK’s information environment.

• What is the typical “user pathway” that UK news audiences take to move through different online media sources, in order to find trusted information? How does this vary across age groups?
• How has the digitalisation of news media impacted perceived trust in news across different demographic groups? Has it increased or decreased trust in news sources?
• What is the impact of sensationalism and clickbait on audiences’ perceived trust of the news and the wider media?
• What is the impact of AI on audience trust?
• What are the impacts of mis- and disinformation originating from online sources (e.g. social media platforms, AI-generated content, partisan websites) on public trust in media?
• Does mis- and disinformation have an impact on information-seeking behaviours among demographic groups?
• ‘What works’ to support and preserve the integrity of the media and information ecosystem?
• How effective are emerging technical and regulatory approaches (such as provenance frameworks, watermarking, or platform transparency measures) in supporting trust in online information? 
• How do audiences navigate complex online information environments and assess the credibility of news and content, particularly during periods of crisis, conflict or major national events?

Radio and audio

As the radio and audio sector continues to evolve, DCMS wants to understand its growth potential going forward, the social and community impact of the sector (in particular local radio) and the economic and cultural influence of newer technologies such as smart speakers.

• What is the overall growth potential of the UK audio sector?
• What are the alternative potential uses for MF (Medium Frequency) and VHF (Very High Frequency) II beyond their current primary uses, and how can this inform future spectrum allocation?
• What is the value of, and what are the social and community impacts of local community radio?
• To what extent have the provisions in Part 6 of the Media Act 2024 effectively achieved their intended outcomes? What legislative adjustments will be necessary in the next 5 years?
• What is the role and impact of radio in helping to tackle loneliness and mitigate the effects of social isolation?
• How has the value exchange between radio services and smart speaker platforms evolved since the Media Act 2024 and what are the implications for the future of radio?
• What are the social and economic impacts of Asian radio stations in the UK, and what is the likely future demand for Asian stations in light of technological and community-level changes?

Media freedom and journalist safety

This section contains questions driven to protect the foundations of public interest reporting in the UK. Questions aim to establish robust methods for measuring media freedom consistently, and evaluate the impact of current and potential future support mechanisms for journalists to carry on reporting.

• How can we best measure and track media freedom in the UK context, building upon existing international work including the RSF’s (Reporters Without Borders) Media Freedom Index? How has media freedom in the UK changed over time?
• How do the characteristics, dynamics, and impacts of abuse, harassment, and threats experienced by journalists in the UK differ between online and offline environments?
• What impact does abuse, harassment, threats and violence towards journalists have on recruitment and retention into this workforce, and the diversity of this workforce?
• Building upon the UK’s National Action Plan for the Safety of Journalists and existing support mechanisms, what innovative interventions, practical resources, and refinements to current measures could most effectively enhance the physical and digital safety of journalists in the UK?

Sustainable news

DCMS is focused on protecting the long-term viability of the news ecosystem in the UK. This requires research into the social, economic and democratic value of news provision, barriers to sustainable business models in the digital news environment, and the role of policy interventions in supporting a diverse, financially sustainable and high-quality journalism sector across the UK.

• What are the social, economic, cultural and democratic impacts of national and local news provision in the UK, and of its decline in some areas?
• What are the most effective quantitative and qualitative methodologies for measuring the impact of national and local news provision in the UK on civic engagement, public trust, and community cohesion? How do these impacts vary across diverse demographics and geographic areas?
• What is the demonstrable impact of local news provision on community cohesion, civic engagement, public trust in information, and the scrutiny of local public services and institutions across different communities in the UK?
• What is the distinctive contribution of smaller, independent local news publishers to the UK news ecosystem, particularly concerning their nature of provision (e.g. hyperlocal focus, investigative depth), audience reach, and unique forms of engagement, relative to larger, more established publishers?
• How are current news consumption trends and attitudes in the UK (specifically focusing on platform usage, levels of trust in news sources and demographic variations in readership and engagement) linked to levels of media literacy?

AI and journalism

These questions aim to aid DCMS’s understanding of how generative AI and AI-enabled search functions are affecting news consumption trends, public trust in news, and the financial sustainability of the press sector.

• What is the impact of generative AI on UK news consumption trends, specifically regarding platform use, public trust in news, and the spread of misinformation, and how do these effects vary by demographic group?
• What are the most significant and evolving barriers to building sustainable business models for news publishers in the UK, and what specific policy interventions, regulatory reforms, and industry-led innovations are most effective in mitigating these barriers and fostering long-term sustainability for the sector?
• What factors influence UK audiences’ willingness to pay for online news, including preferred content types and payment models, and how do these trends and preferences evolve over time across different demographic groups?
• What are the most effective supply and demand side interventions to support the provision of public interest journalism in the UK, assessing their potential impact on its online availability and proportionate prominence across diverse platforms?
• What is the impact of generative AI on the financial sustainability of the UK press sector?
• To what extent do the commercial incentives and market dynamics of the digital economy in the UK currently support or undermine the development of a plural, high-quality, financially sustainable, and independent news ecosystem?
• What is the long-term future and lasting value of offline public interest journalism in the UK, and what targeted government interventions might be necessary to sustain its critical role in democratic accountability and community information provision?

Advertising

This section seeks to provide DCMS with updated evidence on the current advertising landscape in the UK, particularly to untangle market transparency and visibility, the economic and social value of the sector and its role in subsidising UK media services.

• Building on the findings that emerged as part of the 2019-2022 Online Advertising Programme, what updated evidence, data, and insights are available to assess and inform policy on the incidence of online advertising harms, the market transparency and accountability of the online advertising market, and advertisers’ control over placement of their adverts?
• What is the economic and social value of the advertising sector in the UK, with specific regard to how the sector subsidises diverse media services (e.g. news, broadcasting, digital content) and contributes to public infrastructure and services (e.g. through out-of-home advertising revenues), and what is its overall impact on economic growth and employment?
• What are the key current opportunities and challenges for the UK advertising sector’s growth and competitive positioning as a market in the UK and globally, specifically driven by the increasing share of digital advertising spend? What implications does this have for public policy?

Soft power

The UK’s soft power supports our national security and economic growth. DCMS sectors are primary drivers of this international influence. We are seeking research to better quantify the “channels” through which these cultural assets translate into economic prosperity and diplomatic leverage. Specifically, we seek to understand how targeted sector activities positively shape international perceptions of the UK. This evidence will inform the implementation of the government’s new Soft Power strategy, helping to ensure the UK remains a global leader in an increasingly competitive geopolitical landscape.

• To what extent do youth policy initiatives impact the UK’s soft power? Through what channels does this occur?
• To what extent does Soft Power drive growth? Through what channels does this occur? What is the role of the DCMS Sectors in this impact?
• To what extent do the DCMS sectors influence perceptions of the UK?
• What role do published soft power indices play in understanding the UK’s soft power position? What are the relative strengths and limitations of the published soft power indices? Are there additional measures that can be used to assess the role of the DCMS sectors?
• How does soft power support the UK’s national security? What is the role of the DCMS sectors in supporting this?

Audiovisual trade

The department is keen to understand the evolving regulatory and political challenges faced by the Audio-Visual Sector. Research in this area will help DCMS understand how regulatory shifts and global market dynamics inhibit or drive growth for UK creators.

• How do international factors drive growth in the audiovisual services sector? Which parts of the sector particularly benefit from trading relationships?

Trade and exports

International trade is central to DCMS’s role in boosting economic growth. The Industrial Strategy identifies Creative Industries as one of eight “growth-driving” sectors prioritised for long-term investment and stability. Within this framework, the Creative Industries Sector Plan sets an ambitious target to significantly boost the sector’s already world-leading export value. This research will directly inform the implementation of the Industrial Strategy, ensuring the UK remains a global “creative superpower”.

• What is the scale and nature of short term mobility of creative/cultural professionals to international markets? What are the quantitative/qualitative impacts of these activities?
• What are the impacts of international exchanges/collaborations? How do these activities benefit the UK and its partners?
• What key trade barriers exist for DCMS sectors when trading or attracting inward investment internationally? What is their estimated size and impact?

UNESCO

Following the UK’s ratification of the UNESCO 2003 Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage (ICH) in 2024, DCMS is leading the implementation of the convention, part of which is the ongoing support of ‘safeguarding’ for ICH (aka Living Heritage). To help with this, we need to better understand the support required to assist local communities in safeguarding their own traditions.

• Building on the UK’s ratification of the UNESCO Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage, what kind of policy and logistical support is required by local and central governments to assist communities, groups and individuals to better safeguard their living heritage?

International cultural heritage protection

DCMS is committed to protecting global cultural heritage at risk from conflict, climate change, and serious organised crime. We seek to develop sophisticated methodologies for mapping international collaborations and tracing the evolution of protection projects globally. We are particularly interested in how digital tools and data can enhance our ability to detect the illicit trafficking of cultural property. This research will help ensure our interventions effectively support peacebuilding, climate resilience, and sustainable development.

• What methodologies are most effective for mapping formal and informal cultural heritage protection collaborations (including transnational, cross-regional and international collaborations) and cooperation strategies? What challenges exist in this process?
• What digital tools and data sources can be used to trace the evolution of collaboration across cultural protection strategies?

Sport

Cross-cutting

DCMS is committed to establishing a robust evidence base for the sport and physical activity sector, prioritising ‘what works’ and value for money. This aligns with the broader shift towards devolved, place-based models in public service reform, including the move towards neighbourhood health approaches. We seek to understand how locally-tailored sport interventions can reduce health inequalities and drive economic growth. Just as wider reforms aim to push power out to communities and demand greater transparency, we require research into governance structures that maps stakeholder networks and identifies best practices for accountability and collaboration. Finally, we invite evidence on the responsible and ethical use of AI and the role of sport in young people’s mental health to ensure the sector effectively addresses future challenges and reduces demand on health services. These questions reflect DCMS’s strong interest in rigorous evaluation approaches and the generation of causal evidence on ‘what works’.

• What evaluation approaches (including experimental and quasi-experimental methods) can generate robust evidence on the effectiveness of sport and physical activity interventions? These should seek to capture ‘what works’ and, wherever possible, assess cost-effectiveness and overall value for money.
• How effective are sport policies and interventions in improving local outcomes, and how does this vary across different places and contexts?
• What does existing evidence show about how sports participation and interventions build social capital, wellbeing and pride in place?
• What is the relationship between community ownership of local sports facilities, governance models, and outcomes such as community cohesion and cultural value? 
• What governance frameworks currently exist across the sport sector, and what lessons can be drawn from transparency, accountability and collaboration?
• How do policy and regulatory frameworks influence effective sport governance and development across different contexts?
• What role could artificial intelligence (AI) play within the sport industry, and what are the implications for workforce, governance, and participation?
• What role does sport and physical activity play in improving mental health outcomes, particularly for young people?
• What governance models and accountability frameworks most effectively promote integrity, safeguarding, and long-term sustainability across different levels of sport?

Grassroots facilities

To support the government’s Fit for the Future Plan of preventing ill-health and reducing inequalities, DCMS seeks to build a robust evidence base on the impact of grassroots sport investment. Aligning with the strategic shift towards devolved, place-based policymaking, we need to understand how capital investment in facilities (particularly when combined with complementary interventions like behavioural campaigns) drives sustained participation across diverse groups and contributes to wider outcomes like pride in place. To achieve this, DCMS aims to move beyond traditional metrics by exploring novel data sources, such as geospatial analysis, sensors, and digital footprints. Developing these granular, innovative methodologies will allow us to map facility utilisation and accessibility in real-time, ensuring resources are effectively targeted to high-need communities to improve health outcomes and deliver value for money. 

• To what extent does investment in grassroots sport facilities increase participation, including among underrepresented groups and across different places?
• What are best practice models for leveraging partner investment into grassroots facilities? What are the most effective ways of maximising value for money?
• What novel data sources (e.g. geospatial, sensor or digital footprint data) and methodologies could improve understanding of participation, facility utilisation, and community impact in grassroots sport?

Major sporting events

Major sporting events are key drivers of economic growth and pride in place, playing a vital role in reducing regional inequalities. DCMS seeks to rigorously quantify the long-term economic and social value of these events on host locations, moving beyond immediate returns to capture broader ripple effects on community cohesion and local development. To ensure the sector is ‘fit for the future’, we also require research into volunteering trends to understand their impact on the professional workforce and the quality of future event delivery. Finally, we seek robust evidence on ‘what works’ in legacy programmes—drawing on international best practices—to ensure that investments in major events deliver lasting, scalable benefits for communities long after the final whistle. 

• What are the long-term economic and social impacts of large-scale sporting events on host locations?
• How are volunteering trends at major sporting events changing, and what are the implications for workforce capacity and event delivery?
• ‘What works’ to ensure the effectiveness of programmes and interventions - in the UK and internationally - designed to maximise the legacy impacts of large scale sporting events?

Elite and Professional

To support economic growth and ensure the sport sector is ‘fit for the future’, DCMS requires a deeper understanding of the financial sustainability of professional sports and National Governing Bodies. We seek research that analyses the resilience of diverse business models to identify structural risks and opportunities, ensuring these organisations can continue to support the wider ecosystem that delivers vital health and social outcomes. 

• What factors influence the financial sustainability of professional sports organisations and national governing bodies?

Sport diplomacy

To support economic growth and enhance the UK’s global influence, DCMS requires robust evidence on the effectiveness of sport diplomacy and major events. We seek research that quantifies the impact of these initiatives on the UK’s Soft Power strategy and international reputation, while also assessing how hosting major events contributes to regional prosperity and pride in place. Understanding these dynamics will help ensure that the UK’s status as a world-leading host delivers tangible economic and social benefits across the country.

• How effective are UK sport diplomacy initiatives in contributing to international influence and soft power?
• What role do major sporting events play in projecting UK soft power and international reputation?

Women’s sport

To support the vision set out in the Raising the Bar review, DCMS seeks to close the critical data gap in women’s sport. We require cross-sector research to address the lack of female-specific sports science evidence (highlighted as a key barrier to participation and player welfare) while also mapping international best practices to inform future strategy. Establishing robust, comparable metrics will allow us to rigorously test and evidence the UK’s ambition to be a ‘world-leading’ nation for women’s sport, driving commercial investment and ensuring the sector delivers health and social value from the grassroots to the elite level. 

• What are the key evidence gaps in sports science relating to women and girls’ participation and health?
• What international initiatives, organisations and policies have been most effective in promoting women’s sport, at both elite and non-elite levels? 

Participation

To support the DCMS’s contribution to the nation’s health, economic growth and offering sporting opportunities for all, DCMS seeks to build a comprehensive evidence base to tackle inactivity and reduce inequalities. We require robust research into ‘what works’ in physical activity interventions, particularly those embedded within health and social care or delivering place-based solutions (to understand how they interact with wider public services and economic conditions to drive value for money). A critical priority within this is closing the significant evidence gap in women’s sport; we need cross-sector research on female-specific health and performance, alongside the development of international metrics, to support the UK’s ambition as a world leader. Underpinning these aims, DCMS seeks to innovate measurement by leveraging novel data sources and scalable incentive mechanisms, providing the granular, real-time insights necessary to target resources effectively and deliver on the promise of prevention.

• What interventions are most effective in reducing inactivity and increasing physical activity among adults? What interventions are most effective for underrepresented groups and demographics? 
• How effective are place-based and locally-tailored policies and interventions in promoting sport and physical activity, and what approaches yield the greatest impact across different community contexts?
• How effective are physical activity interventions delivered within or alongside health and social care services in improving physical activity and health outcomes?
• How effective and scalable are incentive-based mechanisms for promoting physical activity?
• What new data sources, beyond traditional surveys, could improve understanding of sport and physical activity participation patterns across places and populations?
• How do the availability, quality, and funding of other related public services, such as youth services and school-based enrichment interact with wider economic conditions to shape opportunities for sport participation?

Children and young people

DCMS seeks to move beyond standard annual estimates to build a comprehensive, longitudinal picture of children and young people’s physical activity. We require robust evidence that captures the full spectrum of participation (including in informal, non-governed settings) and links these behaviours to wider outcomes such as educational attainment and future labour market success. Aligning with the Raising the Bar review, a critical priority is mapping youth provision across the UK to identify and address disparities in access and quality, particularly regarding gender, ensuring that sport effectively breaks down barriers to opportunity and supports lifelong wellbeing.

• What data sources could improve understanding of sport participation among children and young people, particularly in informal settings?
• How does youth sport provision vary across the UK, and what disparities exist in access and quality?
• How can longitudinal data improve understanding of physical activity levels among school pupils?

Environmental sustainability

DCMS requires a comprehensive understanding of the two-way relationship between sport and the environment. We seek evidence on how sport, by delivering place-based health and inclusion outcomes, builds community resilience and contributes to the UK’s climate adaptation strategies and UN Sustainable Development Goals. DCMS must also understand the threat climate change poses to participation, particularly for young people. Finally, to ensure our infrastructure is ‘fit for the future,’ DCMS calls for R&D into the environmental sustainability of pitches (addressing carbon, materials, and recycling) to drive innovation and reduce the sector’s footprint.

• What role can sport and physical activity play in building more resilient communities, and how does this contribute to the UK’s wider climate adaptation goals and the relevant UN Sustainable Development Goals?
• How is climate change affecting sport and physical activity participation and education, particularly among young people and other priority groups?
• What R&D interventions could improve understanding of, and reduce, the environmental impacts of pitches?

Safeguarding and duty of care

DCMS is committed to ensuring that sport remains a safe environment for all, particularly children and young people. We seek robust evidence to strengthen child protection processes, recognising that welfare is the foundation of participation and essential for breaking down barriers to opportunity. Simultaneously, to align with the ‘Fit for the Future’ focus on prevention, we require an urgent evaluation of the UK Concussion Guidelines. We need to understand the barriers to their adoption and effectiveness in high-risk sports to mitigate acute health impacts, reduce the burden on the NHS, and ensure the long-term wellbeing of participants.

• What does existing evidence show about safeguarding risks for children and young people in sport and sport-based activities, and what further evidence is needed to strengthen child protection and welfare processes?
• To what extent are the UK Concussion Guidelines being adopted and implemented in practice, and what barriers are limiting their use, for example awareness of the Guidelines and attitudes towards them?

Visitor Economy and Heritage

Visitor Economy

We have a vision to put the UK among the world’s most dynamic, inclusive, and regenerative visitor economies - one that delivers regional growth, opportunity, and community pride across the country. To achieve this, DCMS needs to better understand drivers and influences of tourism, ‘what works’ in growing and improving the visitor offer, and therefore visitor number and spend across the whole of the UK, whilst considering the social and environmental impact of tourism. Gaining a more detailed understanding of the sector workforce and businesses, as well as making more intelligent use of data are also important research priorities. DCMS is keen to ground this understanding in place-based approaches, for example those focused on coastal and rural locations, and how issues of seasonality impact the sector. Place-based approaches cover a range of perspectives, for example visitor economy assets and services and experiences as part of wider local social, cultural and economic infrastructure. 

• How does the visitor economy contribute to local and regional growth, and ‘what works’ to strengthen and support this contribution?
• How does the visitor economy interact and relate to the cultural and creative industries sectors?
• What are the most significant risk and opportunity factors that will shape visitor economy sectors over the next ten years?
• What is the expected impact of digital technologies on supply and demand for the visitor economy?
• What are the drivers of spatial differences in the UK visitor economy?
• What are the gaps and opportunities in the UK visitor economy product offering and targeting markets? What are the most effective methods (in addition to marketing) for driving behavioural change of tourists in order to increase tourism volumes?
• What nudges are most effective in encouraging domestic tourists to select a holiday in the UK over a foreign trip?
• What are the roles and drivers of visitor economy sectors in creating a greater sense of pride in place in communities?
• How can the UK promote and deliver sustainable and regenerative tourism?
• How can we best audit tourism-focused inward investment into the UK (with geographic dispersal) and returns of this investment?
• ‘What works’ in developing international influence/soft power through the tourism sector?
• What are the key drivers of productivity within visitor economy sectors, and how can policy influence them? How do these differ by place and by season?
• How can we best understand the effectiveness of interventions for increasing recruitment, retention and resilience across visitor economy sectors?
• What are the major skills gaps in the visitor economy sectors and how could that impact on sector growth? How can these skills gaps, including digital skills, be most effectively addressed?
• How many of those employed within the visitor economy sector are undertaking relevant courses? Is this a predictor of those that go on to work in the sector?
• What is the additional value beyond wages (e.g. wellbeing) that can be used to show the welfare impact of visitor economy employment?
• How could we reduce fragmentation of the UK visitor economy in the context of a sector dominated by SMEs? What are the features of successful small and micro businesses in the visitor economy when compared to unsuccessful businesses?
• How does the cumulative burden of regulations in the visitor economy sector affect the economic health of the sector and business retention?
• What are the most significant factors that create barriers/risks to financial health for visitor economy organisations?
• What funding models or training programmes work best for regional partners delivering within the UK visitor economy?
• What is the impact of introduction of the Private Rental Service database and Short Term Lets scheme on the distribution of accommodation between long-term and short-term accommodation in England?
• How should the concepts of “tourism” and the “visitor economy” be defined and measured in official statistics and data collection?
• What is the potential to make use of “non-traditional” data sources (for example GPS data, spending transactions or web/app traffic), to better determine tourism trends, behaviours and what influences those behaviours?
• What is the impact of visitor economy sectors on climate change and contribution to net zero objectives? 
• ‘What works’ to mitigate the sectors’ impact on climate change and achieve these objectives?
• What is the risk to visitor economy assets from climate change and how can these risks be mitigated?

Heritage

Our nation’s heritage is irreplaceable and a vital tool for economic growth, creating diverse jobs, specialist skills, and fostering real pride in place. We want to protect and enhance the best of our heritage to meet modern needs, keeping it alive through re-use and regeneration, providing communities with the infrastructure they need, and empowering them to take on the heritage assets they cherish. DCMS needs to better understand how these goals can be achieved most effectively, whilst considering local, financial and environmental impacts of the sector and interventions.

• What are the economic and social benefits of heritage-led development, particularly in contrast to new-build?
• To what extent does heritage protection impact local regeneration? And how does local regeneration impact heritage protection, or utilisation of it? 
• How can/does the heritage protection system incentivise building use/re-use?
• How can we support local authorities to deliver for their local community through heritage?
• What are the key barriers to developing infrastructure through heritage (i.e. conservation deficit, listing system etc)?
• What are the perceptions and experiences of heritage protections in the planning system?
• How does conserving the built environment at local level impact communities’ perceptions of belonging and identity? Is the impact equally significant for people across UK regions?
• What are some case studies of places in the UK or internationally where the celebration of heritage has led to more cohesive communities?
• What has worked well in terms of policy interventions to promote local heritage - tangible and intangible - in the UK or internationally to promote a sense of belonging?
• What are the barriers for communities to take over heritage assets? How can communities build the expertise they need to take on and repurpose heritage assets? What different models have been used by communities to take over heritage assets?
• Other than providing funding, how else can the government support communities to take on heritage assets?
• What are the key barriers to engaging with heritage? How does this differ locally, and by different characteristics? What local interventions have worked in increasing engagement with heritage?
• Beyond repurposing buildings, how can we support wider knowledge around the heritage asset itself/build appreciation and understanding of local heritage?
• How straightforward is the funding landscape for heritage organisations to engage with?
• Are there too many competing organisations chasing the same set of potential visitors? How can organisations with the same objectives work better together to capitalise rather than compete?
• What are the key drivers of productivity within heritage sectors?
• What are the major skills gaps in the heritage sectors and how could that impact sector growth?
• What are the most significant factors creating risks to the financial health of heritage organisations, and what policy interventions could reduce those risks?
• How is digital culture affecting how people interact with both physical and digital forms of heritage? Are they substitutes or complements e.g. can digital engagement increase physical engagement? What does this mean for future policy interventions and business models?
• ‘What works’ in  increasing access to and engagement with heritage, particularly among young people, people in lower socioeconomic households, and ethnic minority communities?
• What are the barriers to heritage sector employment? In particular, for lower socioeconomic and protected groups?
• How effective are current interventions in increasing recruitment and retention across heritage sectors.
• To what extent do heritage assets act as push and pull factors in people’s and businesses’ decisions to move, stay or leave for a different location? What does this mean for public investment policy in heritage?
• ‘What works’ in developing international influence/soft power through the heritage sector?
• What is the risk to heritage assets from climate change and how can these risks be mitigated?
• What data gaps may exist in the financial and economic performance of heritage sectors and wider cultural engagement? How can these data gaps be addressed?
• What is the impact of heritage sectors on climate change and net zero objectives, and ‘what works’ to mitigate those impacts?

Appendices

Appendix A: DCMS ARI Survey

If you are keen to register your interest in working and connecting with DCMS and/or submit evidence, then please complete the DCMS ARI survey.

Appendix A contains the template of the survey. This example is to help you prepare your submission to DCMS and to give an indication of the questions and information requested from you.

Appendix B contains the data protection privacy notice associated with this survey. It is advisable to look at this information prior to logging in at the link, in order that you have had an opportunity to prepare the information you will supply. In addition, where you are not able to access the link for any reason, then we recommend that you send an email csa@dcms.gov.uk structured in the format set out in the survey. The privacy notice explains in detail how we will process your data.

Survey text in full:

The latest version of the DCMS Areas of Research Interest (ARIs) has been published online. These provide information on aspects of departmental work where we would like to strengthen our evidence base. If you are interested in becoming part of a DCMS research network, attending events, undertaking research or providing links to existing research then please complete this survey. 

To register your interest in networking with DCMS, please complete the first page of the survey, which seeks to capture information about your background and interests. We are keen to understand your expertise. Please note that we are keen to ensure we are engaging with a wide range of stakeholders in the development of our evidence base, including early-career academics, industry researchers/consultants and those involved in community research projects. Please note that you will need to move through all pages to get to the final submission button but need not complete the information on page two unless you do have evidence to submit.

If you are in a position to provide relevant evidence from an existing piece of research, then please complete the survey as a whole. Where you are able to provide evidence from more than one piece of research, then you should complete separate survey submissions for each piece of research. Having completed a first survey submission, you should sign in again to the survey and on page 1 provide your name and email and indicate this is a further submission. We will then be able to link your submissions. If any personal data has changed since previous submissions, then please update the relevant fields on page 1. You should then provide information on your new evidence submission by completing page 2.

All information will be retained securely in line with data protection law. Before completing the survey, please refer to the full privacy notice provided at Appendix B so that you are properly informed as to how your data will be managed.

Our intention is to build up our science networks and external engagement ensuring that we do deliver evidence based policy. If you do have any queries about the survey or DCMS science systems more broadly, then please email the Chief Scientific Adviser’s Team at: csa@dcms.gov.uk.

Survey start

Page 1 of the survey to register interest in being part of DCMS science networks

1. Name:
2. Email:
3. Please indicate if this is your first evidence submission to DCMS via this survey tool.If this is a follow up submission, then having completed your name and email, if all details on this first page remain the same then you should proceed to the second page of the survey.

• Yes, this is my first evidence submission via this survey
• No, this is a follow up evidence submission completed via this survey

1. Organisation:

2. What type of organisation is this?

3. Job role:

4. Career stage:

• Doctoral student
• Under 5 years in DCMS relevant academia, industry or other employment or community contexts
• 5-10 years in DCMS relevant academia, industry or other employment contexts or community contexts
• 10-20 years in DCMS relevant academia, industry or other employment contexts or community contexts
• More than 20 years in DCMS relevant academia, industry or other employment contexts or community contexts

1. Please provide a summary of your expertise (max. 100 words). You may wish to add a link to an online professional profile and/or your publications list.

2. How did you find out about the areas of research interest (please tick all that apply)?

• I am currently engaged with DCMS collaborations/networks
• I previously engaged with the 2023 DCMS areas of research interest document
• I engage with areas of research interest documents from across government departments
• I regularly provide evidence which informs public policy
• The Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) College of Experts
• UK Research and Innovation (UKRI)
• Universities Policy Engagement Network (UPEN)
• Other academic networks
• Industry networks
• Social media
• Other (please specify)

1. Areas of policy interest (please tick all that apply).

• Civil Society and Youth
• Creative Industries and Artificial Intelligence
• Culture
• Gambling
• Heritage
• Media and International
• Sport
• Visitor Economy
• Cross cutting DCMS/government work (please specify)
• Other (please specify)

1. Indicate how you would be keen to engage with DCMS (please tick all that apply).

• Attending events including focus groups and roundtable discussions
• Providing evidence briefings to DCMS
• Collaborating on new research
• Other (please specify below in question 12)

1. Please specify any other ways in which you would wish to contribute to the DCMS science agenda (max. 50 words).

2. If you would like to propose a new research collaboration then please briefly set out your proposal below (max. 100 words).

3. Do you have any views on what you think should be the DCMS horizon scanning science priorities? (max. 50 words)

4. These ARIs are intended to communicate some of our immediate research priorities. Did you find these a helpful tool for engaging with DCMS?

• Yes
• No
• Somewhat
• Not sure

Page 2 of the survey for evidence submissions

Indicate the area of policy interest which your evidence base relates to (please tick all that apply).

• Civil Society and Youth
• Creative Industries and Artificial Intelligence
• Culture
• Gambling
• Heritage
• Media and International
• Sport
• Visitor Economy
• Cross cutting DCMS/government work (please specify)
• Other (please specify)

1. Please indicate the specific policy evidence needs you are seeking to address, linking it to the areas of research interest document where possible (max. 50 words).

2. Please provide an overview of your research (max. 300 words). You may wish to include a link to any articles, data sets and online web pages detailing the research.

3. Please set out any highlight findings for policy and or practice (max. 100 words).

4. Please add any further information you wish to provide (max. 200 words).

Thank you for taking the time to complete this survey. If you have more than one evidence submission you wish to make then please can you complete a second submission, providing your name and email on page one, with the second page then completed again.

Survey end.

Appendix B: DCMS ARI survey privacy notice

Department for Culture Media and Sport: Privacy Notice for Areas of Research Interest Evidence Gathering

Who is collecting my data?

The Department for Culture, Media & Sport (DCMS) helps to drive growth, enrich lives and promote Britain abroad. We protect and promote our cultural and artistic heritage and help businesses and communities to grow by investing in innovation and highlighting Britain as a fantastic place to visit. We help to give the UK a unique advantage on the global stage, striving for economic success. In order to do this, it is important that we build a robust evidence base to help inform our policy development. Within this context, the Department for Culture, Media & Sport (“we” and “us“, “DCMS“) is the controller for the personal information we process, unless otherwise stated.

Purpose of this privacy notice

This notice sets out how we will use your personal data as part of our legal obligations with regards to Data Protection. It is provided to meet the obligations as set out in Article 13 of UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR) (this sets out the information we have to provide where the data is received directly from the data subject) and the Data Protection Act 2018 (DPA). The government’s personal information charter explains how we deal with your information. It also explains how you can ask to view, change or remove your information from our records.

What is personal data?

Personal data is any information relating to an identified or identifiable natural living person, otherwise known as a ‘data subject’. A data subject is someone who can be recognised, directly or indirectly, by information such as a name, an identification number, location data, an online identifier, or data relating to their physical, physiological, genetic, mental, economic, cultural, or social identity. These types of identifying information are known as ‘personal data’. Data protection law applies to the processing of personal data, including its collection, use and storage.

What personal data do we collect?

Most of the personal information we collect and process is provided to us directly by you on a voluntary basis. This includes:

• Personal identifiers, contacts and characteristics (for example, name and contact details)
• Employment data
• Research interests
• Research evidence as provided

How will we use your data?

We use personal information for a wide range of purposes, to enable us to carry out our functions as a government department. Within this context we are gathering data for use by the Chief Scientific Adviser’s Team and more widely by colleagues across DCMS, for example our policy and analysis teams. We are using your data to develop our science networks and strengthen our evidence base. 

What is the legal basis for processing my data?

Our legal reason for collecting or processing this personal data is to perform a public task (to carry out a public function or exercise powers set out in law, or to perform a specific task in the public interest that is set out in law). The lawful basis that we rely on to process your personal data will determine which of the following rights are available to you. Much of the processing we do in DCMS will be necessary to meet our legal obligations or to perform a public task. If we hold personal data about you in different parts of DCMS for different purposes, then the legal basis we rely on in each case may not be the same.

What will happen if I do not provide this data?

We are asking you to provide data in a structure format to engage in our research networks and to submit research evidence. All of the questions are optional and you should only supply data you feel comfortable in submitting to us. 

Who will your data be shared with?

You are submitting this data by a survey submission or email to the Chief Scientific Adviser’s Team based in DCMS. The Chief Scientific Adviser’s Team will regularly review the data you submit and log it creating a listing of network contacts.

Personal data uploaded through our survey is hosted in the UK by Qualtrics whose services are contracted for with DCMS. We will regularly download data from the survey site. Access to the Qualtrics survey is limited to the DCMS  Chief Scientific Adviser’s Team.

Access to the Team’s email inbox is limited to this Team. However, once initially logged, the Team will then share your submission with relevant colleagues across DCMS, including but not limited to policy and analysis teams. 

If we do work on cross cutting research with other government departments or to evidence a case for funding to the Treasury, then your research may form part of our evidence base. However, we will not share your contact data outside of DCMS without your explicit permission.

How long will my data be held for?

Our network data will be reviewed annually. We will send out an email to all registered stakeholders as a reminder that you are on our network lists. The email will remind you to let us know if you wish your name to be removed from these lists. If we do not hear from you, then we will retain your name on our network lists. If we receive a bounce back from an email account, then we will also remove your details. Over longer periods of time we will refresh our network lists and at these points you will need to more specifically opt into the list.

In terms of the evidence you supply, we may be working on complex policy questions for very long periods of time. We will retain the evidence you have supplied for as long as we feel it may be relevant to policy development or where it is a part of the underpinning rationale for a policy decision we have taken. 

Will my data be used for automated decision making or profiling?

We will not use your data for any automated decision making. 

Will my data be transferred outside the UK and if it is how will it be protected?

We will not send your personal data beyond the European Economic Area. 

What are your data protection rights?

You have rights over your personal data under the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR) and the Data Protection Act 2018 (DPA 2018). The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) is the supervisory authority for data protection legislation, and maintains a full explanation of these rights on their website. DCMS will ensure that we uphold your rights when processing your personal data. 

How do I complain?

The contact details for the Data Protection Officer (DPO) at DCMS are:

Data Protection Officer, The Department for Culture, Media and Sport, 100 Parliament Street London, SW1A 2BQ.

If you’re unhappy with the way we have handled your personal data and want to make a complaint, please write to the department’s Data Protection Officer. You can contact the department’s Data Protection Officer using the details above. 

How to contact the Information Commissioner’s Office

If you believe that your personal data has been misused or mishandled, you may make a complaint to the Information Commissioner, who is an independent regulator. You may also contact them to seek independent advice about data protection, privacy and data sharing. 

Information Commissioner’s Office
Wycliffe House
Water Lane
Wilmslow
Cheshire
SK9 5AF

Website: www.ico.org.uk 
Telephone: 0303 123 1113
Email: casework@ico.org.uk

Any complaint to the Information Commissioner is without prejudice to your right to seek redress through the courts.

Changes to our privacy notice

We may make changes to this privacy policy. In that case, the ‘last updated’ date at the bottom of this page will also change. Any changes to this privacy policy will apply to you and your data immediately.

If these changes affect how your personal data is processed, DCMS will take reasonable steps to let you know.

This notice was last updated on 04/03/2026.