Research and analysis

DCMS areas of research interest

Updated 16 March 2023

Foreword

The Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) has a broad policy portfolio, supporting some of the most exciting sectors in the UK. Policy-making at DCMS has the ability to shape the present and future of the UK’s cultural, media and sporting sectors as well as delivering policy to better support civil society and youth. We exist to drive growth and enrich lives. To do this, the department must draw upon the highest-quality research, evidence and technical knowledge to support policy and decision making.

Creating a strong evidence base that shows how much DCMS sectors are worth socially and economically is a top priority for the department. Therefore, understanding the societal, cultural and economic value of DCMS’s sectors both individually and as a whole is important. DCMS would like to understand more about measuring the inputs that result in productivity and the impact that subsequent outputs have both economically and socially on the UK. More insight on sector sustainability is crucial to underpin changes in DCMS sectors. Economic value and our contribution to growth as well as impact on wellbeing is important to understand. Therefore, broadening the set methods that the department can draw upon for measuring productivity and applying them further to DCMS’s policy areas would be very valuable.

Understanding patterns of employment and ensuring a skilled and diverse workforce is important across all of DCMS’s key sectors. Multidisciplinary insights into encouraging employment, developing skills pipelines and future proofing DCMS sector workforces are of great interest across the department.

Through comparative studies DCMS would like to understand where the UK sits on the international stage. Learning from and collaborating with world leading experts in DCMS’ areas of policy is important. From regulation policy through to cultural support and contribution to pride in place, DCMS would like to understand what best practice looks like globally and where more focus might be applied to support our sectors further.

The impact of DCMS’s interventions and policies, in particular as sectors recover from the COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent economic instability, is of key importance to support resilience and inform future decisions. It is important to understand the individual resilience of DCMS sectors and institutions and where intervention and support has worked or should be altered.

DCMS is committed to ensuring equality of access to and participation in the services that DCMS sectors provide. Building on existing surveys, participation data could be used further to advance our understanding of the trends and drivers of in person and virtual participation in a wide variety of activities from culture to sport.

Hearing more from researchers across the UK on what the individual and combined impact of DCMS sectors is on the whole of the UK would help DCMS in its work to support the government’s levelling up agenda. Drawing on learning from different regions and devolved nations as well as understanding what contributes to citizens’ pride in place is vital.

It is important to understand the impacts that DCMS sectors have on net zero targets as well as which sectors are most affected by climate change and how impacts might be mitigated. Predicting future trends in this space and analysing how best to mitigate further emissions will be of growing value in the years ahead.

To support future planning, DCMS would be really interested in what research says about long term trends. How does it scope out opportunities and risks that could arise in five years and beyond? Horizon-scanning and planning for future research needs is crucial to drive DCMS’s rigorous research aims.

DCMS is keen to develop its network of researchers from across academia, industry and its sector communities more broadly. Having studied the areas of research (ARI) document, DCMS would hope that researchers wish to connect with the department and become part of its networks, informing DCMS of existing evidence and working with DCMS to shape new research. It is hoped that individual researchers, at all stages of their careers, and research groups will engage with this document and reach out to connect to DCMS.

Executive summary

DCMS has a broad policy portfolio, supporting some of the most exciting sectors in the UK. Policy making at DCMS has the ability to shape the present and future of the UK’s cultural, media and sporting sectors as well as delivering policy to better support civil society and youth. We exist; to drive growth and enrich lives. To do this the department must draw upon the highest quality research, evidence and technical knowledge to support policy and decision making.

Creating a strong evidence base that shows how much DCMS sectors are worth socially and economically is a top priority for the department. Therefore, understanding the societal, cultural and economic value of DCMS’s sectors both individually and as a whole is important. DCMS would like to understand more about measuring the inputs that result in productivity and the impact that subsequent outputs have both economically and socially on the UK. More insight on sector sustainability is crucial to underpin changes in DCMS sectors. Economic value and our contribution to growth as well as impact on wellbeing is important to understand. Therefore, broadening the set methods that the department can draw upon for measuring productivity and applying them further to DCMS’s policy areas would be very valuable.

Understanding patterns of employment and ensuring a skilled and diverse workforce is important across all of DCMS’s key sectors. Multidisciplinary insights into encouraging employment, developing skills pipelines and future proofing DCMS sector workforces are of great interest across the department.

Through comparative studies DCMS would like to understand where the UK sits on the international stage. Learning from and collaborating with world leading experts in DCMS’s areas of policy is important. From regulation policy through to cultural support and contribution to pride in place, DCMS would like to understand what best practice looks like globally and where more focus might be applied to support our sectors further.

The impact of DCMS’s interventions and policies, in particular as sectors recover from the COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent economic instability, is of key importance to support resilience and inform future decisions. It is important to understand the individual resilience of DCMS sectors and institutions and where intervention and support has worked or should be altered.

DCMS is committed to ensuring equality of access to and participation in the services that DCMS sectors provide. Building on existing surveys, participation data could be used further to advance our understanding of the trends and drivers of in person and virtual participation in a wide variety of activities from culture to sport.

Hearing more from researchers across the UK on what the individual and combined impact of DCMS sectors is on the whole of the UK would help DCMS in its work to support the government’s levelling up agenda. Drawing on learning from different regions and devolved nations as well as understanding what contributes to citizens’ pride in place is vital.

It is important to understand the impacts that DCMS sectors have on net zero targets as well as which sectors are most affected by climate change and how impacts might be mitigated. Predicting future trends in this space and analysing how best to mitigate further emissions will be of growing value in the years ahead.

To support future planning, DCMS would be really interested in what research says about long term trends. How does it scope out opportunities and risks that could arise in five years and beyond? Horizon scanning and planning for future research needs is crucial to drive DCMS’s rigorous research aims.

DCMS is keen to develop its network of researchers from across academia, industry and its sector communities more broadly. Having studied the ARI document, DCMS would hope that researchers wish to connect with the department and become part of its networks, informing DCMS of existing evidence and working with DCMS to shape new research. It is hoped that individual researchers, at all stages of their careers, and research groups will engage with this document and reach out to connect to DCMS.

1. Introduction

The Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) aims to drive growth and enrich lives. The department’s current high level priority outcomes are to:

1. Grow and evolve  sectors domestically and globally, in particular those sectors most affected by coronavirus (COVID-19) which have included culture, tourism, sport, civil society and the creative industries.

2. Increase economic growth and productivity through critical contributions from our sectors, including the visitor economy and the creative industries.

3. Enhance the cohesiveness of communities and nations including through major events and ceremonial occasions, and reducing inequalities of participation in society, particularly among young people.

Generally, DCMS research interests include understanding geographical variation both within and across regions and devolved administrations. The department’s aim is to draw upon high quality research, evidence and technical knowledge to inform robust policy and decision making. Given the breadth of the department’s portfolio it needs to utilise a diverse set of research knowledge — developing, drawing on and analysing a wide evidence base. This includes research to better understand the impact of previous DCMS policy interventions, the status quo and the potential for future policy responses taking into account change. DCMS encourages collaboration across government, the wider scientific community and external partners in the advancement of our evidence base.

This ARI document articulates DCMS’s key policy research questions. It is an important tool to communicate research needs externally and facilitate engagement. The ARIs are carefully mapped out in conjunction with other government departments with whom DCMS has close working relationships (for example, with the Cabinet Office, the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities and, critically, the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology).

2. Research context

2.1 DCMS Science overview

DCMS strives to be an evidence and data-driven department, drawing on a wide range of research and technical knowledge from across the UK’s four nations and overseas. It will continue to innovate to ensure the department is fit for working in the future. It will trial and test new systems and use data and analysis to provide evidence to make the best decisions and achieve the best possible outcomes for DCMS sectors and the public they serve. In this endeavour it is important for the department to:

• receive evidence from differing perspectives and contexts including but not limited to academic researchers, industry, think tanks, charities, and wider research communities
• examine independent peer reviewed evidence that is capable of both challenging and informing assumptions
• review and synthesise a wide range of evidence at both a macro and micro level, including both qualitative and quantitative evidence, drawing in local findings as well as looking at national and international findings
• use multidisciplinary perspectives to understand and solve complex challenges
• work across government to help join up research and policy more broadly

Understanding context is particularly important when evaluating evidence. DCMS wants to ensure it has research that can provide for very specific individual needs alongside wider societal and sectoral concerns, drawing in and representing the UK population as a whole in order to make the best decisions and achieve better outcomes. It is important that DCMS is aiding all of its sectors to flourish, remain sustainable and be capable of responding to change and crises. For sectors, society and individuals DCMS needs to ensure that it continues to maintain and develop its skills base. The many competing priorities and contextual considerations provide a complex set of challenges and finding solutions is aided and often answered by research. For example, there is a need to develop understanding of how best to grow and adapt the UK economy whilst working towards net zero and environmental sustainability. There are many such grand challenges for the government and this is the space of complexity that merits cross cutting research at scale. As a department, DCMS also draws on leading research and analysis to support how it works as an organisation.

As a department, DCMS also draws on leading research and analysis to support how it works as an organisation. Through its Digital, Data and Technology (DDaT) function and overall corporate strategy, it ensures that the department is effective, efficient and following best practice: adopting and utilising the most up to date technology, tools and data. The People and Workplace team also rely on up to date insights to ensure that the department has an appropriately unbiased workforce recruitment strategy. Overall, the department is open to receiving more insights into tools and techniques that could bolster it operationally.

In order to generate evidence, DCMS undertakes research both internally and through collaboration and commissioning. This includes applied research approaches and research and development (R&D) projects. Examples of specific research work are published on the Government website and include our Tackling loneliness evidence review and the development of a framework to value culture and heritage capital. Opportunities for commissioned research are advertised through the government contracts finder. In addition, DCMS circulates information on research funding through its networks and key partners such as UKRI. An important part of communicating evidence needs externally is the ARI document. This articulates some of our current, more pressing research needs, however DCMS is also very interested in future trends, reaching further into the long term.

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.

2.2 Scope of the areas of research interest

DCMS published its first ARI document in 2018. This started important conversations, which informed immediate thinking and policy as well as gathering and generating new evidence for longer term departmental analysis. DCMS’s aspiration is to further grow its networks for evidence generation through the better communication of research needs as set out in this document.

Broadly, the aim of an ARI document is to define and describe departmental areas of research interest in a series of policy area themes and underpinning questions. DCMS hopes that the ARI, 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 in 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

The ARI highlights evidence and knowledge needs either in terms of knowledge gaps or areas where DCMS is keen to gain a stronger set of evidence, particularly in more complex spaces. Most questions will be framed for departmental delivery outcomes needed in the next 2-5 years, although some areas of research interest have longer term trajectories. DCMS is keen to gather evidence generated from quantitative and qualitative research as well as testing data, applied research and novel research approaches. DCMS would like to draw on both national and international research.

Policy area themes and underpinning questions are currently broadly framed. For example, where metrics and frameworks are mentioned, DCMS is keen to have further discussions on the value of using different frameworks and measures to gather evidence. The department hopes the ARI will prompt connection, discussion and the production of research over time and as such this document does not always tightly define the research focus.

As noted above in Section 2.1, the ARI does not cover all of the department’s research endeavours. Each policy area has determined what to cover in the ARI and how best to conduct and focus research. Sections have been framed as policy and evidence needs. This enables scope to design research frameworks that can fulfil the evidence needs in a range of ways. It is hoped that there will be discussions between DCMS and researchers as to how research can be framed to deliver on evidence needs.

If you are interested in an aspect of DCMS’s responsibility that is not covered within this ARI then please refer to Section 4: Working with us for details on how to get in touch more generally.

Where individuals and research groups have provided evidence, DCMS will seek to acknowledge this. It hopes that contributing to policy delivery can be a mutually beneficial process which will have real world impacts.

3. Evidence needs by policy area

In this section:

3.1 How to read the ARI

This section provides an articulation of the evidence needs identified by DCMS’s policy teams. The areas of research interest presented here reflect the size and diversity of the department’s remit. Given the breadth of responsibilities, there is a wide variety of topics which will need to draw upon a broad range of academic disciplines. Consequently, the most pressing policy questions and challenges have been presented in this document to allow researchers to better understand the context and reflect on how their research might be able to support us.

The ARIs are structured around four directorates: Arts, Heritage and Tourism, Civil Society and Youth, Media and Creative Industries, and Sports and Gambling. For each directorate there is a brief summary and overview of their activities. This offers an insight into the organisation of the department, allowing the research community to understand which parts of the department might align most with their work.

For each directorate the most pressing questions that the teams feel they face have been listed, broken down by key policy and activity areas. Questions and challenges are articulated from a policy perspective and DCMS would encourage researchers to reflect on how their research activities and output might best contribute to tackling these policy challenges.

Different researchers and different disciplines will provide different forms 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 can not be clearly mapped to particular disciplines, methods or research traditions. Rather DCMS encourages researchers to develop new perspectives and understandings to allow the department to tackle these challenges.

3.2 Arts, Heritage and Tourism

The Arts, Heritage & Tourism Directorate (AHT) supports culture and preserves heritage for current and future generations. It aims to support sustainable growth in these sectors and enrich the lives and wellbeing of communities through engagement and participation with the arts, heritage and tourism sectors. It also aims to boost the UK’s soft power, through showcasing our rich heritage and cultural inventiveness to the world, contributing to places people want to live, visit and invest in. It seeks to market the UK across the world in order to promote jobs and growth by strengthening cultural exports and promoting inward investment and tourism. AHT has the lead responsibility for arts and culture, museums and galleries, libraries, cultural property, heritage, tourism, the art market, treasure, cultural diplomacy, promoting UK tourism, the Government Art Collection, the delivery of UNBOXED, the UK City of Culture programme and the Live Events Reinsurance scheme. AHT is also responsible for sponsoring a number of national cultural, heritage and tourism organisations, known as arm’s length bodies (ALBs), and leads on delivering programmes for its sectors.

AHT would like to develop its understanding of the impact that their sectors have on growth and productivity in the UK, both in an economic and social sense. It is also interested in developing knowledge around how AHT sectors help to develop positive socio-cultural impacts, such as an increase of civic pride, wellbeing and health for those who participate and engage with the sectors. Other aspects such as COVID-19 and new digital development have changed a lot of aspects of delivery for AHT sectors and research to help better understand these impacts is still needed.

Workforce development, maintaining skills pipelines and ensuring diversity and inclusion in AHT sectors is important and further studies to understand how interventions have positively or negatively impacted them will be useful. Additionally, how cultural and creative education leads to wider societal impacts and effects potential earnings is of research interest.

Understanding the impact of arts, culture, heritage and tourism on levelling up and how AHT sectors impact this agenda is crucial.

Research is also needed to help AHT’s understanding of international cultural markets, where the UK sits comparatively and the impact culture has on international diplomacy. Protecting the UK’s cultural assets and understanding ways to consolidate and make better use of crucial data across AHT sectors is also of interest and more research on best practice would be useful.

The Culture and Heritage Capital Programme (CHC), a world-leading research and development programme to help the culture and heritage sectors to measure their impact on society, was officially launched in January 2021 with the publication of ‘Valuing culture and heritage capital: a framework towards informing decision making’. The framework sets out DCMS ambitions on how to value economic, cultural and social impact. Key areas of research interest can be found on the DCMS CHC portal and recent scoping study. AHRC and DCMS launched a CHC research call which has been separated into several strands, each comprising a distinct research question. The total value of the call is £3.125 million.

Critical policy issues, evidence needs and questions

AHT sectors: Impact on growth, productivity, and the impact of COVID-19 and digital developments

1. The drivers of productivity in AHT sectors and the impact of the sectors on economic growth, productivity, public health and employment

• Identify the key drivers/determinants of productivity within AHT sectors, including which policies can increase the economic productivity of organisations.

• Analyse and explain the common features of organisations that are making the largest economic contribution within an AHT subsector (e.g. type, size, location of businesses). What lessons can be learnt to drive future growth policy?

• Which AHT sectors are growing, mature or contracting? What are the implications for targeting government interventions?

• Analyse and explain the interactions across the cultural sector value chain and the relative importance of parts of the value chain to growth and sector resilience to understand how future policy interventions should be targeted.

• What are the major skills gaps in the AHT sectors and how could that impact on sector growth and wider social and culture outcomes?

• Analyse and explain the structure of the UK commercial art market (paintings and other tangible art products) and how much the UK commercial art market contributes to the wider economy.

• Analyse and explain the barriers to the growth of the UK art market and assess what government interventions would be effective to help overcome these barriers.

• Analyse and explain the most effective methods (in addition to marketing) for driving behavioural change of tourists in order to increase tourism volumes, with a focus on direct and indirect levers that can be affected by DCMS and on the rate and pace of return.

• Assess and evaluate the most effective methods of measuring the impact of tourism marketing, to demonstrate its effectiveness and value for money.

• Analyse the value of AHT sector work on public health.

2. Impacts of COVID-19, other crises and the resilience of AHT sectors

• Analyse the most significant factors that create barriers/risks to financial health for AHT organisations. What policy interventions can reduce financial risk for these organisations?

• What is the best/most appropriate indicator of financial health and sustainability of AHT organisations? At what point do AHT organisations become at risk and might require government intervention to secure their long term survival?

• How has COVID-19 changed the way in which businesses in DCMS sectors operate and what does this mean for future financial resilience and lessons learnt for future economic shocks?

• To what extent are the impacts of COVID-19 temporary and which represent permanent trends to supply, demand and business models? What opportunities and challenges do these changes in behaviour present for businesses across DCMS sectors, both in the short-run and longer-term?

• To what extent has COVID-19 and cost of living crisis impacted on the drivers for private giving and cultural organisations’ approach to donations?

• Analyse and explain the current and future factors that affect the supply of regional private giving. What innovative methods can be used by small regional organisations to increase private giving?

• Analyse and explain the most significant risk and opportunity factors that will shape AHT sectors over the next ten years.

3. The role of digital cultural offers and consumption in driving future engagement and business models, domestically and internationally

• What is the impact of digital technologies on supply and demand for culture in AHT sectors?

• How is digital culture affecting how people define culture?

• How is digital culture affecting how people interact with both physical and digital forms of culture? 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 are the barriers to engagement in digital cultural offers for different groups and how can innovative digital content be used to reduce barriers to audience engagement?

• What are the barriers to entry into the digital market faced by freelance artists and smaller creative organisations? What does research suggest policy could do to help to level up commercial opportunities in the digital market beyond larger institutions and beyond London?

• What are identified as the key digital skills gaps in the UK’s cultural workforce?

• What interventions have been effective in AHT sectors for narrowing the digital skills gap in their workforce and for improving digital infrastructure?

• How does the UK’s digital offer for international cultural activity compare to other markets around the world? Where have there been market failures for digital policy in relation to international arts and culture activity and what are effective intervention options?

• To what extent has the COVID-19 pandemic and transition to more online/hybrid events changed the domestic/international digital footprint of AHT organisations based within the UK?

• How can digital offers impact income streams, support freelance artists/smaller organisations and retain copyright for producers?

• What are the social and cultural impacts of digital engagement and how do they differ from or compliment physical engagement?

• How can digital demand be better measured to understand meaningful engagement? (i.e engagement that has a social and cultural impact as well as economic impact)

Workforce development, accessibility, diversity, inclusion and wellbeing

4. Workforce development, skills gaps and equality of access as well as representation in AHT sectors

• Analyse and explain what works in terms of increasing access to and engagement with AHT sectors, notably across young people, people who are currently in lower socioeconomic households and ethnic minorities.

• What are the barriers to AHT sector employment for lower socioeconomic and protected groups and what works or could work in terms of increasing access and engagement for AHT sectors?

• Analyse and explain what works in terms of workforce development mechanisms, interventions and governance models on improved workforce participation of lower socioeconomic and protected groups.

• How can skills gaps and the impacts of workforce skill gaps be measured?

• What is affecting future access to training and employment in AHT sectors for lower socioeconomic and protected groups and sector skills gaps?

• Analyse and explain the effectiveness of interventions for increasing recruitment and retention across AHT sectors.

• Assess the effectiveness of interventions that can promote a resilient and adaptable workforce and the degree to which these need to protect or promote freelancers and under-represented groups in the workforce.

5. Art, Heritage and Tourism’s role in levelling up

• Identify and analyse the drivers and what works in terms of delivering against levelling up missions, notably in the areas of: skills, wellbeing and pride in place.

• Analyse to what extent the AHTassets/offer act as push and pull factors in people and business decisions to move, stay or leave for a different location? What does this mean for public investment policy in culture, heritage and tourism and growth of cultural clusters?

• Analyse and explain the drivers of spatial differences in cultural engagement across the UK?

• To what extent does the distance from and/or density of AHT assets determine engagement rates among specific groups? What does this mean for public investment into AHT infrastructure?

• 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?

• Analyse and explain to what extent there is a causal relationship between place-based cultural funding (e.g. cultural property protection) and wider local socioeconomic impacts? To what extent are there spillover effects in nearby surrounding areas?

• Analyse and explain the prerequisite conditions for effective cultural investment in place, for example leadership, infrastructure and long-term strategy.

• Analyse and explain the role and drivers of AHT sectors in creating a greater sense of pride in place in communities?

International

6. Opportunities and impact of international cultural diplomacy, cultural heritage protection

• How does culture drive soft power and what methodologies can be applied/developed to measure the generation of soft power through international cultural engagement?

• What works in developing international influence/soft power through the arts, heritage and tourism sectors?

• To what extent and how does the UK government’s investment in overseas cultural heritage protection impact on international trade flows between the UK and recipient countries?

• Examine and explain the impact of the Cultural Protection Fund, in particular its contribution to UK cultural diplomacy, soft power and towards The United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals within the programme.

Climate change

7. The role of AHT sectors in reducing Greenhouse Gases (GHG) changing behaviour and mitigating risks to cultural assets, including protected sites and cultural venues, organisations and attractions

• Assess and explain the impact of AHT sectors on climate change and contribution to net zero objectives. What works to mitigate the sectors’ impact to climate change and achieve these objectives?

• How can standard methodologies on measuring greenhouse gas emissions be applied to AHT sectors? What kinds of new sustainability techniques and measures need to be developed specifically for AHT sectors?

• What is the risk to AHT assets from climate change and how can these risks be mitigated?

• How can culture be used to educate and influence citizens to help meet net zero targets?

Cultural asset protection

8. The effectiveness of cultural asset protection, including risks to assets in our sectors

• What are the most appropriate methodologies and indicators to measure the environmental and economic benefits of deploying and maintaining repair and maintenance systems when protecting cultural assets? What are the benefits of this?

• What are the best methodologies and indicators to measure the benefits of halting ongoing material failure and degradation of museum buildings and collections?

• What are the most appropriate methodologies and indicators to measure the benefits of lowering the risk of catastrophic events, including fire, flood, structural failure?

Cultural events

9. Delivering positive economic, social, cultural and environmental impacts from major cultural events (e.g. UK City of Culture)

• Explore the development of a standardised baseline monitoring and evaluation framework for major cultural events.

• Assess and explain the causal impacts of cultural events at a local and national scale (e.g. economic, social, and cultural).

• Define the outcomes and impacts of the legacy of cultural events and develop the methods and/or models that are most effective for evaluating the long-term impacts of cultural events.

• Which methods could be best implemented and provide robust estimates of in person engagement with cultural events, especially when activities are unticketed?

• Which methodologies could be used to more accurately forecast physical engagement at cultural events?

• Which methodologies could be used to more accurately forecast the wider impact of major cultural events on local economies and societies?

Cultural education

10. Cultural and creative education

• What is the social and developmental impact of culture and creative education at schools and higher education?

• Is there a causal relationship between cultural creative related education and how salaries progress over time?

• How do wages of creative Higher Education graduates progress over time and what factors determine short and long-term wages? For example what factors can explain why arts and design graduates have some of the lowest earnings one and five years after graduation?

• How can lower earnings of arts and design graduates be explained in the context of the higher rate of gross value added (GVA) growth in the creative industries?

• What is the educational background of those working in the culture and creative industries?

• What is the proportion working in the sector that have undertaken creative courses? Is this a predictor of those that go on to work in the culture and creative Industries sectors?

• What is the impact of non-cognitive skills developed through cultural education and lifelong earnings?

• What is the additional value beyond wages (e.g. wellbeing) that can be used to show the welfare impact of cultural and creative employment and therefore the non-wage impact of cultural education?

Cultural data

11. Addressing data gaps in financial and economic performance and consumer demand to inform the need for policy interventions in those areas

*What data gaps may exist in the financial and economic performance of AHT sectors and wider cultural engagement? How can these data gaps be addressed?

• What are the possible technical solutions to link AHT-related datasets together, particularly given the lack of Uniform Resource Names (URN) across datasets holding AHT data?

• What methodologies could be applied to AHT sectors and subsectors, which would allow for information to underpin policy interventions in those sub-sectors?

• What sources and methodological approaches can be developed to allow for more consistent and granular data on freelancers?

3.3 Civil Society and Youth

Civil Society and Youth (CSY) lead on policies for charities, youth policy, volunteering, social enterprise, impact investing, dormant assets, alongside being the cross-government lead on loneliness. A common goal in work spanning CSY is to find solutions to key societal challenges by working across public, private and social sectors. There are four key teams within the directorate: the Civil Society Impact Funding, Civil Society Strategy & Analysis, the Youth Team and the Volunteering and Tackling Loneliness Team.

CSY is keen to develop its evidence base in order to better understand how it can best support the growth and resilience of the voluntary, community and social enterprise sectors to foster a strong and healthy civil society. It wants to strengthen its evidence base to ensure it properly understands the intersections between the many networks of factors that empower individuals to better engage and participate in civil society taking into account inclusion and equality of access to services, work and volunteering opportunities.

It is important for the directorate to put in place evidence-led policies and regulations that support the organisations across its sectors (charities, youth organisations, and social enterprises) so that they can flourish and respond to new challenges. CSY is keen to understand new perspectives and evidence on innovative financing and investment. The directorate is sensitive to understanding contexts, spaces and places in order to ensure levelling up and pride in place across all regions actively tackling regional disparities. In its mission to improve outcomes for young people there is a need to better understand regional disparities, routes to developing young people’s skills and employability in conjunction with their health and wellbeing. More broadly CSY has a mission to improve wellbeing and reduce loneliness across society (see the tackling loneliness evidence gap review).

Critical policy issues, evidence needs and questions

CSY: understanding the factors and organisations that contribute to a strong civil society and a society which supports young people

1. Health, resilience and growth of sector organisations supporting civil society and youth agendas

• What are the characteristics of those organisations (charities, youth organisations, social enterprises) working across this space?
• What services are provided by those within this sector and how can these be enhanced?
• What is the level of voluntary, community and social enterprise resilience at the sector level?
• What affects and supports resilience at the organisational level?
• What are the drivers of demand for services in this sector taking into account the needs of different groups?
• What are the drivers and barriers of other funders of the sector, including social and mainstream investors and commissioners?

2. Values and impacts of the CSY sectors

• What social and economic value does this sector provide?
• What is the quality and value of services provided by the sector, relative to those offered by other sectors (eg. public sector)?
• To what extent does greater voluntary, community and social enterprise participation in procurement lead to better outcomes for people and communities including young people?
• How effective is social investment in building resilient local (social) economies and civil society, and in delivering social impact?

3. Effective support for voluntary, community and social enterprise sector

• What forms of funding and support have been shown to be effective for this sector, to maximise sector health and beneficial outcomes?
• How can collaboration between organisations, commissioners and other funders across CSY sectors and actors be enhanced at local levels to support better outcomes?

Access, participation and volunteering

4. Understanding levels of engagement and participation with civil society and youth sectors across different groups

• What are engagement levels across different groups?
• Who accesses the services of charitable and voluntary organisations and social enterprises?
• To what extent do different demographic groups volunteer, both formally and informally? What types of volunteering does this include?
• What are the major barriers to volunteering for different demographic groups?

5. Costs of disparities in voluntary sector participation rates

• What are the impacts of lower/greater rates of engagement with voluntary sectors?
• What are the benefits of greater equality of access?

6. Effective approaches to increasing equality of access and participation

• What are the barriers to different groups engaging with civil society and youth sectors?
• What works in addressing barriers and increasing engagement of specific groups?

Levelling up

7. Presence of civil society at the local level

• How do issues related to CSY’s policy responsibilities affect pride in place and social capital at the local level?
• What are the regional disparities across CSY’s policy responsibilities?

8. Causes and costs of regional disparities

• What drives spatial inequalities in relation to CSY’s policy responsibilities?
• What are the knock-on effects of lower levels of civil society and pride in place both overall and in local areas?
• What are the benefits of increased levels of civil society participation and of pride in place, overall and in more localised areas?

9. Effective approaches to reducing regional disparities

• What interventions can support communities to tap into and take ownership of social investment at local and “hyper-local” levels?
• How can innovative forms of commissioning and effective cross-sector collaboration improve outcomes at local levels?
• How can levels of civil society and of pride in place in a local area be increased?

Improving youth outcomes in terms of skills, access to employment, health and wellbeing

10. Extent and costs of problems facing young people

• What are the challenges and issues facing young people? What are the costs of not addressing these issues/risks, or improving youth outcomes?
• Do these differ regionally or for different groups?
• What are the impacts of lack of skills, employability and wellbeing among young people?
• What are the costs of not addressing these issues/improving youth outcomes?
• What are the benefits of and opportunities to improve youth outcomes?

11. Effective approaches to improving youth outcomes through youth services

• What works in improving the skills, employability and wellbeing of young people?
• What works in improving youth outcomes?
• Do different interventions work for different groups and in different contexts?

Reducing loneliness

12. Extent and costs of loneliness

• How widespread is loneliness?
• Who is affected by it?
• What is the economic cost of loneliness?
• What are the benefits of reducing loneliness?

13. Effective approaches to reducing loneliness

• What works in reducing loneliness and what are the challenges and opportunities?
• Do different interventions work for different groups and in different contexts?

3.4 Media and Creative Industries

The Media and Creative Industries (MCI) directorate aims to support and drive thriving, environmentally sustainable and socially-responsible media and creative industry sectors to grow their output and enrich lives. It works to manage the social impacts of media and the creative industries, ensuring that people are protected from potential harms. It strives for a future-proofed and competitive media sector that serves the needs of audiences, including through the public service broadcasting system. This work encompasses a wide number of sectors including advertising, architecture, crafts, design, fashion, film, music, publishing, video games and media. In supporting our sectors, MCI gives particular consideration to key current drivers of change linked to the economic climate, the nexus of digital technology and content, and international developments.

The directorate is structured around two key pillars:

1. Creative industries, covering the sectors listed above and policy development such as the Creative Industries Sector Vision, Video Games Research Framework, skills development and representation, and international trade.

2. Media, covering the government’s relationship with the public service broadcasters and wider television sector; radio, and press policy, including media freedom, regulation, sustainability, strategy and resilience.

The Media and Creative Industries directorate wants to probe and develop evidence for considering new funding approaches and business models across its sectors which can better ensure growth, social responsibility and environmental sustainability. As new challenges arise, it needs to develop a strong research evidence base to lead on policy and to support these sectors and their wider impacts. In addition, it is important to ensure workforce and skills development meet the needs of the sectors and provide for industry conditions that drive inclusion and diversity so their workforce and outputs are representative of the consumers/audiences they serve. This should take into account national and regional representation. MCI wants to understand the economic and social implications of different approaches and interventions including in terms of their impacts on different social groups.

In terms of media, MCI needs to consider how best to support television, radio and the press sectors to adapt to the ever-changing media environment while maintaining a media which acts in the public interest and with social and environmental responsibility. The place of regulation and government intervention should be considered within this context. The UK has a reputation for the provision of a dynamic, strong, independent and safe sector where freedoms of speech and expression are supported. There will be a natural focus on the BBC over the coming years as MCI looks at the sustainability of BBC funding and prepares for the start of the next charter period in 2028.

In the creative industries (CI) there is a need to evidence approaches to better grow workforce skills and productivity explicitly addressing the skills gaps and shortages taking into account the complex dynamics of CI workforces, (e.g. including freelancers, contractors and employees in a range of organisational types from SMEs through to FTSE corporations). There is also a need to understand the level and type of innovation and R&D activity undertaken by creative businesses, and the impacts this has on growth, trade and societal benefits. We are also interested in how the creative industries are adapting business models and navigating new markets, as well as how these changes affect audiences. MCI wants to better understand the values and future values of the CIs including economic output but beyond this to consider societal delivery, soft power and net zero.

Critical policy issues, evidence needs and questions

Media sustainability, dynamism, provision and freedoms

1. Public service broadcasting and the impact of wider changes

• What outcomes do public service broadcasters (PSBs) bring about as a result of their distinct public service remit including economic, societal, security, democratic, environmental and international considerations? What is the role of the PSBs in the wider media market?
• How might that change over time with increased digitalisation of media production and consumption?
• What are the environmental implications of increased on-demand consumption in comparison to linear broadcasting?
• In what ways do governance, regulation and regulatory frameworks support or hinder public service broadcasters in providing a public service?
• In what ways might the broadcasting market change in the long-term? What can an analysis of business models and changing viewing habits tell us about the likelihood of market convergence and whether that might be vertical or horizontal integration through the supply chain?
• What kind of mix of business models for PSB and non-PSB broadcasters might the market sustain going forwards?
• What are the long-term financial sustainability considerations for the BBC, including from the changing media market and any learnings from international PSB funding models?

2. The future of linear TV

• To what extent do audiences who watch linear TV engage with digital technologies such as on demand players, broadband at home, and smartphones?
• What are the characteristics of those who watch linear TV but engage very little with digital technologies? Why is their engagement low? What are the barriers and enablers for adopting non-linear TV?
• What is the size of the population who watch linear TV but currently have no broadband at home? What size may that population be in the coming decades?

3. News provision: Supporting a dynamic and plural UK press sector

• What are the social, economic, cultural and democratic impacts of national and local news provision in the UK? How can we best quantify and/or qualify the impact of national and local news provision? How do these impacts and benefits differ across different demographics and stakeholders?
• What can we learn about news consumption trends, including on which platforms news is consumed, diversity of readership; the role of media literacy in engagement with news; even expectations of what ‘news’ is and how that varies depending on the platform?
• What role do hyperlocal news publishers play in the news ecosystem and what is their distinct contribution relative to other publishers? Consider the nature of the provision, reach and ways in which audiences engage.
• What impact is increasing consolidation in the local and national press sectors having on press plurality, and to what extent is consolidation necessary to secure financial sustainability of the sector?

4. Ensuring the financial sustainability of the UK press sector

• What are the underlying causes of the financial challenges facing the press sector and how does that vary across the national and local sub-sectors? What impact are the financial challenges having on the economic, social and cultural value of news provision in the UK?
• What barriers exist to building sustainable business models in the press sector and what action is required to remove these?
• What affects willingness to pay for news online? What types of content are different audience groups willing to pay for? In what ways are different audiences willing to pay (e.g. regular subscription, donation)? How does this change over time and what influences that change?
• What supply and demand side interventions would be appropriate and what could be their impact?
• What challenges are posed by inflation in both demand and supply contexts?
• What does an economic analysis indicate about the impact of potential digital competition reforms on the sustainability of the press sector?

5. Media freedom and journalist safety: Safeguarding media freedom in the UK, and protecting the safety of journalists operating in the UK

• How can we best measure and track media freedom in the UK context building upon existing international work including the RSF’s Media Freedom Index? What does a more detailed development and analysis reveal?
• How safe are journalists in the UK and how has this changed over time?
• What impact do abuse, threats and violence have on journalists in the UK? What is the most appropriate way to define ‘abuse’, particularly online abuse, of journalists? What are the perceived boundaries between abuse and valid criticism by different stakeholders? What are the potential triggers for journalist abuse in the UK and internationally, including through analysis of online abuse on social media platforms and publisher websites, and the online accounts posting this abuse and wider evidence gathering?
• What are the impact of existing initiatives to support journalists and improve their safety, in both the UK and abroad, and what does this tell us about what works? What further interventions could be introduced to improve journalist safety in the UK?

6. Radio: Securing the sustainability of the UK radio sector

• What are the challenges faced by UK radio providers?
• What impacts are smart speakers and broader connected devices having on radio listening and on radio providers? What are the opportunities for voice activation usage on smart speakers?
• What is the best way to secure the inclusion and accessibility of radio on smart devices? What is the current value exchange between smart device platforms and UK radio stations, and how is this likely to change in the future? What are the audience demographics for old digital (DAB) radios vs new DAB+ devices.
• What impact are podcasts having on the UK radio market? What is the scale and reach of the UK podcast market, in terms of the number of providers, usage of different platforms, market share of providers and platforms, demographics and other factors including financial dynamics?
• In what ways and why do audiences value audio content? Particularly thinking about the differences between live audio content and on demand.

7. Diversity and inclusion in media: Securing diversity and inclusion in the UK media sector

• How diverse and inclusive is the media workforce at all levels and how is this changing over time? What interventions could improve diversity and inclusion in the media workforce?
• Is there a link between representation in media and consumption across demographics?
• How does engagement with and perceptions of different media forms shift across demographic characteristics? What interventions could improve engagement?
• What works in terms of improving diversity (defined as representation of protected characteristics and socio-demographic background to the UK population) within the media workforce to bring it closer to being representative of the UK workforce and audiences?
• How does career progressions differ for those with different protected characteristics and across socio-demographic backgrounds?

Creative industries (CI) development, growth, innovation and comparative advantage

8. Creative cluster growth and spillovers to other economic sectors

• What are the specific barriers to growth for creative industry firms? How do these vary by region and sub-sector?
• What is the impact on the new location and CIs growth from moving the location of a large media or CI business? For example, BBC Media City in Salford or the Cardiff BBC centre. What other spillover effects result? How do large businesses support local creative industries supply chains and skills development?
• How does CI activity lead to spillovers of knowledge and innovation to other sectors?

9. CI access to finance and investment

• Are creative businesses obtaining the finance they need for investments in growth?
• What is the demand for private investment from creative businesses? Is this demand being met?
• What are the most common sources of finance sought by creative businesses? How does this vary across the business lifecycle?
• What barriers to obtaining finance do creative businesses experience? What are they doing to overcome known barriers?
• What is the risk level investors place on the creative industries investment and how does this compare to other sectors?
• What is the scale of investment in Createch and what skills are needed? What factors are inhibiting/helping Createch growth?

10. CI R&D, innovation, tech adoption and digital consumption

• What is the level of innovation and R&D activity in the creative industries as measured by spending on these activities?
• How can the outputs of R&D be measured for the creative industries, and how can these be used to demonstrate the tangible and intangible value and benefit of investments? What are the enablers and barriers to innovation and R&D?
• How do the creative industries compare internationally on their rates of R&D/innovation as a proportion of GVA/GDP and by firm size?
• What are the barriers to entry into the digital market faced by freelance workers and smaller creative organisations?
• Are digital markets, including digital intermediation services such as platforms, impacting creator remuneration, and if so how?
• What are the risks and opportunities to creative business growth posed by new technology, including automation such as the use of AI?
• 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 are the barriers creative businesses face in adopting new technologies?
• What has been effective in supporting businesses to adopt digital technologies? What difference have these made to productivity?

11. Exports, international supply chains and comparative advantage

• Which CI 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 and what is the impact of these incentives?
• What are the impacts of EU exit on trade in the creative industries and how does this compare to other industries?
• Which creative businesses are more likely to export and what are the reasons behind different levels of export propensity?
• 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?

Creative industries workforce and skills

12. Creative industries workforce development, delivery and skills gaps

• What future skills are needed to support creative industries growth? How do these vary by sub-sector? How do education pathways meet these needs?
• What are skills development issues facing freelance workers?
• What are the impacts of skills issues on creative businesses?
• What are the perceptions of young people of creative careers opportunities?
• How does access to creative activities, including through digital and social media, support the development of creative and other skills?
• How much training do creative employers provide employees, what are they spending and how are they measuring the returns to training?
• How can we quantify the economic risk of workforce skill gaps and how this impacts economic productivity within the CI sub sectors?
• What evidence is there for the effectiveness of interventions for increasing recruitment and retention across CI sectors?

13. Diversity and inclusion in the creative industries

• 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 sectors’ workforce to bring it closer to being representative of the UK workforce and audiences?
• How does career progressions 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 BHD and how effective are these in tackling BHD in the sector.
• What is the economic value of diversity and inclusive workplace cultures?

The impact of the creative industries

14. Participation and engagement with creative industries

• What are the barriers to participation?
• Are there geographical or other demographic differences 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?

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

• 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/monetizable value delivered by the creative industries?
• What is the prevalence and impact of harm caused by online advertising content and its targeted delivery to internet users (such as fraudulent or misleading adverts, adverts for age restricted products or services, illegal products)?
• How do experiences of advertising harm differ across demographics, including across adults and young people?
• How does the type of online advert (such as video, display, social media influencers etc) influence engagement/interaction with online advertising? How does this engagement differ by age?
• What are the impacts of playing video games on adults and young people? How does the length of time spent gaming and the type of gaming content affect overall wellbeing and economic performance? How do interactions with other players/individuals in online gaming environments affect wellbeing? A video games research framework is being developed that will set out a comprehensive set of research questions.

16.Climate change and net zero in media and creative industries

• How can standard methodologies measuring greenhouse gas emissions be applied to the creative industries and its sub-sectors? Which, if any, aspects of standard emissions measurement needs to be adjusted to creative industries activities while ensuring consistency and cross sector comparisons?
• How can we monitor emissions arising as a result of digital consumption?
• How can other environmental impacts of creative industries activities be measured, such as their influence on extraction and use of raw materials (including plastics), waste, recycling and re-use practices?
• 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?

17. Soft power impacts of media and creative industries activities

• What methodologies can be applied or developed to quantify the generation of soft power through UK creative businesses’ international activities?
• How effective are trade in creative goods and services in contributing to the long-term promotion of cultural exchange?
• What are the risks to creative industries international activities from changes in the global political landscape?

3.5 Sport and Gambling

The Sport and Gambling directorate works to: encourage the nation to get active; improve sports facilities; support elite sport; host major sporting events; support the National Lottery; and ensure there is a safe and responsible gambling industry. The Sport Team covers elite sport, grassroots sports participation, sports economy, safety and sport integrity (i.e. anti-doping and anti-corruption) and major events, driving forwards physical and mental wellbeing, individual, social and community development and economic development. The Gambling Team is focused on ensuring that the regulatory framework for commercial gambling remains fit for the digital age, and is one which protects players, provides jobs and pays taxes.

The Sport and Gambling directorate wants to develop and expand its existing evidence base to drive better regulation and cost-effective intervention across its sectors to achieve public health, economic and social benefits for the UK population.

The Sport Team wants to rigorously assess how best to tackle inactivity and maximise the positive impacts of sport for the whole nation. As part of this, they are interested in gathering evidence on the impact of sport and sport interventions on Pride in Place in communities and the role of sport in supporting the delivery of the Levelling Up agenda. Research into this field would support the government’s agenda to tackle regional and local inequalities across the UK.

The UK has recently staged some of the world’s largest global sporting events, from the London 2012 Olympic Games to the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games. Whilst evidence on the short-term value of hosting major events is readily available, there is currently limited evidence on the longer-term benefits of hosting major events. We want to generate evidence to assess both the economic and social legacy of large scale major sports events.

The Gambling team wants to broaden and strengthen its evidence base around the harmful effects of gambling and the impacts of regulation and address the barriers to gambling data access and use. Gathering evidence on the key drivers and behavioural patterns behind harmful gambling and assessing the economic and wider societal value of the sector are of key interest to the directorate.

The majority of gambling is now online. Digital analytics can provide granular data to help us better understand and prevent problem gambling. At present, the government, regulators and academia have limited access to this level of data. The Gambling team wants to address this challenge and support research and regulation mainly through primary data collection from gambling users and operators and effective technical collaboration.

Critical policy issues, evidence needs and questions

1. Sport: Assessing rigorously how best to tackle inactivity and maximise the positive impacts of sport for the whole nation

• Assess and provide evidence for effective interventions to reduce inactivity (undertaking under 30 minutes of exercise per week for the adult population, 16+), and increase physical activity (defined as +150 minutes per week for the adult population), considering underrepresented groups and demographics, as well as the cost benefit analysis.
• Understanding what works to improve the quality and resilience of the sport and physical activity system through better business models and regulation.
• Examine how sport, and interventions in sport, affect pride in place, levelling up, and other wider societal outcomes.
• Define and measure social cohesion and cultural value, relating it quantitatively to sport.
• Analyse the elements of policy and regulation that could be brought in to better regulate men’s and women’s games, taking into account cultural contexts and case examples from other sports and internationally.
• Analyse the elements of governance frameworks for sports that exist and the interventions and changes that could bring improvements.
• Analyse and quantify, in economic and wider social values metrics, the legacy benefits of large scale sports events.
• Better understand and quantify the extent to which investment in grassroots facilities improves participation, including for underrepresented groups and in different parts of the country.

2. Gambling: Building a data-led approach to produce rigorous evidence on gambling to inform proportionate and effective gambling regulation, acting to drive down problem gambling

• Which (online) gambling behaviours and operator practices are most harmful and how can these be best mitigated?
• Is there an identifiable “lifecycle” of harmful gambling that maps how problem gamblers start and stop? If so, at which points in the lifecycle are interventions most effective?
• What is the relationship between advertising and harmful gambling?
• Development of longitudinal studies to better understand developing patterns of individual/group harm using rich digital data.
• What is the prevalence of gambling harm among the population and among specific cohorts? How is that expected to change in the future?
• As the gambling reforms are introduced, we want to gather evidence as to how they are providing benefits and analyse their impacts as the sector continues to change.
• Which harm prevention interventions are most effective? Which are most cost-effective?
• Undertake cost-benefit methodologies to assess economic and wider societal value of a broad range of potential interventions on gambling?
• What are the holistic economic and fiscal impacts of online gambling protections?
• How can we quantify and assess benefits of gambling (e.g. social events, leisure utility, mental alertness)?
• What levers are most effective for the Gambling Commission to use in regulating towards a socially responsible industry?
• Technical collaboration on data standards and sharing to support research and regulation - establishing precise data categories, format, frequency needed to support evidence-led policy.
• Primary data collection from gambling users and/or operators to support research.

4. Working with us

DCMS welcomes the opportunity to extend its networks as widely as possible and ensure it reaches a diverse range of stakeholders. The department is happy to receive general expressions of interest from experts, from all career stages, who are interested in collaborating with DCMS. This may be in a range of forms: from submitting evidence, 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 survey:

Appendix A contains the template of the survey. You should look at this prior to logging, in order that you have had an opportunity to prepare the information you will supply, particularly if you are submitting evidence. In addition, where you are not able to access the link for any reason, then we recommend that you send an email to csa@dcms.gov.uk structured in the format set out in the survey.

There is a data protection privacy notice at Appendix B, which explains in detail how we process your data.

The first page of the survey aids DCMS in understanding your expertise and your policy interests. If you are interested in being on DCMS’s network list exclusively please fill in just the first page. In addition, this contains a section to provide any information on potential future collaborations you would like to initiate discussions on. The second page of the survey is a mechanism that allows you to submit structured evidence that meets the evidence needs described in the ARI and which seeks to develop the DCMS’s knowledge and evidence base. If you do have research evidence relevant to DCMS, including all forms of research, then please complete the full survey as an initial starting point for DCMS to engage with your work. It is possible to provide evidence that speaks to more than one policy area/question. Further information on submitting evidence is below.

To help DCMS manage the high volume of evidence it can receive, it is helpful for you to submit this in a structured way through the survey link provided and to keep in mind the following advice when completing the survey. DCMS is keen to receive evidence in structured formats so that it can easily direct the information and then absorb key aspects of your work. DCMS needs to understand the policy area your findings are most likely to be applicable to, your research aim and approach, your key findings and whether these are generalisable, scalable or transferable to different contexts. Where studies do evidence the benefits of a policy intervention or where they indicate that a policy has not met its intended aspirations the department is keen to receive this data. DCMS wants to know ‘what works’ in different contexts, the details of an approach and at what costs where known. 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.

Please also reach out to DCMS through the survey should there be ongoing or recently started research that may feed into our policy evidence needs. DCMS is keen to talk through research design at an early stage. There are people in the Chief Scientific Adviser’s Team, who are keen to assist.

DCMS will be seeking to better acknowledge all those who do contribute to its policy development through the submission of research evidence. This structured approach to collecting evidence will assist in this aspiration. Whilst DCMS may not be able to respond immediately to everyone directly, this does not mean that your submission has not been noted or your contributions have not been taken into account.

Please note that DCMS is not currently accepting applications for the DCMS College of Experts. However, it will advertise any calls to extend the College to those registered on our network lists.

For more general queries about research and science please email the Chief Scientific Adviser’s Team at csa@dcms.gov.uk.

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. 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 (ARI) have 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 science 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. In addition, we want to ensure we are engaging with a wide range of stakeholders in the development of our evidence base. 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.

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 [add link] provided 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

4. Organisation:

5. Job role:

6. Career stage:

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

7. 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.

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

• I previously engaged with the 2018 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 DCMS College of Experts
• UKRI
• UPEN
• Other academic networks
• Social media
• Other (please specify)

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

• Arts and heritage
• Tourism
• Civil Society and Youth
• Media
• Creative Industries
• Sports
• Gambling

10. 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 11)

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

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

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

14. These ARI 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

15. Was there anything you would change about their formatting? (max. 100 words)

Page 2 of the survey for evidence submissions

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

• Cross-cutting policy
• Arts, Heritage and Tourism
• Civil Society and Youth
• Media and Creative Industries
• Sports, Gambling, Ceremonials and Events

17. 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).

18. 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.

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

20. 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.

Appendix B: DCMS ARI survey privacy notice

Department for Culture, Media & Sport privacy notice for areas of research interest survey and 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 Department for Culture, Media & Sport’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. 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?

All of the questions in the survey 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 to the Chief Scientific Adviser’s Team either directly by email or through Qualtrics. The latter software collects your data in EEA hosted server centres. The Chief Scientific Adviser’s Team will regularly download the data from Qualtrics. Access to the Qualtrics survey 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

Email: dpo@dcms.gov.uk

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 08/02/2023.

Acknowledgements

Chief Scientific Adviser’s Team:

• Melike Berker, Private Secretary to the CSA and Director of Analysis
• Nicole Huggins, Principal Scientific Officer
• Jasmine Christian, Scientific Officer
• Karen Harris and Eleanor Rees, ALB Research and Development Leads
• Henri McKenzie-Freedman, GSE Intern
• DCMS scientific and analytical colleagues and policy teams

CAPE ARI Policy Fellow

• Dr Elizabeth Lomas - Associate Professor in Information Governance, University College London

DCMS College of Experts

• Prof Kalina Bontcheva - Research Professor in Text Analytics at the Department of Computer Science, University of Sheffield

• Ghislaine Boddington - Creative Director, BDS Creative Ltd - body>data>space / Reader in Digital Immersion, University of Greenwich

• Dr Orian Brook - Chancellor’s Fellow in Social Policy, University of Edinburgh

• Prof Marco Cinnirella - Professor of Applied Social Psychology, Royal Holloway University of London

• Yalena Coleman - Director of Applied Data & Technology, Connected Places Catapult

• Prof Lizzie Coles-Kemp - Professor of Information Security, Royal Holloway University of London

• Prof Tom Crick - Professor of Digital & Policy and Deputy Pro-Vice Chancellor (Civic Mission), Swansea University

• David Crozier - Head of Strategic Partnerships and Engagement, Queen’s University Belfast’s Centre for Secure Information Technologies (CSIT)

• Prof Rowan Cruft - Professor of Philosophy, University of Stirling

• Dr Kate Dommett - Senior Lecturer in Politics, University of Sheffield

• Dr Michael Evans - Research Lead, User Experience, BBC R&D

• Dr Daisy Fancourt - Associate Professor of Psychobiology & Epidemiology, University College London

• Dr Matthew Forshaw - Senior Advisor for Skills, The Alan Turing Institute, and, Senior Lecturer in Data Science, Newcastle University

• Prof Jonathan Freeman - Academic Lead Knowledge Exchange and Professor of Psychology, Goldsmiths, University of London

• Martin Hamilton - Futurist, MartinH.Net Un Limited

• Dr Luke Hebbes - Director of Business Information Security, London Stock Exchange Group

• Prof James Hetherington - Director of the Advanced Research Computing Centre, University College London

• Prof Angus Hunter - Professor and Head of Sports Sciences, Nottingham Trent University

• Prof Catherine Johnson - Professor of Media and Communications, University of Huddersfield

• Prof Chris Johnson - Pro-Vice Chancellor, Queen’s University Belfast

• Prof Athina Karatzogianni - Professor in Media and Communication, University of Leicester

• Prof Lucy Kimbell - Director, Social Design Institute, University of the Arts London

• Andrew Laird - Managing Director, Mutual Ventures

• Dr Sandra Leaton Gray - Associate Professor of Education, University College London Institute of Education

• Prof Michael Luck - Professor of Computer Science, King’s College London

• Dr Ewa Luger - Chancellor’s Fellow, Digital Arts and Humanities, University of Edinburgh

• Prof Sarita Malik - Professor of Media and Culture, Brunel University London

• Dr Sarah Mills - Reader in Human Geography, Loughborough University

• Dr Bill Mitchell OBE - Director of Policy, Chartered Institute for IT

• Prof Derek McAuley - Professor of Digital Economy, University of Nottingham

• Lawrence Munnro - Global Head of Innovation, NCC Group

• Dr Oonagh Murphy - Lecturer of Arts Management, Goldsmiths, University of London

• Prof Tim O’Farrell - Chair Professor in Wireless Communications, University of Sheffield

• Dr Amy Orben - Programme Leader Track Scientist, MRC Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit, University of Cambridge

• Prof Adrian Palmer - Professor of Marketing, Henley Business School, University of Reading

• Dr Charlotte Perfect - Telecoms Analyst

• Prof Mark Parsons - EPCC Director, The University of Edinburgh

• Prof Stephanie Pitts - Professor of Music Education, University of Sheffield, and, Director, Sheffield Performer and Audience Research Centre

• Prof Jonathan Sapsed - Professor of Innovation and Entrepreneurship, Newcastle University Business School

• Mr Stephen Smith - Chief Psychologist, Sport Psychology Ltd and College of Policing

• Prof Catherine Tackley - Head of Music, University of Liverpool

• Dr Mark Taylor - Senior Lecturer in Quantitative Methods, University of Sheffield

• Prof Melissa Terras - Professor of Digital Cultural Heritage, University of Edinburgh

• Prof Marian Ursu - Professor of Interactive Media, University of York, and, Director of Digital Creativity Labs

• Prof Ben Walmsley - Professor of Cultural Engagement, University of Leeds, and, Director, Centre for Cultural Value

• Dr Edgar A. Whitley - Associate Professor (Reader), Department of Management, London School of Economics and Political Science

• Prof Simeon Yates - Professor of Digital Culture/ Associate PVC Research Environment, University of Liverpool

• Prof Noa Zilberman - Associate Professor, Department of Engineering Science, University of Oxford

Queen’s University Belfast

• Prof Emma Flynn - Pro-Vice-Chancellor, Research and Enterprise

• Dr Wendy McLoone - Deputy Director, Research Services

• Prof Chris Johnson - Pro-Vice Chancellor, Engineering and Physical Sciences

• Mr David Crozier - Head of Strategic Partnerships and Engagement, Institute of Electronics, Communications and Information Technology (ECIT)

• Mr Gavin McWilliams - Multidisciplinary Programme Director, Global Innovation Institute

• Ms Judith Millar - Business Development Manager, Centre for Secure Information Technologies

• Mr Norbert Sagnard - Business Development Manager, Centre for Wireless Innovation

• Dr Muhammad Fahim - Data Science and Scalable Computing, ECIT

• Mrs Louise Cushnahan - Head of Innovation, ECIT

• Prof Hans Vandierendonck - High Performance and Distributed Computing, ECIT

• Dr Paula Devine - Co-Director, Access Research Knowledge

• Prof John Morison - School of Law, Leverhulme Interdisciplinary Network on Algorithmic Solutions Doctoral Training Programme

• Prof Keith Lilley - School of Natural and Built Environment, Heritage Hub

• Dr Ali FitzGibbon - School of Arts, English and Languages, Centre for Leadership, Ethics and Organisation

• Dr Teresa Degenhardt - School of Social Sciences, Education and Social Work, The Senator George J Mitchell Institute for Global Peace, Security and Justice

• Dr Darragh Lydon - Research Fellow, W-Tech Centre, Intelligent Infrastructure Monitoring

• Donal Philips - Business Development Manager, Creative Industries, Faculty of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences