Academic and policy interest in productivity rarely captures the experiences of an important segment of the small firm population: micro-businesses (1-9 employees). The informal and opaque management processes in such firms pose challenges for the assessment of productivity and development of practical interventions. This project uses rigorous academic research co-produced with non-academic stakeholders to design and implement policies that support management to boost productivity in such firms. Our context - disadvantaged communities managing and working in the catering, retail and creative sectors in the West Midlands - serve as a critical case to improve knowledge and practice on the relationship between management and engagement practices and performance in micro-businesses. The research is collaborative and comprises three leading applied centres with researchers from a variety of disciplinary backgrounds: the Centre for Research in Ethnic Minority Entrepreneurship (CREME), the Enterprise Research Centre (ERC) and City-REDI (Regional Economic Development Institute). They work alongside non-academic stakeholders that rarely feature in 'mainstream' business support ecosystems (despite their reach in myriad micro-enterprise networks): Ashley Integrates (an award-winning social enterprise with a keen interest in promoting employability of migrants), the Bangladeshi Network (comprising four groups with local and national reach into the sector), Citizens UK (a national civil society alliance) and Punch Records (a business with a strong social mission to promote artists from deprived background). A multi-method is adopted comprising five WPs that aim to develop insights into micro-businesses that can be used to develop interventions to promote productivity. WP 1 locates the project in the context of a recent national study on the characteristics of microbusinesses. Further analysis will highlight challenges facing those micro-businesses that have a desire to improve performance and grow. A granular understanding of management and engagement practices in micro-businesses will be generated in WP2 by in-depth qualitative investigation of 24 case studies of firms over an extended period of time. Manager and worker perspectives on the organization of work are evaluated. This knowledge is shared and utilized in WP 3 with a range of non-academic stakeholders, with the aim of mapping and mobilizing the business support ecosystem. Policy options will be identified, which will then - in WP4 - be tested and evaluated with micro-business owners who have the ambition to participate in bespoke change programmes to boost productivity. An active programme of knowledge exchange and dissemination (WP5) will cross-cut the project and will comprise a series of journey mapping knowledge exchange co-produced workshops, involving micro-business owner/managers and their employees, and external support agencies. These are designed to understand how involvement in the study has influenced any change to initial management style towards introducing new management and engagement practices, and how these have improved productivity. WP5 will also inform dissemination, and the qualitative component of the formative and summative evaluation. The project will produce important practical outcomes for businesses my providing support for evidence-based interventions that will benefit around 30 micro-businesses that participate in customised programmes designed to upgrade leadership and management skills leading to a boost in productivity. Insights from their experiences and will promote greater understanding of 'what works' that can guide practitioners in other contexts. The project will also actively support the development of a more responsive and inclusive business support ecosystem in the West Midlands by mobilising 'mainstream' and non-traditional intermediaries (for example, our non-academic partners) and via multiple pathways of engagement.

The Black Lives Matter movement has thrown into sharp relief many examples of institutional Whiteness which demand investigation and critical reflection. Experimental Sound practices - creativity in which sound is the basis of the artform, including: noise, sound art, electroacoustic music, soundscape and improvisation - are overwhelmingly dominated by White affluent male practitioners, leaving very little space for alternative experiences or diverse role models. Much recent work in diversifying the field has focussed on gender representation, and while this work is laudable and absolutely vital, there is need to address other instances of poor diversity, such as ethnicity. Black and South Asian artists are some of the least represented within the genre of experimental sound. Their experiences, therefore, provide a valuable counterpoint to the normalised White majority. This research will engage directly with practitioners as key informants, commissioning them to develop compositions which act as sites of critical reflection, enabling the researchers to draw out and unpack understandings of diverse experiences within experimental sound. As Tim Ingold argues, there is a distinction to be made between 'knowing about and knowing through' (Ingold 2013, Making). Thus, six practitioners, representing a diversity of aesthetic styles, career positions, age, genders and backgrounds will be commissioned as key informants to develop works and to share their practices, accessed longitudinally through a range of complimentary methodologies (including anthropological participant observation, practice research, interviews and focus group discussion). Key informants will provide access to additional diverse practitioners and informants who will be interviewed on a one-by-one basis. We will also engage key stakeholders and partners from industry (Musicians Union; Punch Records; Ammo Talwar, Chair of UK Music's Equality and Diversity Taskforce), arts charities (Sound and Music; Usurp Arts), and UK HEIs (British Electroacoustic Network), to expand these individual experiences into the wider context of arts and cultural policy. Outcomes from this research will inform the development of a white paper policy document highlighting the challenges inherent for practitioners of diverse cultural backgrounds as they seek to navigate an artform that is institutionally White. This research has potential to inform UK policy in diversity for arts, culture and music education, creating social and cultural impact by enabling our society to become more enriched, resilient, and enabling diverse communities to play equal roles within contemporary artistic practices. Culture contributes £11billion to the UK economy each year, and British pre-eminence in this area is founded on the contributions made by all of the UK's diverse cultures. Empowering diversity of creativity, the independence of alternative voices and the potential for new ideas and innovation has the potential to benefit not just individuals involved in Experimental Sound practices, but the wider artistic and cultural sector of the UK economy. In engaging with this vital topic, we have the opportunity to catalyse action which can bring about positive change in the artform. Outputs can inform policies which will guide the actions of both universities, educating and providing opportunities for new practitioners, and cultural organisations fostering contemporary music practices in the UK.

Languages are currently valued mainly as practical tools for basic transactions in monoglot contexts. Yet language use is a creative act. Languages evolve in interaction with the needs of individuals who acquire and shape their linguistic resources in interaction with multiple intersecting communities. They change and mingle as cultural constellations shift, and they rapidly turn new technical possibilities into communicative innovations. The crisis of Modern Foreign Languages in UK schools, with its serious consequences for higher education, business, and diplomacy, has its roots in globalisation, the expansion of English as global lingua franca, and diversifying electronic media dominated by English. Arguably it also marks the failure of UK policy-makers and the educational sectors to address these challenges with the necessary understanding, imagination, and unity of purpose. This programme exploits the crisis as an opportunity to engage stakeholders in a collaborative process of rethinking the identity of Modern Languages from the ground up. It will seek to dismantle assumed oppositions between 'vocational' and 'academic' purposes, and develop a concept of languages that responds to the multi-faceted needs of individuals and communities in the contemporary world. Researchers from Oxford, Cambridge, Manchester, Reading, SOAS (London), and Pittsburgh will pool their expertise in some 40 languages to unlock the subject's creative and connective potential by investigating how languages and creativity interact in processes involving more than one language. Research in seven interlocking strands will analyse how we turn thoughts into language-specific metaphors (strand 1), deploy the resources offered by our language to name the elements of our environment (strand 2), and negotiate language 'barriers' to intelligibility across related languages (strand 3). They will seek to capture the creative stimulus generated by multilingual theatre and music (strand 4), identify the creative processes initiated by multilingual literature (strand 5), and explore the creation of multiple meanings in the act of translation (strand 6). Empirical research will compare functional and creative methodologies in language learning and establish benefits of creative activities for the literacy, motivation, and confidence that are key factors in take-up and progression (strand 7). In order to understand multilingual creativity, we need to engage with a variety of contexts and exchange knowledge with practitioners. Partners from beyond academia will contribute to focus groups, workshops, conferences and specialised projects. To take just a few examples, the British Council will enhance opportunities for engagement with policy-makers and involve learners across the world. Work on community languages within the UK will be augmented by a window onto linguistic communities across over 120 countries opened up by BirdLife International. Collaboration with Sputnik Theatre Company, Punch Records, the Ashmolean Museum and cultural festivals will facilitate cross-language projects with actors and musicians, an exhibition, a 'Linguamania' celebration and a Multilingual Music Fest for primary school children. English PEN will provide opportunities to find out about multilingual experiments by creative writers. Meanwhile language experts from GCHQ and ING Media will give insights into the creative language skills used in intelligence and PR. Teachers and learners in schools will interact with the research throughout, culminating in an interactive schools Roadshow. The programme will transform research in Modern Languages by invigorating the subject from the grass-roots up to blue-sky research. By putting creativity at the heart of languages, it will reconnect languages with the arts and humanities while allowing their innovative force to become productive across disciplines and communities.

Summary\n\nThe Knowledge Transfer Fellowship in New Strategies for Radio and Music Organisations aims to work with a group of commercial and community partner organisations to produce new online strategies, media content and to inform public policy. The partners represent a cross-section of Birmingham's cultural communities and its music and media activity, and a major overseas development organisation. We focus on the creative application of new technologies of sound distribution for the radio and music industries.\n\nThe fellowship team utilise work in earlier research and knowledge transfer work supported by SRIF, LSC, AWM, RAE, the BBC World Trust and UNESCO. Projects include Online Music Enterprise, Regional Music Economies, New Broadcast Technologies for Development, and HEFCE-funded work on creative communication, music public policy, broadcast systems, music distribution and internet technology, open source software, the creative commons movement, and consumption cultures. \n\nWe will build on existing partnerships, a demonstrated demand for support in developing creative applications of new communication technologies, and models for effective academy-business-community partnerships for knowledge transfer. Many of our partners have improved their business models, developed new insights, or instigated new cultural strategies as a result of their earlier work with us. Fellowship members will make consultation visits to partners to assist them in developing new strategies; demonstrate creative online techniques; work on online prototypes in the partner business premises or the university; attend conferences; and develop dissemination websites and publications.\n\nThe team is led by Tim Wall, Professor of Radio and Popular Music Studies in the Department of Media and Communication, Birmingham Institute of Art and Design at UCE. Professor Wall is the primary investigator for new strategies in radio and the music industries, as well as creative commons intellectual property practices. Andrew Dubber, Senior Lecturer in Music Industries, is the co-investigator for music industries and creative commons; Sam Coley, Senior Lecturer in Radio, is the co-investigator for radio and development; and Paul Long, Senior Lecturer in Media and Communication is the co-investigator for community culture and music heritage. The team draws upon the extensive scholarly, research and professional skills of its members, and a substantial knowledge base generated by BIAD's Design and Creative Industries Research Centre. \n\nOnline technologies of sound distribution offer creative opportunities to small and regionally-based companies and organisations, and along with other cultural strategies they can serve valuable commercial and social aims. While the technologies are often accessible, a full appreciation of their use as creative tools is unevenly distributed. Large corporations can often exploit their potential, but smaller companies and community sector organisations often lag behind. \n\nThis work is part of a wider strategy to make research useful in commercial and cultural projects. UCE has a national reputation for their work in relevant industrial partnerships, regional development initiatives, and knowledge transfer in the media and cultural industries. The consortium organisations offer 'in-kind' contributions of staff time and other resources where appropriate to the knowledge transfer fellowship partnership.\n\n