We define citizen-led (social) innovation as the bottom-up creation of community-driven solutions to major societal problems. Citizen-led innovation has been an active ingredient of societies for centuries. However, technological developments such as online social networks and mobile computing have made it easier than ever before to initiate and nurture it; these technologies permit 'ridiculously easy group forming' and have led to civic engagement on a scale and with an efficiency not seen before.Recent events mean that now is both an opportune and critically necessary time for citizen-led innovation. On the one hand, society has experienced a massive global economic crisis. We are all being asked to do more for less and one consequence is that citizens are now expected to become more active participants in solving local problems (cf. Big Society). On the other hand, governments in both the UK and US are opening up public data in a drive for transparency that puts information into the hands of citizens in a way never before envisaged. This proposal addresses two core themes that will maximize the opportunities for citizens to transform society: understanding behaviour (what stimulates people to participate and why) and tools for change (what next-generation technologies best support how people want to innovate). Regarding the first theme, much of what is being proposed by governments - Localism, National Citizen Service, Big Society - is being implemented without a sociological understanding of what people need from it. Regarding the second, although social technologies have been extremely effective in promoting citizen-led activism, they were not designed specifically for it; it is natural, therefore, to ask what the next generation of tools should look like and to design those tools with the wants and needs of participatory citizens firmly in mind.Furthermore, there are fundamental barriers to overcome. In particular, there is a well-known tension between innovation and inclusion. Experience from organisations such as Community Matters shows that a major reason for citizens engaging in social action is the need for more human contact; however, technology has a tendency to reduce human contact in favour of virtual contact. We therefore see that a fundamental challenge is to reverse this trend. In all our research activities, we will emphasise this goal and work towards technologies that are mediators and not replacements for human contact. Our research methodology puts people-based activities at the forefront of an integrated research/people strategy that aims to answer fundamental research questions about citizen-led innovation via a series of 'research sprints' that will combine discipline hopping, cross-discipline training, a community-driven research agenda and reflection on the interdisciplinary process itself.The project will bring together a group of social scientists (sociology; anthropology), computer scientists (mobile computing; web2.0; distributed systems), management scientists (consumer behaviour) and designers (innovation) to develop next generation systems that empower citizens to create bottom-up innovative solutions to 'wicked' societal problems. We will work with partners in Manchester and Derry with which we have a history of success: the Manchester Digital Development Agency (MDDA) and FutureEverything in Manchester; Derry District Policing Partnership (DDPP) in Derry. We will also focus on widening the research to communities across the UK. This will be facilitated by two organisations - the Royal Society for the encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce (RSA) and Community Matters

The overall aim of the SURegen consortium is to undertake research to develop a prototype Regeneration Simulator Workbench (RSW) that meets the decision-making challenges that Sustainable Urban Regeneration (SUR) poses, i.e., multiple stakeholder interests, complexity, uncertainty and ambiguity. The RSW will provide a major new training vehicle for regeneration professionals aimed at addressing the knowledge and skills gap identified in the Egan Review: Skills for Sustainable Communities (2004) and will be built around the core set of regeneration skills included in RENEW NW's development of the 8point Egan Wheel . The RSW is aimed at regeneration professionals and knowledgeable non-experts and will focus on the neighbourhood scale. It will form a multi-perspective collaborative digital workspace providing a learning laboratory and library of good practice for regeneration actors. Past experience shows that 'simulation' of SUR activity requires an open-ended, process-based, learning and gaming-like experience. A conventional technical model system, no matter how sophisticated, is unlikely to deal with the tacit knowledge, complex actor-network relationships, and strategic behaviour or entrepreneurial opportunities. For instance, an effective housing module needs technical information on density, tenure, condition and so on, but it also needs some way of dealing with the perception of different actors on, for example, the effect of gentrification on crime or property values. To address this, the RSW will enable the simulation of the regeneration programme process and help decision-makers recognise the key decision points and guide them towards appropriate evaluations that will support their decision-making. To do this the workbench will contain a number of simulation and evaluation tools and integrate the complex range of data on the sustainable redevelopment of the regeneration area. Use of these tools will enable regeneration actors to collectively simulate a range of outcomes of the longer-term regeneration programme. From this foresight they will gain insights into the impact of selected options that result from the complex interactions of political, social, economic and physical factors that will enable them to make better trade-offs between options and move towards more satisfying sustainable solutions. They will also be able retrace their steps and explore other options so that they can learn from potential mistakes .The project will be led by the University of Salford in collaboration with the Universities of Manchester, Napier, Liverpool, Dundee and West of England. Using an action research methodology the workbench will incorporate the knowledge of good practice in regeneration from the a range of public sector and industrial partners, representing both demand and supply side interests from NW England; including the regional centre of excellence for regeneration skills, RENEW North West, Sustainability Northwest, the Manchester Digital Development Agency, Cities of Manchester and Salford, Urban Vision, Arup Assoc, Wates Construction, ABRA Assoc, MASTLift, Shepherd Robson and Fusion GFX. The project is planned for four years duration. The first two years will focus on knowledge capture and structuring using action research. This will also focus on case studies in New East Manchester and Salford Liverpool Road. The last two years will address testing and validation of the prototype workbench in these case study areas as well as others, with collaborators from other regions of the UK, to validate and develop the workbench to be more generally applicable to all areas of the country.

This unique consortium draws on the research excellence of interdisciplinary and complementary design innovation labs at three universities - Lancaster University, Newcastle University and the Royal College of Art and connects it with public and private sectors, linking large and small-scale businesses, service providers and citizens. Together, our expertise in developing and applying creative techniques to navigate unexplored challenges includes that of designers, artists, curators, producers, broadcasters, engineers, managers, technologists and writers - and draws on wider expertise from across the partner universities and beyond. The Creative Exchange responds to profound changes in practice in the creative and media-based industries stimulated by the opening of the digital public space, the ability of everyone to access, explore and create in any aspect of the digital space, moving from 'content consumption' to 'content experience'. It explores new forms of engagement and exchange in the broadcast, performing and visual arts, digital media, design and gaming sectors, by focusing on citizen-led content, interactive narrative, radical personalization and new forms of value creation in the context of the 'experience economy'. The primary geographic focus is the Northwest of England centred around the opportunity presented by the growth of MediaCityUK and its surrounding economy. The three universities act as local test beds with field trials in London, Lancaster and Newcastle prior to larger public facing trials in the northwest. This will support the North West regional strategy for growth in digital and creative media industries, whilst generating comparative research and development locally, nationally and internationally. The Creative Exchange has been developed in response to a paradigm shift in content creation and modes of distribution in a digitally connected world, which has profound impact for the arts and humanities. This transformational-change is taking place within the landscape of a growing digital public space that includes archives, data, information and content. How we navigate and experience this space - and how we generate content for and within it - is central to how we create economic, social, cultural and personal value. The Hub draws on new and agile approaches to knowledge exchange for the creative economy that have been previously developed by the partner universities and new ones co-developed with specialist arts organizations, sector organizations and communities of users.