Since its launch in May 2024, the Creativity, AI, and the Human Research Cluster at Edinburgh Futures Institute, has seen a formative period of experimentation, collaboration and community building.
Established to connect researchers, practitioners and partners interested in the evolving relationship between artificial intelligence and human creativity, the cluster has quickly grown into a vibrant interdisciplinary network.
The idea for the cluster emerged during the early months of cluster lead Dr Caterina Moruzzi’s appointment as a Chancellor’s Fellow in Design Informatics at the University of Edinburgh. While exploring the research landscape, she noticed that many scholars and practitioners across the University were engaging with questions about creativity in an increasingly digital and AI-driven world. Yet these conversations were often happening separately, without a shared space for exchange.
Caterina said:
“At the core of the cluster is a motivating concern: as generative AI technologies develop, they challenge long-standing ideas about human creativity, its processes, its value, and its future. These technologies open new opportunities for creative practice but also raise fundamental ethical, cultural, and technical questions. The cluster recognises creativity not just as artistic expression, but as a vital human capacity, central to innovation, adaptation, and imagining alternative futures. The aim of the cluster is to create a space for collective reflection, experimentation, and collaboration on the evolving relationship between creativity and AI.”
Building a collaborative community
The public launch event, Creative Feedback: The Feats and Failures of Technology, brought together artists, researchers and technologists at Inspace for an evening of audiovisual performances and discussion exploring how digital tools shape creative agency.
A month later, members gathered at Edinburgh College of Art for an internal kick-off meeting where they mapped shared interests and began shaping the cluster’s direction. The session also helped establish a collaborative leadership model designed to encourage participation across career stages and disciplines, welcoming students, early career researchers, professional services staff and external partners into the conversation.
Since then, the cluster has organised a range of activities designed to explore shared themes through research, artistic practice and dialogue.
Regular “Share and Connect” sessions have since become a part of the cluster’s activity. Held monthly in a hybrid format, these meetings allow members to present work in progress, test ideas and identify opportunities for collaboration. Across twelve sessions to date, 25 presenters shared research spanning topics such as AI ethics, cultural heritage, interactive art and co-designed technologies.
These discussions have also led to a range of related initiatives, including panels exploring the ethical responsibilities involved in exhibiting provocative AI artworks, participatory workshops examining digital culture and memes, and an international symposium on AI and digital innovation in voice and vocal music.
The cluster has also begun strengthening links with external partners. In May 2025, it hosted its first Creative Industries Mixer at the Futures Institute, bringing together researchers with representatives from local creative industries to explore shared challenges and opportunities for collaboration.
Alongside these events, the Generative Creative Visions initiative, supported through seed funding by the Generative AI Lab, brought interdisciplinary teams together to develop speculative projects exploring creative uses of generative AI. Several teams received seed funding to develop their ideas further, culminating in a public showcase later in the year.
Looking ahead
Within less than two years since its launch, more than 120 members had joined the cluster, bringing together participants from across all three Colleges and nine Schools at the University, alongside external collaborators from industry and universities in the UK, Europe, the United States and Asia.
As the cluster enters its second year, its focus is shifting towards longer-term strategy. Plans include supporting collaborative research projects, developing structured partnerships and launching an online platform to showcase member projects and activities.
While the first year has been exploratory, it has established the foundations of a growing community committed to critically engaging with the relationship between AI, creativity and the human.
You can read about cluster’s activities in more detail in this report: A Year of the Creativity, AI and the Human Research Cluster
