In today’s UK higher education landscape, academics are increasingly encouraged to “work with industry” as a way of proving the impact and external relevance of their work and to develop new funding streams for research. However, for social scientists, designers, and other scholars whose research takes a critical approach to industry actors/institutions, their power relations, and their societal impacts, working “with” industry can be a fraught prospect. Furthermore, researchers who can/do gain access to industry in their work are faced with a series of challenges, ranging from negotiating access, navigating their positionality as researchers, and contending with a variety of ethical issues at every stage of the research process, from methodology to publication.
Featuring lead discussants Siva Vaidhyanathan (University of Virginia), Shannon Vallor (Edinburgh Futures Institute), Ewa Luger (Design Informatics), and Kate Miltner (Centre for Research in Digital Education)
This in-person event will offer participants a venue to discuss key challenges when it comes to working on/with industry, the opportunity to learn best practice from researchers across a variety of disciplines, and a space to collectively deliberate how to navigate our way forward in a landscape where industry is increasingly taking centre stage in research.
Venue: Levels (upper floor), 9C Holyrood Road, EH8 8FQ.
There are limited places available for UoE PhD students and academics to participate in this event. Registration is free, but we request that with your registration, you submit 150-200 words describing your research and outlining what you would contribute to this conversation and how you would benefit from it.
Selected participants will be informed by Monday, October 11 at the latest.
