A Creative and Interdisciplinary Research Centre at Bayes Business School
Research and Partnerships
The Centre for Creativity in Professional Practice (C2P2) undertakes nationally and internationally recognised interdisciplinary research to develop and evaluate new ways of enhancing and supporting creative thinking and practice in individuals and organisations.
Our core themes:
- Digital Tools for Creative Thinking
- Creative Thinking and Practice
- Intellectual Property
- Arts-Based Thinking.
Our Research Themes
Our work is organised around four interconnected themes. Each brings together academics, practitioners, and partners to investigate how creativity can be understood, supported, and applied in professional practice.
Digital Tools for Creative Thinking
We research and build digital tools that support creative thinking and practice in individuals and organisations, understanding how technology, including AI, can augment rather than replace human creativity.
A flagship example is INSIGHTS Innovate, a service developed by ICAI.
Read more: insightsinnovate.io
Centre members with expertise in Digital Tools for Creative Thinking:
Creative Thinking and Practice
We investigate the role of creative, design, and arts-based thinking in solving problems, designing solutions, and leading change in professional practice and how these capabilities can be developed in education and professional development.
Read more: Impact stories
Centre members with expertise in Creative Thinking and Practice:
- Dr Amanda Brown
- Mark Dowsett
- Professor Clive Holtham
- Dr Sara Jones
- Professor Mary Ann Kernan
- Dr Maire Kerrin
- Professor Neil Maiden
- Dr Johanna Payton
- Dr Anke Plagnol
- Dr Tullis Rennie
- Dr Katie Rose Sanfilippo
- Andy Wilkins
Intellectual Property
We research the management of intellectual property in relation to creative products, especially in emerging digital contexts from copyright and trademarks to the legal implications of generative AI for the creative sector.
A current project in this theme is RELISH, exploring food culture and culinary heritage, including how recipes should be understood as intellectual property.
Read more: RELISH project
Centre members with expertise in Intellectual Property:
Arts-Based Thinking
We explore how arts-based methods, including narrative, theatre, oral history, and other creative practices can unlock insight, resilience, and engagement in ways that conventional approaches often miss.
A key project in this theme is Boosting Resilience: Survival Skills for the New Normal.
Read more: boostingresilience.net
Centre members with expertise in Arts-based Thinking:
- Dr Amanda Brown
- Professor Clive Holtham
- Dr Sara Jones
- Professor Mary Ann Kernan
- Dr Johanna Payton
- Dr Tullis Rennie
- Dr Katie Rose Sanfilippo
Our research draws on insights from psychology, the arts, the creative industries, law, and many other disciplines, generating shifts in perspective that enable innovation and leadership. As well as working with colleagues across City St George’s, most notably the Institute for Creativity and AI (ICAI), we partner with organisations and individuals around the world, building a global community of creative thinkers and practitioners who work together to lead positive change.
Our research doesn’t stay on the page. It feeds directly into the consultancy and workshops we offer, the programmes we teach, and the tools we build, and into the real-world outcomes documented in our Impact stories .
- Services: the consultancy and workshops we deliver
- Education: the education and programmes we teach
- Tools: the digital tools we build, such as INSIGHTS Innovate
If you’d like to explore working with us, please contact us at creativity@citystgeorges.ac.uk.
Doctoral Research
The Centre supervises MPhil and PhD research as part of the Bayes PhD programme, with doctoral researchers working across all four of our research themes to contribute original work that advances both theory and practice. Past doctoral researchers include Dr Alwin de Rooij, Dr Graham Dove, Dr Mobina Nouri, and Dr Anja Sisarica, while current researchers include Ammara Awais, Mark Dowsett and Esme Palaganas.
We are also a partner in the Diverse CDT, an EPSRC Centre for Doctoral Training in Diversity in Data Visualisation jointly delivered by City St George’s, University of London and the University of Warwick. Diverse CDT offers fully funded, four-year PhD programmes that train the next generation of researchers to design and evaluate inclusive, impactful, and socially responsible data visualisations.
For more about studying with us, see the Bayes PhD programme.
Research Funding
The Centre has a strong track record of winning collaborative research funding. Since its inception, it has competitively secured research grants worth over £25m, reflecting its mix of basic and applied interdisciplinary research.
Our funders have included the EPSRC, EU Horizon 2020 Programme, EU Marie Curie Intra European Fellowship Programme, Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC), Arts Council England, Innovate UK , British Council, NESTA, JISC, Google, E.ON, Skills for Care, and many others.
If you are interested in pursuing collaborative funding routes with us, please contact us at creativity@citystgeorges.ac.uk. And take a look at our Professional publications and podcasts.
