New funding to catalyse devolved cultural policy making

The AHRC Creative Communities programme based at Northumbria University has today announced the results of the 2026 Co-Lab Policy Network Awards: an ambitious intervention to reorientate place-based cultural policy making in a new context of UK devolution and the UK Government Missions.

The awards mark a pivotal opportunity to deliver devolution and community-led innovation not just as buzzwords, but as practical tools for better place-based policymaking. Together, the four awards mark a timely shift in how we understand innovation, community, and collaboration across the UK. 

The programme will fund four new Co-Lab Policy Network Awards to support innovative cross-sector cultural policy networks in devolved nations and regions of the UK.

Northern Ireland

Network Partners: Northern Health and Social Care Trust, Belfast Health and Social Care Trust, NI Creative Health Network, Derry and Strabane Creative Health Taskforce, Developing Healthy Communities, ArtsCare 

‘Embedding Creative Health in Northern Ireland: A Co-Created Policy Roadmap’ – Ulster University

Louise O’Boyle at Ulster University will lead a cross-sector network including Northern Health and Social Care Trust, Belfast Health and Social Care Trust, NI Creative Health Network (NICHN), Derry and Strabane Creative Health Taskforce, Developing Healthy Communities, and ArtsCare.

The network will develop a strategy for creative health to be systematically commissioned, delivered, and evaluated within NI’s specific devolved context. To maximise reach, four hybrid network activities are planned across the whole of Northern Ireland to capture the diverse health inequalities and cultural ecosystems that exist within the devolved nation.

Wales

Network Partners: Senedd Cymru, Future Generations Commissioner, Arts Council of Wales, WAHWN

‘‘Cynefin’: A Creative Health Review for Wales’ – Public Health Wales NHS Trust

Dr Emily van de Venter at Public Health Wales NHS Trust will work with the Future Generations Commissioner for Wales, Wales Arts Health & Well-being Network (WAHWN), Arts Council of Wales and Senedd Cymru colleagues to establish a new creative health strategy for Wales.

Establishing a new cross-sector group of commissioners and drawing on lived experience and culture sector expertise, network activities will ideate, test and co-create a new range of policy provocations on creative health for growth that will be presented at a live showcase in the Senedd.

England

Network Partners: Mayoral Authorities Creative Health Network, Greater Manchester Combined Authority, Greater London Authority

‘Embedding Creative Health in Devolved Policymaking: the Mayoral Authorities Creative Health Network’ – University of Manchester

Dr Hannah Waterson at the University of Manchester will lead work on a new shared framework for creative health across devolved mayoral authority regions in England.

Working with the Mayoral Authorities Creative Health Network (MACHN) convened by Greater Manchester Combined Authority and Greater London Authority, the network will map policy alignment and challenges across mayoral areas and establish a first of its kind framework for embedding creative health for growth into devolved strategy. 

England

Network Partners: West Midlands Combined Authority, Coventry City Council, Talking Birds

‘Strengthening the Cultural Foundations of the West Midlands’ – University of Warwick

Dr David Wright at the University of Warwick will work in partnership with the West Midlands Combined Authority, Coventry City Council and cultural organisation Talking Birds to co-create a new foundational economy framework to better understand and represent the value of culture for sustainable and inclusive growth in devolved mayoral authority areas.

Re-positioning culture as part of the foundational economy of the most mature mayoral authority in England, the new network will reflect the mixed metropolitan, urban and rural contexts of devolution and co-create cross-sector policy solutions to foundational economic growth. 

Co-Lab Policy Network Awards 2026

The Co-Lab Policy Network Awards will create new spaces for deliberation on complex cultural challenges and opportunities—from culture-led regeneration to creative health—building devolved policy infrastructure that will enable better outcomes. The networks will work across sectors to ensure that people in devolved settings become not just participants in policy but the co-creators of it.

The AHRC Creative Communities programme will bring the four networks together to host a devolution and cultural policy summit in December 2026. The programme will publish a Policy Priority Paper from each network award in March 2027. The papers will make new policy recommendations direct to devolved administrations to strengthen delivery and create new capacity for devolved policy exchange within and between the nations and regions of the UK. 

About Creative Communities  

AHRC Creative Communities is a major multi-million pound research programme based at Northumbria University in Newcastle. The investment builds a new evidence base on how cultural devolution can enhance belonging, address regional inequality, deliver devolution, and break down barriers to opportunity for communities in devolved settings across all four nations of the UK. 

Professor Christopher Smith, AHRC Executive Chair said: "We know that the arts and culture are a critical national asset which can address health inequalities and benefit communities. So it is vital that we ensure that people all across the UK can benefit from the outputs of the country’s remarkable resources of creativity – and we know that we have more work to do to ensure that we overcome regional disparities.

"These new Co-Lab Policy Network Awards will play an important role in creating the evidence base for how to spread the benefit of creative industries for our lives and livelihoods, and in fostering collaborations which will have economic and social impact across all nations of the UK."

Professor Lisanne Gibson, Pro Vice-Chancellor for the Faculty of Society and Culture at Northumbria University said: "These awards represent an exciting opportunity to connect research, policy and practice across the UK's diverse cultural landscapes.

"By bringing together cross-sector partners in meaningful dialogue, we're creating the conditions for evidence-based policy that truly reflects the needs and aspirations of communities in devolved settings."