This project originally proposed 12 essays examining how textiles as thread, fabric, garment or artefact could mobilise, mimic and masquerade sex. Sex was configured in this context as both a series of practices and a range of anatomical expressions. In fact, shortly after the project began, Berg Publishers - who published my first book, 'Intersex', in 2007 - commissioned a book based on this research, and the essays have become 12 chapters for a forthcoming book titled 'Fabrics of Desire' to be published by Berg, Oxford, in 2009. During the project's development, a number of texts have been published or accepted for publication. Most notable are a chapter for the University of Technology, Sydney's forth coming book titled 'Fashion in Fiction', and a 6000 word essay titled 'I found myself inside her fur' for a special 'Skin' issue of the international, peer-reviewed Textile: the Journal of Cloth and Culture, guest-edited by Caryn Simonson of Chelsea College of Art and Design. This project has afforded me the possibility of formally aligning my range of research engagements as writer and textile practitioner and of making a significant, informed and original contribution to a field not yet fully explored. The opportunity to publish this as a singular output, which is in book form, rather than in a disparate form, is especially important, and the book's format (80,000 words in 12 chapters) has allowed me to work with the relationships between individual chapters and the authorial voice used in each. The project sought to examine distinct areas within which textiles and sex relate (for example, through 'gendered' garments; symbolic costume; meaningful fabrication; fetish restraint; body moderation; bed-linen; textile signification; seductive materiality; or anatomical mimicry). Each of the personally selected fields of enquiry have been examined using a Delusion methodology based on 'lateral proliferation' of text, and through scrutiny and interpretation of exhibited and archived visual / textile art and design practice; textile artefacts; textiles in literature and film; etc. Each text has been constructed idiosyncratically in relation to its own 'voice' based on content and structure. This is in keeping with my interest in creative / critical / performative / academic / reflective writing. Dissemination has been via publication through national and international refereed journals within textile and visual culture, and through conference presentations and public lectures in Ireland, UK, Australia and the USA. Notably, the book commission (Berg) that has been secured based on this research, and consequently some of the research activity undertaken through AHRC support, will be publicly disseminated in that form in 2009. This proposal was carefully defined in relation to both personal and external contexts and personal research aspirations. It has enabled me to maximise the potential of previous research outputs in textile practice and text in an innovative and substantial project, and has permitted on going contribution to my subject discipline of textile culture and practice. Significantly, it has sharpened the specific focus of my research, and the project management experience gained has matured my approach to personal research management, articulation of research aims, and my understanding of what is achievable within particular time frames. During the project I made a very significant career change from Reader in Textiles in one institution to Head of the School of Architecture and Design at University of Brighton. This inevitably impacted on my rate of production within the project, and I have most importantly discovered a new mode of operation through the use of Research Assistants supported through this funding. This has provided a new method for my research and ensures that I can remain research active even within this new and demanding role, albeit with a somewhat shifted pace of production.

The Pembrokeshire textile mill Melin Tregwynt has engaged a recent design graduate from the University for the Creative Arts, based at Farnham, to provide them with a new marketing angle, and to transfer new knowledge of design processes to the industrial process: The graduate explored hand woven techniques and finishing processes, transferring these to production looms. The graduate also explored CAD quilt and digital print designs for new product development. The graduate created new designs for high-quality commercial Welsh cloths, exploiting the mill's Welsh heritage and making prototypes to present at two UK trade shows. \n \nAlison Woodley, a recent student of design from Farnham, produced a range of woven fabrics, digital quilt and print designs. She incorporated the Welsh countryside into her Computer-Aided Design to celebrate the mill's location and heritage, ready to debut at forthcoming trade shows in London and Japan. Woodley also designed a commemorative label for the Mill's centenary in 2012. The knowledge transfer project was a prototype for both partners and consequently has led to a number of case studies and teaching materials for the college to help both undergraduates and post graduates. A journal article was written, 'Collaborative Weaving: Knowledge Transfer and Textile Innovation in Wales', to be published in Looking Out, and a firm business relationship was established between the two partners.\n \nThe project was useful as an insight for academics into the practical difficulties faced by their graduates in the industrial sector, and the Knowledge Catalyst project has provided invaluable resources for them to help their students, with Woodley presenting her experience to undergraduates and lecturers and generating real case studies. The graduate gained invaluable confidence from the scheme and realised, in her own words, that 'Depending on other parties to answer questions, give options and confirm arrangements has been a different experience from designing and producing my own work...getting the answers you need means being confident and persistent.' The material will be of great value to graduate entrepreneurs, University consultants and for the student learning experience and future collaborations are planned between the University and Melin Tregwynt, who gained successful new product designs to take to national commercial fares. \n

At UCA, the fusion of creative education, research, and professional practice brings together a wealth of impact expertise. UCA's research profile includes peer-reviewed publications, practice-based research and collaborative research all within the field of creative arts, creative technologies and business for the creative industries. Our impact is demonstrable through our impact case studies (REF 2021) and through our numerous externally-facing outputs, as measured in the Social, Community and Cultural Engagement table in the annual HE-BCI survey. The aim of our research impact strategy is to build our capacity for interactions with our stakeholders, including business and the wider community, and increase activities concerned with the generation, use, application and exploitation of knowledge, increasing our global impact within the creative industries. This application is focused on three themes within the creative industries: circular economy innovations; digital and technological futures in the creative industries; collaborative practice in local and regional creative communities. These are all areas of strong research at UCA with an established or emerging impact record. All have clear untapped potential and the capacity for investment to add value in a developing impact and KE profile. 1. Circular Economy Innovation (AHRC theme: global engagement and the sustainable development goals) 2. Digital and Technological Futures in the Creative Industries (AHRC theme: creativity and the creative economy) 2. Collaborative Practice in Local and Regional Creative Communities (AHRC themes: unlocking cultural assets; understanding cultural value) Our overarching goal is to build the long-term sustainability and resilience of impact and Knowledge Exchange activities by investing in infrastructure, systems and processes. The immediate and mid-term aims of the IAA account during the three year's funding is to sustain and build momentum for the UCA Innovation Hub. We aim to: - Widen participation in business engagement and knowledge exchange. - Increase the mobility of people and ideas. - Broaden and enhance the skills of our researchers. To achieve these aims we will use the IAA funds to support the following objectives: - Foster industry engagement: the IAA will support UCA in working with businesses to drive economic growth, productivity and resilience. Working largely (not exclusively) within the innovation priorities identified in the previous section, the IAA will enable rapid and flexible response to external opportunities as they arise. - Develop interdisciplinary and cross-sector collaboration: the IAA will encourage, support and enable, cross-sector collaborations and interdisciplinary working, for instance, between AI and VR and the digital arts, and across management and economics and creative industries in our Business School for the Creative Industries. - Be inclusive and empowering for our staff: the IAA will create an open and inclusive environment where academic staff feel valued and supported to engage with the creative industries, communities, and organisations locally, regionally, nationally, and internationally. - Enhance our impact culture: developing our impact by creating strong connections between our research, impact and KE activities with a positive flow in multiple directions. - Training and professional development: integrating impact and KE into the University's Schools and Research Centres, enabling new and compelling collaboration with the creative industries, including through the development of our CPD offer. - Generate, support and sustain wider engagement: by pro-actively developing and sustaining industry engagement by academics, within Schools and in cross-School collaborations.

The 'worlds' animation presents us with often bear little relation to our own, except through spatial cues, anthropomorphism and an array of aesthetic references to fine arts and other creative practice. The project on animation spectatorship explores and describes strategies viewers develop to comprehend and understand the fine-arts based and digital animated 'Worlds'. Film Studies debates of the 'active' spectator, phenomenology and cognitive theory are augmented by interdisciplinary excursions into art and architecture, metaphysical philosophy, literature and critical theory. The project develops theoretical approaches and a critical language sensitive to the multimedia complexities of the animated form.

Doctoral Training Partnerships: a range of postgraduate training is funded by the Research Councils. For information on current funding routes, see the common terminology at https://www.ukri.org/apply-for-funding/how-we-fund-studentships/. Training grants may be to one organisation or to a consortia of research organisations. This portal will show the lead organisation only.