New Funding to Catalyse Devolved Cultural Policy Making: The Mayoral Authorities Creative Health Network
Dr Hannah Waterson, Research Associate 鈥� Knowledge Mobilisation, based at The University of 野狼社区 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 野狼社区 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. The project is titled 鈥�鈥�.
The Mayoral Authorities Creative Health Network is delighted to be part of the Creative Communities Co-Lab, which will allow us to accelerate research and policy development in creative health.
Through this new funding award from AHRC and our partnership with the University of 野狼社区, we will be able to further explore the role of creative health in devolved policy making with Mayoral Combined Authorities across England, and to demonstrate the health, social and economic benefits of creative health as part of a place-based approach.
We are delighted that The University of 野狼社区 has received funding through the Creative Communities programme for The Creative Health Policy Co-Lab, working with the Mayoral Combined Authorities. This research, led by Dr Hannah Waterson and Dr Simon Parry, supports a collaborative forum across England: it follows on from The University of 野狼社区鈥檚 strong strand of Creative Health work and will facilitate cross-sector collaboration and establish new links between research and policy through the Mayoral Authorities Creative Health Network.
2026 Co-Lab Policy Network Awards
The programme based at has today announced the results of the 2026 : an ambitious intervention to reorientate place-based cultural policy making in a new context of and the .
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 4 new to support innovative cross-sector cultural policy networks in devolved nations and regions of the UK.
Co-Lab Policy Network Awards 2026
The Co-Lab Policy Network Awards will create new spaces for deliberation on complex cultural challenges and opportunities鈥攆rom culture-led regeneration to creative health鈥攂uilding 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
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.