Art & Design Research Institute

Welcome to the Art & Design Research Institute

Director - Professor Karen Fleming

Through practice and theory research, academic enterprise and scholarly activity Research Institute Art & Design (RIAD) members explore the means by which art and design can develop understanding, change understanding and create new knowledge. 
RIAD, together with the Research Graduate School, also examines the nature and purpose of research and practice in art and design- advocating methods and methodological strategies that enable art and design research to contribute positively to the cultural and social environments, to industry and to commerce. 
The Research Institute Art and Design has established cross-disciplinary and cross-institution scope alongside specialist and thematic research. RIAD research activity is focused in 3 research centres- 

Centre for Applied Art Research
Centre for Design Research
Centre for Fine Art Research

An archive and collections unit underpins these.
The Research Institute Art and Design, University of Ulster, is located in an art and design education institution that was founded in 1869. It is a large, interdisciplinary, practice-base environment with an outstanding research record. The University is a leading provider of Art and Design education in the UK and the largest on the island of Ireland. The Research Institute Art and Design is also substantial in size with around sixty committed academic staff actively engaged in research, knowledge and technology exchange as well as teaching. 
The strong rating of the Art and Design Research at Ulster in the most recent Research Assessment Exercise (2008) when it achieved 10th place in the Research Fortnight UK power ranking for the subject, consolidated the '5' grade in the Research Assessment Exercise in 2001. With 75% of its research considered in RAE 2008 to be of international significance, Art and Design has a strong research base for future developments. Of particular note are the 2008 recognition of the quality of its research environment and the 100% achieved for peer esteem. 

The expertise brought together in the Research Institute includes and reaches beyond Fine and Applied Arts, Fashion and Textile Design, 2d and 3d Design, Visual Communication, History and Theory of Art and Design. Members of the Institute are also engaged in a growing number of collaborative Teaching Company Schemes, which facilitate technology transfer, in Knowledge Transfer Projects (KTP) with business and industry, as well as in collaborative research programmes in partnership with other research areas within the University and with other UK and international institutions. Working creatively in and with communities, engaging in consultancies, entrepreneurial activities and advocacy complement the extensive research portfolio of the Institute.
Research and teaching are interrelated. A number of Master Programmes form an integral part of the research culture. The Research Institute has a vibrant PhD programme with currently more than 30 students working on a diverse range of projects and is one of the leading art and design graduate study providers in the UK with distinctive expertise in practice based research. Postgraduate provisions play an important role in engendering the Institute's 'research ethos'.

For further information please contact the
Director of the Research Institute Art and Design: Professor Karen Fleming.