Connected Knowledge

As the capabilities of artificial intelligence and machine learning rapidly increase, so do questions about their implications for the future of how we live and work. The Centre for Technomoral Futures, part of the Edinburgh Futures Institute at the University of Edinburgh, exists to bring together technical, moral, social and political expertise to address these questions.

“We need all these types of expertise to shape futures worth wanting,” says Dr Gina Helfrich, Baillie Gifford Programme Manager at the Centre. “So, it is really important for the research to be multidisciplinary. The division that has crept up between the technologists and those working in the humanities and social sciences is destructive for society.”

The Centre’s focus on technical and moral knowledge is embedded in its PhD studentships, during which each student typically has two advisors in different fields. “You might have an advisor in, say, philosophy or languages, and one from informatics,” Dr Helfrich explains. This means that STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths) and SHAPE (Social Sciences, Humanities and the Arts for People and the Economy) research is weaved together, rather than existing separately.

Connected knowledge is particularly important when it comes to research into artificial intelligence, given the ethical and safety challenges rapid advances present. One of the Centre’s PhD students, Bhargavi Ganesh, is looking to the past for guidance on how best to regulate cutting edge technology.

An award-winning paper, co-authored by Ganesh, Professor Stuart Anderson from the School of Informatics and Professor Shannon Vallor from Edinburgh Futures Institute, focuses on the lessons that can be learned from US government responses to steamboat accidents in the 1800s and how they can be applied to AI governance. Ganesh argues that the case study of steamboat accidents highlights the need for independent government auditors for AI today. The authors note that as technology and human activity evolves, the policies needed to ensure their safety must continue to evolve as well.

“One of the most important things happening at the centre is this emphasis on policy and regulation because obviously we haven’t figured it out,” Dr Helfrich says. “There’s so much excellent work that has been happening in the humanities for a very long time on a lot of these issues and it is a travesty when this work gets overlooked.”

How specialists in sculpture, bioarchaeology and 3D modelling worked together to bring the iconic pharaoh to life

“When I first arrived at the University of Western Ontario,” says bioarchaeologist Professor Andrew Nelson, “I tried to establish relationships with the radiology department, but they totally didn’t get it. They just thought I was from another planet. But over the years that has changed...”

Fast forward to 2023 and Professor Nelson has forged innovative working relationships with colleagues from across the disciplinary spectrum – not just radiologists but historians, geneticists and even portrait artists. Together they have been examining human remains from archaeological sites in Egypt and Peru and experimenting with exciting new research methods.

In 2020, Professor Nelson and his colleagues marked the 100th anniversary of the discovery of King Tutankhamun’s tomb with a new project aiming to reconstruct the ancient pharaoh’s face. The project involved CT scans of Tutankhamun’s head, a high-end scientific 3D imaging and deep learning software described by Professor Nelson as ‘Photoshop on steroids’, and the skills of Christian Corbet, a portrait artist whose other subjects include Prince Philip and Margaret Atwood. The collaboration was filmed for a special PBS documentary and showed how technology is transforming the practice of archaeology and redefining the limits of what we can learn about the past.

The likes of carbon dating, isotopic analysis and imaging technology also allows for what Professor Nelson describes as a more “minimally destructive” approach to research.

“Traditionally,” he explains, “the way you study these things is you unwrap them and essentially rip them apart. But now we can be more discerning and less destructive. For instance, if there is some research question that you could only answer by unwrapping the mummy, then on the basis of the CT scan you would choose the perfect candidate and you would unwrap that individual.”

For Professor Nelson, the development of new technology and the move towards interdisciplinary research heralds an “exciting and unique time” for archaeologists.

“At its heart this is about teamwork. No single individual is going to know everything about all of this. Reaching out and working with other people in different fields…that’s what I find so tremendously stimulating about this work.”

How design researchers, technologists and health professionals worked together to improve the wellbeing of those living with dementia

“The idea was to use creative activities and imagination to unlock different types of knowledge,” explains Professor Cathy Treadaway, Research Director of HUG by LAUGH, and Principal Investigator of the Arts and Humanities Research Council-funded LAUGH research. “This is how artists work.”

Created by researchers at Cardiff Metropolitan University to improve the wellbeing of those living with advanced dementia, HUG is a soft therapeutic sensory doll that is designed to be cuddled. It has weighted limbs, a simulated beating heart and a programmable music player.

Cathy's research set out to address cultural issues around the way dementia has traditionally been treated, including a lingering resistance to the idea of toys and play, and has focused on ways to enhance positive emotions experienced by people living with dementia through playful handheld objects. Her practice as a design researcher and artist brought a fresh perspective to the challenges faced by those living with advanced dementia, including anxiety, agitation and isolation.

Through a series of creative workshops involving over 170 participants, including scientists, technologists, health professionals, carers, product designers and people living with dementia, the team examined how people in the advanced stage of the disease can live well, experience pleasure and have fun, as well as the sensory impact of different materials.

Interviews with carers and family members of people affected by advanced dementia, informed the design of a collection of six objects, one of which was the HUG doll. The first HUG prototype was made for a woman who was on end-of-life care, and it had an “astounding and positive” impact on her health and quality of life.

Drawing on Welsh government funding, the researchers then worked with the NHS and Sunrise Senior Living UK to evaluate HUGs in a much larger study. In the Sunrise care home study, after six months of using HUG, 87% of participants experienced a clear and measurable increase in their wellbeing and happiness. Some even showed increases in their cognitive function and abilities. In the NHS study, HUGs were prescribed to patients who were anxious and distressed. For those who accepted them, HUGs were found to reduce patient anxiety and agitation, helping staff to undertake basic medical and care procedures, making nursing easier, aiding communication and reducing the need for medication.

“HUG doesn’t have the negative side effects that anti-anxiety drugs can have, for instance drowsiness, so there’s a reduced risk of accidents such as falls,” Cathy explains. “We couldn’t have understood the issues the way we did without involving the scientists, healthcare professionals and STEM academics in the research. At the same time, it’s difficult to put a number on seeing someone’s quality of life improve, seeing them have fun and show happiness. This is where the SHAPE disciplines need to work with science – we need both approaches.”

The NHS is currently trialling HUG dolls in several different clinical contexts including the treatment of severe anxiety, learning difficulties, autism and palliative care. Each HUG that is sold helps raise money for Alzheimer’s Society to help fund future dementia research and innovation. The HUG by LAUGH business is a Cardiff Metropolitan University spin-out.

“Since the war broke out, when people rushed into Freetown, everybody started invading the hills and cutting down trees,” says Kadiatu Bangura, a farmer who lives in Freetown, Sierra Leone. “Since that time, the water has changed.”

Bangura is one of the Freetown farmers who have collaborated with researchers from the University of Bath to detoxify wetlands used for urban agriculture in the capital city. The British Academy-funded research is led by Professor Roy Maconachie, a human geographer who studies how communities interact with their environment, and Dr Lee Bryant, a civil engineer who lectures in water, environment and infrastructure.

Freetown’s population of over one million is expected to double over the next 20 years and this rapid expansion threatens the availability of clean water and food security for local people. “These are complex and interlocking problems that require a holistic understanding and approaches from different perspectives,” says Professor Maconachie.

The researchers are exploring phytoremediation - using plants to treat contaminated water and soil - as a method of water detoxification. They are working with local farmers to identify the indigenous plants that would be most effective in removing toxins from the water. For the first time, the project will design and test a community-managed scheme to treat toxic water and soil at urban agriculture sites in Freetown. 

The involvement of farmers like Bangura, and the knowledge and experiences they bring, is central to the project – as is the integration of SHAPE and STEM skills and approaches which have run through the research from the start.

The researchers use social mapping and visual anthropological methods to monitor and measure socio-economic factors and health impacts on urban farming communities before, during and after the implementation of the phytoremediation scheme. This understanding – which is grounded in the day-to-day lives of Freetown’s urban farmers – complements and enhances the laboratory analysis of soil, water and crop samples that also feature prominently throughout the study.

Professor Maconachie and Dr Bryant will present their findings at the International Water Association in Kigali, Rwanda, later this year. A key output will be a policy framework that demonstrates that development projects “will only succeed if they align STEM and SHAPE approaches and partner effectively with local people.”

In February 2022 experts advising the World Health Organization published an open letter reflecting on the lessons that could be learned from COVID-19 for future pandemics, particularly the vital contributions made by behavioural and social scientists. These researchers, the letter argued, had played a “critical” role during the pandemic, guiding “understanding of the drivers of transmission” and helping to “design and deliver effective interventions.”

Indeed, the urgent need for vaccines and complex behavioural change during the pandemic also highlighted the importance of connected knowledge between STEM and SHAPE disciplines. While immunologists worked at pace to create a vaccine, behavioural scientists and sociologists helped inform public messaging and understanding of vaccine avoidance. When breakthroughs were made, economists managed complex supply chains to ensure vaccines arrived in health centres and hospitals, and linguists communicated public health messaging to a diverse range of communities across the country

Such interdisciplinary research also helps us to understand the virus’s ongoing impacts. The British Academy’s COVID Decade project, for example, demonstrates how COVID-19 spread alongside pre-existing social deprivations and economic inequalities.

“We are in a COVID decade,” the report says. “The economic effects of the pandemic will cast a long shadow into the future. To understand what awaits us, we need the wisdom, insights and perspectives of historians, geographers, philosophers, psychologists and experts from a wide variety of other disciplines.”

The report’s findings were clear. The COVID-19 pandemic was not just a health crisis, but a social phenomenon with deep and lasting implications for the economy, culture and communities. It is only through collaborative and interdisciplinary research, drawing on SHAPE and STEM insights, that we can understand these challenges and develop effective solutions.

“The idea was simple,” says Tim Joss, Chief Executive of arts enterprise Aesop. “Could we smuggle the evidence-based exercises older people would get on traditional falls prevention programmes into creative dance?”

‘Dance to Health’, the pioneering falls prevention programme devised by Aesop, combines exercise with the creativity, energy and sociability of dance. Participants build strength and balance under the guidance of professional dance artists with the recognised falls prevention exercise qualification, Postural Stability Instructor.

Each year, a third of people over 65 will have a fall. This can result in serious injury, reduce confidence and lead to social isolation. Aside from the cost to the injured and their family, falls set back the health and social care system by £4.4 billion a year.

Tim and his team worked with health economics expert, Martin Knapp, Professor of Health and Social Care Policy at the London School of Economics and Political Science, on modelling to show the potential impact of a programme that combined dance and exercise. They also drew on the expertise of exercise physiologist Professor Dawn Skelton from Glasgow Caledonian University, testing out routines and movements that would benefit older people.

“Participants have flourished as they have progressed and their enthusiasm in taking part was palpable,” researchers from Sheffield Hallam University noted during their three-year evaluation of the programme. “Dance to Health has not only provided an opportunity for older adults to reduce their risk of falls, but it has improved confidence, self-efficacy and mental wellbeing.”

The researchers found that participants experienced a 58% reduction in falls, and those who did have a fall which necessitated an A&E visit were 63% less likely to become in-patients.

Behind Dance to Health is a willingness to work across SHAPE and STEM disciplines, from economics and physiology to the performing arts. The impact of the interdisciplinary research is clear, as one participant reflected: “I have never enjoyed exercise, but the focus on dance takes the ‘work’ element away and distracts you. I feel lighter after I have been to a class. Coming gave me the opportunity and permission to relax for a couple of hours a week and helped me cope with worries during the rest of the week.”

Now in its sixth year, Dance to Health has embarked on ‘phase two’, which includes a collaboration with Middlesex University Business School to explore local governance models so dance groups can sustain themselves independently.

In the fight against climate change, few developments offer quite as much cause for hope as the growing body of research into seagrass. Carpeting just 0.1% of the world’s ocean floors, existing seagrass meadows can store up to 18% of the world’s oceanic carbon. Indeed, some seagrass meadows have been found to capture carbon faster than tropical rainforests. Seagrass meadows are also vital habitats for marine life, protect coasts from erosion, remove pollutants from our waters and support many communities’ cultural and economic wellbeing.

“We know that seagrass can play a significant role in the climate and biodiversity crisis,” explains Dr Leanne Cullen-Unsworth, CEO of Project Seagrass, a marine environmental charity. “But to really get the benefits, we need to restore seagrass at way bigger scales than what we’re currently achieving.”

This is a huge challenge. The world’s seagrass meadows are suffering net loss and many countries report significant damage. The UK, for instance, has lost 92% of its seagrass over the last century. To turn things around and harness the true potential of seagrass therefore requires a vast coordinated effort, drawing on an enormous variety of skills, talents, and ideas.

“Our team includes biologists, economists, data modellers, human geographers, and plenty more,” says Leanne. “And we often go out into the field together, which helps to generate understanding and momentum. For example, the human geographers will go out with the fishery scientists and help with the netting work, while drone operators will go out with social scientists to support them in the field.”

Restoring the world’s seagrass is also a political, economic, and financial challenge, Leanne explains.

“There are major political bottlenecks – for instance, it is very difficult to get licenses to plant seagrass in England, Wales and Scotland and the rules are different across the devolved nations, so political support is important. It is also difficult to get the funding for ongoing monitoring and reinforcement to make sure that newly planted grasses become a meadow over time.

“It can take five to seven years or longer to establish a new meadow, so the time to act is now. We also need to protect our existing meadows whilst we have the chance. Through both protection and restoration, we have the opportunity to facilitate and implement positive change at a scale that will be meaningful for climate, biodiversity and people before it’s too late.”

What is Connected Knowledge?

Connected Knowledge is a way of describing what happens when skills, insights and expertise from across different disciplines, subjects and sectors come together – particularly those across SHAPE and STEM.

Isn’t that inter/trans/cross disciplinarity?

Yes, it’s the same thing. The stories we’ll share initially showcase connections between SHAPE and STEM – but Connected Knowledge is broader even than that. It can be used to refer to collaboration within SHAPE and with sector experts, practitioners, and a wide range of other people, too.

What is SHAPE?

SHAPE is a collective term for the Social Sciences, Humanities and Arts for People and the Economy – in short, the subjects that are all about understanding the human world. That covers a huge amount of knowledge about our world – from languages to philosophy and the history of art, to behavioural psychology, business studies and economics. The E has been used interchangeably by some to stand for the environment instead of the economy.

Why have an acronym at all?

After launching 30 years ago, the STEM shorthand has been incredibly successful at generating interest in, and support for, the sciences, technology, engineering and maths, and is used extensively particularly within education. We felt that we needed a comparable term for the arts, humanities and social sciences in order to paint a more complete picture of the types of knowledge that power our world. SHAPE is an inspiring word, more so than previous terms such as AHSS (Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences) or HASS (Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences). It shows our disciplines on a par with STEM in their full breadth, rather than shoe-horning one part in the middle such as STEAM (Sciences, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Maths).

Don’t some subjects cross both SHAPE and STEM?

Of course: geography, architecture and archaeology to name but a few. Through Connected Knowledge we hope to show that there are lots of natural links across STEM and SHAPE than we are often led to think.

Are you saying that STEM and SHAPE coming together is a new concept?

No! This goes back hundreds – possibly even thousands – of years.

Consider research which has shown the key role of graphic design, media and film in raising public awareness of the link between cigarette smoking and lung disease, alongside mounting scientific evidence in the mid-20th century. And the pioneering surgeon Joseph Lister, who identified how his classics degree, obtained before his medical training, formed a core element of his well-rounded approach to treating patients in Victorian England. Or Benjamin Franklin, a newspaper editor, politician, pioneer of demography, inventor and scientist who helped found the United States of America and whose experiments established the single-fluid theory of electricity, the most important scientific breakthrough of his era.

What we hope to do is celebrate modern-day examples of Connected Knowledge in action, to show how it shapes our collective understanding of our past and present – as well as shaping a brighter future.

Are these the only examples of Connected Knowledge?

Not at all. Over the coming months, we’ll showcase examples of Connected Knowledge in action across many aspects of society: from health and social care to the fight against climate change, and from heritage and AI.

The stories we will tell are just a small glimpse into what happens when STEM and SHAPE come together. We hope they’ll spark many more examples from across different research organisations and individuals to show the benefit of knowledge from across both STEM and SHAPE.

We hope people will get involved by sharing their own research stories on social media with the hashtag #ConnectedKnowledge.

Do you think SHAPE is more important than STEM?

No – both are equally as important. Connected Knowledge is about showing how impactful research and innovation rarely exists in a vacuum – rather, the most cutting-edge research often involves collaboration across different subjects, disciplines and sectors.

Does the British Academy fund research that can be defined as “Connected Knowledge”?

Yes, while we are the national academy for the humanities and social sciences we fund a wide range of research across disciplines – some of it in partnership with other funders and organisations. Our APEX Awards, Innovation Fellowships and Public Engagement Awards, for instance, support projects that bring together different types of expertise.

What do you hope to achieve from promoting Connected Knowledge?

By promoting the value of Connected Knowledge, we want to make the case for supporting and investing in all kinds of research across SHAPE and STEM disciplines. Only by harnessing and investing in both can we make the UK’s R&D sector world leading.

Are you calling for more funding into STEM research as well?

We believe there should be sustained investment in research, development and innovation across all SHAPE and STEM disciplines – only with funding for both can we hope to drive productivity, raise living standards and provide answers to the most pressing challenges of our time.