Leeds Creative Labs: Climate Futures

Applications are open for the latest edition of Leeds Creative Labs, delivered in partnership with the Priestley Centre for Climate Futures.

This year, we will support up to six artists to collaborate with six academics to explore themes around “Climate Futures”.

Leeds Creative Labs is a funded opportunity for artists and creative professionals to collaborate with researchers from the University of Leeds. The programme is an initiative developed and led by the Cultural Institute at the University of Leeds since 2012 and has previously paired hip-hop dancers with economists, ballet choreographers with biochemical engineers, and visual artists with astrophysicists.

Application guidance and forms for both academics and artists can be found here.

Watch the recording of the information session below:

The process

Following a round of applications by artists and academics, a process of matchmaking is made by an expert panel. This is based not only on the applicants’ professional and creative interests but also on their shared sense of curiosity and ambition to explore ideas without limits.

Once pairings are made, Leeds Creative Labs will host a collaborative introductory workshop at the University of Leeds.

Pairings will have between 4 April to 2 July 2025 to work together for the equivalent of three working days, with times and dates arranged by each pair to suit their own circumstances.

Pairings are not expected to respond to a specific brief. Instead, both academic and creative partners enter the experience on an equal footing and have the rare opportunity of supported but open-ended space in which to explore and create ideas together without an agenda. With no expectation of an output, the process allows partners to establish the focus of their engagement with each other from the outset.

Up to £200, administered by the Cultural Institute, will be available for each pair to use for assets, software, materials, trips, room hire, research costs or anything else that is useful to support their collaboration.

Each pair will work together to consider their objectives and approach. In the past artists have visited labs, and academics have visited artist studios or rehearsals, together with external discussions or workshops.

Pairings will then be invited to speak at a sharing event held at the University of Leeds on Thursday 3 July 2025 to share their experiences at the end of the programme.

Hear about some of the previous pairings: