- Led by Dr Sophie Frost, University of the Arts London
- Partnered with Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS)
- Innovation Fellow in partnership with British Academy
This Fellowship works on fostering economic growth across the UK through digital innovation in DCMS Sectors.
This Fellowship investigates the relationship between digital innovation in the cultural sector and young people’s skills, competencies, and employment opportunities. It examines how cultural organisations are supporting young people’s digital skills development, while also exploring how the digital capabilities, behaviours, and expectations of young people are shaping the future of cultural institutions more broadly.
The research responds to DCMS’s Areas of Research Interest, particularly the Culture portfolio’s focus on addressing digital skills gaps within the workforce, and to the Government’s 2025 Youth Strategy, which highlights that today’s young people are the most digitally connected generation in history yet face growing isolation.
The project combines a UK-wide review of effective cultural sector initiatives supporting digital skills acquisition with a place-based ethnographic study of digital innovation in 3–5 cultural organisations, located in a Local Authority District and/or Mayoral Combined Authority selected according to double deprivation and youth unemployment indicators. Methods include stakeholder interviews, desk-based research, and digital ethnographic fieldwork.
Outputs will include a policy briefing paper, a case study exploring the connective tissue between digital innovation, cultural activity, and youth skills development, a practical blueprint with policy recommendations, a knowledge exchange event with DCMS and UAL stakeholders, and a research podcast.
This Innovation Fellowship is part of a unique strategic partnership between the British Academy and BRAID, supported by funding from the UK Government’s Department for Science, Innovation & Technology (DSIT) and the UKRI Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC).
Dr Sophie Frost a researcher, educator, and consultant working across the arts, museum, and heritage sectors, with a particular focus on digital policy, sustainability, leadership, and skills. As a British Academy Innovation Fellow, she is currently working in collaboration with BRAID and the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) on digital innovation and economic growth across the UK’s cultural sectors. She is also Course Lead in Creative Leadership at Central Saint Martins x UAL Online, University of the Arts London (UAL).
Over the course of her career, Sophie has held senior, consultancy, and research roles across major cultural institutions, including Freelands Foundation, Southbank Centre, the British Film Institute, and The Audience Agency, working at the intersection of programming, production, and digital strategy.
Sophie’s research centres on digital labour, cultural leadership, and organisational change in museums and cultural institutions, and she has held senior roles on major AHRC-funded projects, including the multi-partner initiative One by One, which brought together the School of Museum Studies at the University of Leicester with partners including the Smithsonian Institution. Her forthcoming monograph, Museums and Digital Labour: A Hidden Constellation (Routledge, 2027), builds on more than a decade of research, writing, podcasting, and public speaking on digital confidence and courage in the cultural workforce.
