South of Scotland Enterprise (SOSE) is the economic and community development agency for Dumfries and Galloway and the Scottish Borders.
SOSE was established by the Scottish Government in April 2020, in recognition of the need for a fresh approach to drive inclusive growth across the area, including in the creative industries.
The organisations’ vision is to work across the South of Scotland to establish the region as a centre of opportunity, innovation, and growth. Providing investment, expertise and mentoring to inspire the region to think bigger and unlock significant opportunities for all.
SOSE are the first of Scotland’s public agencies with legislation that promotes a wider view on the economy and how it impacts all aspects of peoples lives, including health and wellbeing. Fair work and the Just Transition to Net Zero underpins all of its activities.
The Challenge
SOSE is charged with delivering inclusive growth, building the capacity of local communities and enhancing the environment. With this remit, SOSE needs to report to the Scottish Government on its ability to influence and improve the lives of communities and deliver the objectives of the newly developed South of Scotland Regional Economic Strategy.
Cultural and creative excellence is one of the six themes within the Regional Economic Strategy, placing culture and creative industries at the heart of the region’s thriving economy. Whilst SOSE can measure the economic impact of culture and creativity, the organisation currently has no mechanism for measuring and recording the wellbeing impact that creative and cultural experiences provide to participants, which features in their legislation.
SOSE’s challenge is to develop a platform or mechanism that will allow participants engaging in creative and cultural activities to give feedback on their experience in a fun and engaging way. They are looking for a solution that can visualise the data collected in a creative and stimulating fashion.
Their first step will be to work with a Challenge Respondent to define their Index of Wellbeing, which can be used by SOSE and other organisations in a consistent manner. For example, SOSE envisage that the Index of Wellbeing may be a dataset of 5-8 areas of questioning that can then be interpreted to provide an output. This will provide the basis for collecting feedback from audiences at creative and cultural events such as visits to museums, galleries or performances.
Finding a solution to this challenge would enable SOSE to increase their understanding of the impact that creativity and culture have on individual wellbeing, providing a consistent and collaborative approach for measuring wellbeing impact, and strengthening their focus on the wellbeing economy. A successful solution would also allow the creative and cultural sector to demonstrate the social value of their activity and not just economic impact.
SOSE welcome applications from individuals, organisations, or partnerships that have the skills to address this challenge.
Applications for this Challenge Project are now closed. If you have any questions please contact our team at creativeinformatics@ed.ac.uk.