UWE Bristol is proud to highlight the achievements of Dr. Jack Lowe, based in the Digital Cultures Research Centre, who recently completed the prestigious ARC Accelerate programme. Jack spent six months transforming his innovative ideas into a scalable venture, with the support of this AHRC/ESRC-funded initiative.
About ARC Accelerate
ARC Accelerate is a 6-month accelerator programme designed to help researchers in social sciences, arts, and humanities transform their ideas into market-ready products and services. The programme offers up to £62,500 in funding, along with comprehensive support including training, mentorship, and networking opportunities.
Dr. Jack Lowe: Pin the Tale
Jack has developed Pin the Tale, a digital game that strengthens community ties to place using the what3words app. In the game, players use what3words addresses to write stories about specific locations, creating connections between narrative and place. This innovative approach encourages players to explore and share their experiences of different locations through storytelling.
For Jack, the ARC programme offered a transformative perspective on research commercialisation. He reflects:
“Commercialisation doesn’t have to mean profiteering. Instead, it is most useful as a lens for thinking about how to sustain the impact of your work, whatever form that might take.”
The programme’s structured support and resources proved invaluable:
“Having a dedicated period of paid time focused solely on my venture, and being able to fully pay my collaborators for their work, resulted in an outcome that simply would not have been possible otherwise.”
Through engaging with multiple stakeholders during the programme, Jack gained crucial insights into how his platform could meet real-world needs. Each public workshop has provided new learning opportunities about the challenges and possibilities his game presents.
Project Progress and Future Plans
Since completing the ARC Accelerate programme, Jack has successfully launched Pin the Tale in early-access to the public. The game is now freely available online, inviting users to discover and create stories connected to specific locations across the UK.
“At its heart, Pin the Tale is about re-connecting individuals and communities to the places they live in, visit or care about. It’s about going beyond the ‘official’ stories of places; the ones we might be familiar with from history lessons or books. Pin the Tale aims to be much more intimate, inspiring and creative, where ‘culture’ and ‘heritage’ is something to be uncovered in people’s own stories and the stories of others in their communities.”
The game offers two key experiences:
- Discovering stories about places you’re interested in: Navigate on the map to an area of the UK that you’re interested in. Click the Find Stories button to read stories other people have written about places in that area.
- Share your own stories: Zoom into a UK location on the map that you want to write a story about. Click the square closest to the spot your story is about, then click ‘Write a story about this location’. Stories on Pin the Tale can take any creative form: fictional, poetic, historical, personal, informative, imaginative.
Jack emphasises the experiential nature of the game:
“When learning about the world around you feels like a process of discovery – when it engages your imagination – that’s when it becomes exciting. We want to evoke that feeling in our players.”
The project continues to gain recognition within the academic community, with Pin the Tale being selected as a featured project at this year’s Royal Geographical Society Annual International Conference, where it aligns perfectly with the conference theme of ‘Geography and Creativity.’
Support for UWE Researchers
UWE is committed to supporting our researchers in transforming their innovative ideas into real-world impact. Jack’s success in the ARC Accelerate programme demonstrates the potential of our research community to drive positive change through commercialisation.
Find out more about the ARC pathway here: https://arcaccelerator.io/
Key Dates:
- Applications for the next cohort open in June 2025.
- Programme start: February 2026
Get Support: To discuss your application and receive guidance on the process, contact UWE’s Impact and Innovation Team at ipteam@uwe.ac.uk
Contribution to the UN 2030 sustainable development goals
UWE Bristol is proud to align our research to the UN sustainable development goals. The above research aligns with the following goals:
