Written by Juliet Lennox, Knowledge Exchange Manager
Two researchers from UWE Bristol’s Centre for Print Research (CFPR) have been awarded places on the competitive ARC Accelerate programme, supporting them to transform their groundbreaking arts and humanities research into scalable commercial ventures. Each award includes up to £62,500 in funding, alongside specialist training, mentorship and networking opportunities.
Associate Professor Dr Tavs Jorgensen and Senior Lecturer Dr Sofie Boons are among just 16 teams selected from across the UK to join the 2025 cohort of the six-month accelerator programme, which is designed to help researchers from the social sciences, arts and humanities transform their innovative ideas into scalable ventures.
Advanced Clay Tooling: Revolutionising Brick and Tile Manufacturing
Tavs Jorgensen, and his CFPR Team, Sonny Lightfoot and Michael Joyce-Badea will use their ARC Accelerate funding to develop Advanced Clay Tooling (ACT), a venture that applies advanced digital fabrication technologies to the ceramic industry. Based on over a decade of research into ceramic production methods, ACT applies advanced digital fabrication technologies – including robotic scanning, 3D printing and AI – to create custom tooling for the brick and ceramics industry. This approach significantly reduces production time, improves precision, and opens up new design possibilities for manufacturers.
Jorgensen has a background working as a designer for leading tableware companies including Wedgwood and Lenox, and ten years teaching at the Royal College of Art’s Ceramic and Glass programme. Lightfoot and Joyce-Badea have leading expertise in 3D scanning and printing, programming and computational geometry.
Neo-Gemstones: Sustainable Innovation in Jewellery Design
Sofie Boons, Senior Lecturer in Design Crafts, will use her ARC Accelerate award to commercialise her revolutionary Neo-Gemstones research, which challenges traditional approaches to gemstone use in contemporary jewellery.
Boons’ research offers a new approach to gemstone production by growing crystals from waste materials in studio contexts, eliminating mining dependence. This enables localised, energy-efficient gemstone creation with unique design possibilities for jewellery applications.
Boons made international headlines in 2024 when she successfully grew the world’s first ruby directly within a platinum ring, using a ‘ruby seed’ produced from discarded gemstones or industrial crystal waste materials.
About ARC Accelerate
The ARC Accelerator is part of the £3.9 million SHAPE Catalyst programme, which runs until 2026 and is delivered by the ARC Accelerator with funding from the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) and Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC). The programme is designed to equip researchers from the social sciences, arts and humanities with the skills they need to bring their ideas to market and deliver impact at scale. They deliver free online training for different stages of impact and commercialisation development. For more information about the ARC Accelerate programme and the full pathway for researchers, visit: https://arcaccelerator.io/
Supporting Innovation at UWE Bristol
Both projects demonstrate how practice-based research in the arts and humanities can address real-world challenges, from advancing manufacturing in the ceramics industry to ethical gemstone production in jewellery. Both these projects have had support from UWE’s AHRC Impact Acceleration Account, which has helped them reach this next stage in their commercialisation journey.
Get Support: If you would like guidance on how to transform your research into scalable impact, please get in touch with the Innovation and Impact Team on impact@uwe.ac.uk