Building Bridges: Design Researchers Making Podcasts to Support Internal Collaboration in an EU Horizon 2020 Scientific Programme

This paper argues the need for material design researchers to take risks; to work beyond the confines of their usual disciplinary remit. It proposes that the use of a podcast-first approach for a communications work package helped to build the collaborative relationships between scientists and other experts, in a research programme which had multiple trans-disciplinary challenges. The argument presented here is for textile design researchers to take a risk and work aurally as well visually and in written form, to create impactful practices. The paper analyses a podcast series made within a circular design project, using feedback from partner questionnaires to reflect via an action research framework, to ascertain how the episodes progressed the collaborations; building bridges between partners. The paper concludes with recommendations for how making podcasts can be used to build more successful collaborative projects, as well as benefiting the expanded practice of design researchers in social contexts. Paper from the Trash-2-Cash project, presented at EAD13 in Dundee in April 2019.