Covid-19 and Creative Clusters: A real-time study of the impact of Covid-19 on creative businesses in East London

It will combine quantitative and qualitative research, and will be used to inform London and UK-wide policy on creative clusters.

The Hackney Wick/Olympic Park cluster brings together small and micro-creative businesses with large and significant creative employers (such as BT Sport and Sadler's Wells Theatre) in a very small physical footprint. It is also home to Loughborough University London, and parts of UCL.

Working with businesses and community partners over a 12 month period from September 2020, the project will monitor business performance, and track changing business models, and changing attitudes to risk and growth, as a result of the Covid-19 crisis. It will be led by a steering group of local partners, and will bring together a network of national and regional advisers specialising in creative cluster development.

The project is funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC), and led by Professor Andrew Chitty and Graham Hitchen.