Wellcome X ACRC Academy Joint Workshop - Dundee

In September 2025, Dr Kieran Sweeney and Jenn Yoo received an InFrame grant through the Culture Catalyst Fund to host a series of workshops bringing together students across two PhD programmes: the ACRC Academy and the Wellcome Multimorbidity PhD Programme for Health Professionals.

The idea behind this workshop series was to build interdisciplinary connections between the two programmes, and create an opportunity for peer-to-peer support and learning tailored to students’ priorities.

The second workshop from the series took place at the University of Dundee on 15 January with planning led by a committee consisting of Mike Holder and Kieran Sweeney (Wellcome) and Deniz Hepdogan and Kourosh Khalilian (ACRC Academy).

The chosen theme for the workshop, based on a survey of students’ priorities, was design in research – a fitting theme for the UK’s first and only UNESCO City of Design. Accordingly, the day kicked off with a tour of V&A Dundee, where students took in exhibitions covering design for healthcare sustainability, design in gardens, and classics from the Scottish Design Galleries. 

Dawn breaks over the River Tay
Dawn breaking over the Tay on the morning of the workshop

After a short walk to the University campus, the first session of the workshop was led by Dr Mhairi Towler (digital educator and founder of Vivomotion animation company) who talked about animation for research. Students learnt about the key principles of successful research animation and had a go at storyboarding their own work.

After lunch, Shane Sheehan (University of Edinburgh) led a masterclass on data visualisation, taking students from the Bauhaus to the age of AI, and showing how certain visual variables work best for certain data types, and how metaphor and context are also part of the equation.

The final session was a chance for students from across the two programmes to connect in small roundtable discussions, discussing design-related challenges from their current research, as well as wider shared challenges from PhD life, with conversations continuing over drinks (and chips) by Dundee’s historic Victoria Docks. 

Publication date