GRACE-Epi Monthly Methods webinars
Free training webinars considering novel methodologies, theoretical approaches and lenses relevant to the field of arts and health, partnering with universities globally.
About the webinar series
Global Research on Arts and Cultural Engagement – Advancing Epidemiological Methods (GRACE-Epi) is a major new 7-year programme of work on arts and health funded through a £3.5m Wellcome Discovery Award. During this programme, a consortium of global researchers will unite expertise from arts, humanities, social science, epidemiology, data science and molecular biology to radically advance epidemiological research on arts and cultural engagement. Learn more about GRACE-Epi on our dedicated project page.
Throughout the GRACE-Epi programme we are engaging in open and collaborative science. As part of this we are co-hosting monthly free online training webinars considering novel methodologies, theoretical approaches and lenses, partnering with universities internationally. The webinars are open to all who would like to attend and we anticipate sessions will be of particular interest to academics, researchers and practitioners. Attendees are welcome to watch online from any country and recordings are also available to play back at a later date.
On this page you can find information about how to collaborate with us, details of upcoming events and recordings of past webinars.
Collaborate with us
We are planning our schedule of webinars for the remainder of 2026 and are inviting proposals for speakers. This is an opportunity to have your work spotlighted as part of a global research programme, connecting with colleagues across countries and disciplines.
We want to platform speakers from universities who can share novel methodologies, theoretical approaches or lenses. These could relate to quantitative or qualitative research and can be from any discipline, but should be transferable to the field of arts and health and have a relevance to epidemiological or broader public health research. During the webinar, we would suggest speakers outline the following and then take part in a Q&A with the audience:
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- Why this method/approach/lens is interesting, novel and needed
- An outline of how it works (e.g. the theory or technique)
- An example of its use in practice
To find out more and express your interest in collaborating please contact: rachel.marshall@ucl.ac.uk.
Next event
GRACE-Epi Monthly Methods: Project CREATE. Tuesday 2nd June, 12 – 1pm GMT+1.
Project CREATE is a 3-year project, working closely with young people to understand the role of arts-based programmes in youth mental health and wellbeing. It is being delivered by a team at the University of Leeds in collaboration with partners and young people. It is funded by the UKRI Adolescence, Mental Health and the Developing Mind funding call.
In this webinar, we will present our emerging, youth informed model of active ingredients and mechanisms of change in arts-based programmes (ABPs). This model was foregrounded by a systematic review of the literature and centres lived experience. Our transdisciplinary team reviewed and refined this model through a “living lab” methodology which involved collaborating with youth co-researchers whilst engaging in various art forms such as painting, photography and film-making.
This work provides evidence of identifiable mechanisms and outcomes within and across different art forms and highlights ABPs as a valuable therapeutic experience. The findings advocate for the importance of community ABPs for the mental health of young people.
We’ll be hearing from Dr. Crissie Harney, Prof. Siobhan Hugh Jones, Prof. Paul Cooke, Dr. Emma Williams, Prof. Nicola Shaughnessy and Dr. Sylvan Baker.
Further details and registration via Eventbrite.
Additional webinars will be announced shortly. To be notified directly about future Monthly Methods events, subscribe to the Social Biobehavioural Research Group newsletter.
Past webinar recordings
1. Professor Daisy Fancourt
For our first event in the series Professor Daisy Fancourt, Principal Investigator of GRACE-Epi, shared an introduction to our major new programme of work on arts and health funded through a Wellcome Discovery Award. This included an overview of the work streams, team members, current research, upcoming opportunities to get involved and an audience Q&A.
2. Professor Agustín Ibáñez
Professor Agustín Ibáñez is a global leader in brain health, serving as Director of Global Research Networks at the Global Brain Health Institute (Trinity College Dublin) and Scientific Director of the Latin American Brain Health Institute (BrainLat, Universidad Adolfo Ibáñez). Professor Ibáñez presented a methodological framework for studying how arts and cultural engagement shape brain health across multiple dimensions of biological aging. Rather than relying on a single marker, this integrated multi-aging clocks.
3. Engaging in leisure in later life
We were joined by the team behind WE-EngAGE, a collaboration between UCL and The University of Edinburgh. Researchers shared how leisure activities shape mental, physical, and cognitive wellbeing in later life, and the barriers and enablers that influence participation. The team used a variety of approaches — from analyses of existing cohort data to rich qualitative insights from focus groups and quantitative results from primary data collection.