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Essential coronavirus info
We can’t wait to welcome our new and returning students from 19 October 2020. Your safety is our first priority.

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Research

Our academics play a prominent role in the UK’s creative culture, with research that enhances public understanding of major issues and benefits the creative and cultural industries.

Research with us

Visitor during the Summer Show
Image taken by Alys Tomlinson

PhD and MPhil degrees

Discover an MPhil or PhD awarded in any subject area at UAL with qualified and inspiring supervision.

2 people adjusting fabric on a mannequin
3D Draping on the Stand Summer School, image courtesy of UAL

UAL staff researchers

Find out more about UAL's staff researchers.

Still from a fashion movie
Incunabula (2014) Film by Marie Schuller in collaboration with Kaat Debo

Research centres

Research Centres and Networks operate across the University, providing a focus for excellent research in identified areas of strength.

Our research

Mina Jahić from the Rescuers Project PCRC, Credit - Dr Paul Lowe

Research and projects

Find current and completed research by our researchers and research students, spanning art, design and communication.

Photograph of a man wearing a giant fly mask in front of a flower mural
Lucy Orta and Jorge Orta, Fabulae Naturae (2015)

UAL repository

We hold, manage, share and preserve the research material produced by the University's researchers, and ensure that it reaches the widest possible audience.

Stanley Kubrick during filming of 2001: A Space Odyssey
Stanley Kubrick during filming of 2001: A Space Odyssey (US/UK 1968) © Warner Bros. Inc.

Archives and collections

Learn about UAL's Archives and Special Collections Centre based at London College of Communication, which holds the Stanley Kubrick Archive.

Featured Research stories

    Bringing fish skin to market as the sustainable new leather

    Thirty two million tons of annual fish waste can be put into production as an alternative to exotic leathers, as new research sets out to show that fish leather is viable to take forward for commercial use in the fashion industry.

    indigo dyed fish skin sample
    Tokushima indigo dye museum. Indigo dyeing on fish skin.Final results Image courtesy Elisa Palomino.

    Pride 2020 and identity through fashion and dress

    Dress is autobiographical, not only when it is worn, but also when it is designed, documented and exhibited over time. We look at research that celebrates the role that fashion and dress play in expressing identity, especially when communicating something that is marginalised or hidden.

    Frida Kahlo seated next to an agave plant, during a photo shoot for Vogue magazine
    Frida Kahlo seated next to an agave plant, during a photo shoot for Vogue magazine, "Senoras of Mexico" by Toni Frissell. Source : Toni Frissell collection, Library of Congress

    World Environment Day 2020 and climate-related displacement

    Highlighting UAL research that focuses on the displacement of individuals and populations due to climate-related disasters, as well as devastating, often co-existing factors such as politics, war and conflict and global pandemics.

    Evening outdoor scene
    'We Are All Stars' from Chris Wainwright's project in collaboration with musician, director and composer Cathy Milliken: via DISPLACEMENT.

Research stories

Our themes

Iris
Iris, Rob Kesseler

Living with Environmental Change

Through creative practice increasing understanding of environmental change, communicating the issues and designing for new business models, social innovations and sustainable living. Using design to reduce waste and to change producer and consumer behaviours.

Delamore, Glove

Lifelong Health and Wellbeing

Designing for people’s life long economic, social and health impact, in order to maximise societal gains and minimise issues of dependency, isolation, and inequality.

Girl using virtual reality google
Digital Anthropology Lab launch at London College of Fashion October 2015 photography by Hannah Puskarz BA Fashion Photography

Digital Futures

Exploring through practice how technology affects lives, changes the way society interacts and impacts on communities, cultural production, future society, and economic growth.

‘Scoliosis’ by Annelie Gross, MA Fashion Artefact, London College of Fashion, UAL Photograph by Jon Emmony for SHOWstudio.
‘Scoliosis’ by Annelie Gross, MA Fashion Artefact, London College of Fashion, UAL Photograph by Jon Emmony for SHOWstudio.

Community Resilience

Using art and design to support communities in understanding how to develop innovative and sustainable solutions to the issues they face, through co-design, co-creation, socially responsive practices and social entrepreneurship.