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Studying the legacy and impact of Bradford 2025

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The impact and sustainability of the Bradford 2025 UK City of Culture is being analysed in studies from the University of Bradford.

Three tall red giraffe style structures hang over a large crowd of people in a city square area

Staff and students from the University’s School of Management have teamed up with Bradford 2025 organisers on projects linked to the year-long festival’s legacy. 

The projects look at the impact of Bradford 2025 on the circular economy, which aims to use and share existing products for as long as possible to reduce waste to a minimum. 

Enhancing sustainability

Enjy El Mokadem, who is studying for a Master’s in Business Administration (MBA) Distance Learning at University of Bradford, has explored enhancing the impact of sustainability in large-scale events, using a temporary Bradford 2025 touring venue as a case study. 

A university student wearing a head dress and with a handbag sits down in a building

For her thesis, Enjy analysed minimising the environmental impact, and enhancing the social impact, of Bradford 2025’s The Beacon, a pop-up performance space featuring shows and workshops, touring Bradford district sites including Bowling Park and Lister Park next year. 

She interviewed events industry experts from the United Arab Emirates (UAE), UK and Egypt on ways to make events more sustainable, such as reducing carbon footprints and using recyclable materials, and how The Beacon structure could be re-used in the future. The recommendations will be presented to the Bradford 2025 team. 

Enjy said: “The goal of my thesis was to propose practical recommendations for enhancing sustainability in events by looking at how temporary structures like The Beacon can be repurposed after the event to leave a lasting, positive impact on the community.”

A group of students smiling and covered in pink and orange dusty paint at a party

The University has also applied for funding from The British Academy for a new Master’s project after analysing a Canadian University’s work on using performance art as a way of engaging marginalised communities and giving them a voice. The University of Bradford aims to analyse how it can do a similar project to engage with the local community to stage their own future productions. 

The University and Bradford 2025 launched a joint application for funding from the White Rose Doctoral Training Partnership Collaborative Awards for a PhD subject area, which would start next April, measuring the environmental and social impact of the City of Culture celebrations. 

A selection of small Bradford 2025 badges which are coloured pink, green, yellow and black

The University is a strategic partner of Bradford 2025 and is helping to create a meaningful legacy that will drive strong economic and cultural growth for years to come.

Empowering Bradfordians 

Dr Suzanne Smit, Associate Professor in Innovation and Circular Economy at the University of Bradford, said: “It’s really exciting. A lot of the circular economy work that I do is manufacturing related. It’s not often that you get an opportunity to have both environmental and social impact at the same time. 

“It is such a creative space to be able to work in. The potential for developing real standards for the industry going forwards means it will have that lasting impact.

Doing something that empowers Bradfordians is really what excites me about this

The University of Bradford will stage events across the district throughout 2025 including an archaeological dig in Lister Park on the site of a Somali village that formed part of the famous 1904 Great Exhibition. 

University academics and students will use ‘responsible AI’ to ethically ‘crowd map’ events, an approach tested at the Les Girafes event held in Bradford in August 2024.