Public Map Platform – Pathways to Impact

As part of our Pathways to Impact blog series, we are taking a look at the work of the Public Map Platform team. In particular, how they are engaging external interested parties to progress their research findings beyond the academic realms to affect meaningful change in local authorities in both the community wellbeing & climate change resilience spheres. 

Background
The Public Map Platform project (PMP) launched in September 2023 as a collaborative research project between Cambridge, Cardiff, Wrexham and Bangor Universities. Funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC), the £4.6 million grant was awarded to support research into how local authorities can capture environmental, cultural and community value to inform their planning systems and enhance the green transition on the Isle of Anglesey/Ynys Môn.

Professor Alec Shepley, Associate Dean for Research, heads up the Wrexham research team which includes Dr Tristian Evans, Post-Doctoral Researcher, and Dr Rachel Hughes, visiting Professor, amongst others.

The aims of the PMP team include:

• Supporting children, young people and communities to have a voice in the planning and design of their local areas;
• Aiding the implementation of the Well-being of Future Generations Act;
• Improving environmental, cultural, social and community data;
• Embedding children’s rights;
• Strengthening the digital skills of children and young people and supporting the digital transformation of local authorities to support local planning.

The team have a Theory of Change framework in place to monitor and evaluate impact, which has been refined and simplified along the way to help ensure delivery of the long-term objectives; objectives such as a full set of Community Open Map Platform (COMP) maps of the UK to aid transparent and evidence-based decision making across local authorities. 

Research
The research team (principle and co-investigators) alongside community mappers and a network of bards are using existing data sources as well as newly collected data to create the mapping tool. Community scientists have run citizen science projects in collaboration with schools to generate new data, whilst bards have used various creative and exciting methods such as:

• A Postcard from Ynys Môn: Lisa Hudson used postcards as conversation starters with children and families about the good places on Ynys Môn. Find out more
• Lle Llais - the Rural Roaming Room: designed by TV presenter and architect Piers Taylor, it travelled around Ynys Môn during the summer 2024 engaging children and young people and providing them with an opportunity to help shape their community’s future through the building of community made maps. Examples of activities include daily mapping opportunities for families, children, and young people and four large architectural looms that were adorned by the local community using local material to reflect the stories, memories, and heritage of Ynys Môn. Watch a compilation video on Lle Llais and read a blog post

Interesting fact: the soundtrack to the completion video is a piece of music titled Crwth Telyn, which was co-created by Henry Horrell and Helen Parri and commissioned by Wrexham’s Dr. Tristian Evans to capture the essence of Ynys Môn.

• Mapping the Imagination: working with young bards across schools “using poetry, stories, raps, drawings, shadow plays and more to invent places like ‘The Lovely Rock’ and ‘The Tallest Tree on the island’, or characters such as ‘The Mermaid’s Baby’, ‘The Goblin Lady’ or ‘Y Petha Drwg’ (the bad thing.)”. Find out more

Dissemination
As may be expected, given the nature of the PMP project, the team have used various dissemination methods (both ‘traditional’ and creative) on the path to impact, some examples of which include:

• Conference presentations: Dr Tristian Evans presented posters at the Research Conference of the Coleg Cymraeg Cenedlaethol and Learned Society of Wales’s Early Career Researcher Colloquium in summer 2024 with a focus on mapping the future of Môn Mam Cymru.

Some of the team including Professor Alec Shepley, Dr Rachel Hughes and Dr Tristian Evans presented a paper last academic year titled Seldom Heard Voices: Co-producing Place-based Narratives through Creative Arts Practice in North Wales at the Wales Institute of Social and Economic Research and Data (WISERD) annual conference.

• Podcast The Girl and the White Stones: Bard Gillian Brownson created a podcast aimed at children featuring a myth which was inspired by the children and families that she worked with while imagining and re-imagining Anglesey in various schools and as part of the Lle Llais events. Listen to the podcast
• Short story: The Myth of the Looms written by Georgie Grant of The Onion Collective is available as a teaching resource: Download
• Creative workshops: bards, researchers, academics and technologists come together to review what the creative data-gathering methods are producing. Watch a wonderful reflective short video here

Engagement 
Before considering engagement, it is pertinent to note that the team are conducting their research, dissemination and engagement strategies with a trauma informed awareness. This is thanks to a number of trauma informed training sessions delivered by Wrexham University’s Dr Tegan Brierley-Sollis, and Deborah Robert. Training included how to ensure the research process considered the impact of trauma and how to avoid re-traumatisation. In January, Dr Rachel Hughes was invited to share detail of the practical approaches that PMP has been taking to support the team and the delivery of activities in an inclusive and trauma-informed way with the Wales Trauma-informed Framework National Steering Group.

Civic and political engagement have been high on the agenda for the PMP project and they are working with an external political and public relations agency to ensure the political framing is correct and that they can access the right Members of the Senedd via activities such as information drop ins and working with advisory groups.

Children’s Commissioner for Wales
The PMP team was approached by the Children’s Commissioner for Wales who wanted to highlight the work of PMP as good practice to the Cabinet Secretary for Economy, Energy and Planning. The communication was regarding Welsh Ministers’ duty under the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, in particular the work PMP is doing to support children’s right in terms of local authority planning. 
Dr Rachel Hughes highlighted:

1. The scalability of the Ynys Môn pilot to other regions
2. That maps made by and for communities to enhance the planning process is truly achievable
3. Listening to the voice of the local community, especially the children and young people is at the heart of all the PMP work to produce maps that capture why spaces and places on the island are important to them
4. Maps can be used to inform planning, policies and development whilst giving agency to those impacted by the decisions 

Civic Mission Symposium
Colleagues from Wrexham University, including Dr Rachel Hughes, attended the civic mission focused research symposium held by Universities Wales and Medr at the end of 2024. Work of the PMP was shared in a session called Collaboration, Creativity, and Community: the North Wales Approach to Involving Children and Young People.

Wellbeing Economy Cymru’s Festival of Ideas
PMP was invited to host a stand at the Festival of Ideas for the Wellbeing Economy and the Future Generations Commissioner, Derek Walker was in attendance. There was great interest in the project and a number of good connections made. 

PMP collaborated with Wellbeing Economy Cymru on research around people’s views about Wales’ readiness to transition to a wellbeing economy. The research forms part of the upcoming Wellbeing Economy Cymru’s report as well as two films, and a layer on Public Map Platform. Find out more and watch the films.

North Wales Insight Partnership
Co-founded by Dr Rachel Hughes and convened by Wrexham University, the North Wales Insight Partnership is an initiative that brings people and organisations together to develop research that enhances the well-being of communities, people and spaces.

Other Key Activities

• Meeting with the Wales Advisory Group which provide access to various opportunities including updates from Welsh Government on Communities Policy and a platform for the PMP approach to relational mapping to be rolled out across the UK and Local Advisory Groups.
• Establishment of the first Regional Advisory Group in January 2025, with PMP bringing together representatives from different sectors and policy areas who have an interest in North Wales activity and showcasing the platform and it’s development.
• Attendance at Y Farchnad at the Senedd, an event designed to link in with various community groups and discuss a range of topics. Conversation with Assembly Members (AM) focused on the PMP project, why it is being done, what the benefits are and why Senedd members need to know about it, with the Future Generations Act being one reason. Professor Alec Shepley said “the AMs were all very interested and in particular our innovative and creative methods approach to engagement with children and young people and our approach to listening to them and mapping their views.”

Watch This Space
Some great examples above of dissemination and engagement on the pathway to impact and there is more to come including Professor Alec Shepley and Dr Tristian Evans presenting a paper titled 'How Art Practice, Creative Methods and Place-Based Approaches Can Serve as a Catalyst to Enable Communities to Shape Their Future' at The European Conference on Arts & Humanities which runs from Thursday 10 to Monday 14 July 2025. The is a Project celebration event in September in the Neuadd in Senedd sponsored by Rhun ap Iorwerth MS for Ynys Môn and Leader of Plaid Cymru in which PMP plan to share impact and calls for action. An exhibition at the International Architecture Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia running from May – September 2025, an invitation to run a workshop at the Child Poverty Conference in Llandudno in June and an invitation to support the North Wales Public Services Boards’ regional approach to undertaking a Climate Change Risk Assessment amongst other activities. 

Amazing work and we look forward to seeing how things progress.