Working with us

At a glance

Our partners

At a glance

Established partnerships with NHS trusts, universities, cultural institutions, charities and community organisations.
Expertise in research design, mixed-methods evaluation, outcome measure development and theory-led implementation.
Experience securing and delivering funded projects (AHRC, UKRI, NHS innovation schemes, charitable funding).
Opportunities for co-produced research, doctoral projects, service evaluations and methodological innovation.
Interest in collaborations that combine access to real-world settings with a commitment to translating evidence into practice and policy.

Collaboration is central to our work. Our partners include NHS trusts, international universities, cultural organisations, policy bodies and community groups. These relationships ensure that our research addresses real challenges, is informed by diverse perspectives, and reaches those who can benefit from it.

Our partners

NHS partners

Central and NorthWest London NHS Foundation Trust (CNWL)

Our principal NHS partner. Professor Havsteen-Franklin holds a joint appointment as Lead for Arts Psychotherapies Research and Development at CNWL. We collaborate on the CaRE Project, service evaluation across acute and community settings, doctoral supervision for clinical staff, and the development of arts therapies provision.

Key collaborators include Dr Ryan Kemp (Director of Therapies), Dr Erene Kaptani (Senior Researcher), Hannah Turner (Art Psychotherapist in Children’s Services), and the Organisational Development team working on cultural and leadership initiatives.

NHS services interested in evaluation, intervention development or research collaboration are invited to contact us. We are familiar with NHS governance processes and design research that can be delivered within real-world organisational constraints.

Policy and advocacy partners

p_ART_icipate research consortium

p_ART_icipate is a research consortium led by Dr Olive Gingrich, of which Professor Havsteen-Franklin is a member. The consortium brings together researchers and practitioners working on participatory arts and health and has been instrumental in advancing policy engagement, including establishing a parliamentary round table that has brought arts and health research directly into Westminster. Our Living Logic Model was developed in collaboration with p_ART_icipate, and the partnership continues to inform our approach to policy-relevant research.

Together we have also co-developed an open-access digital participatory arts toolkit, “Guidelines for Digital Participatory Art”, which offers practical and ethical guidance for designing and evaluating digital and hybrid participatory arts projects.

Policy Connect

We work with Policy Connect on routes for translating research into policy change, particularly around youth mental health and creative interventions, ensuring that findings reach decision-makers in usable formats.

National Centre for Creative Health (NCCH)

The NCCH recognises us as one of approximately twelve specialist research groups advancing Creative Health in the UK. We contribute to consultations and policy discussions, advocating for recognition of the distinctive contribution of registered arts psychotherapists within broader creative health provision.

International university partners

Cairo University

A major transnational education partnership supporting the development of dual MA degrees in Art Psychotherapy and Dramatherapy, representing a significant expansion of arts therapies training in the Middle East and North Africa. We are also co-developing a seminar series for Spring 2026 with contributions from academics at Cairo University, Dr Salman Safir on culture and ethics, and from CNWL clinicians on NHS-focused practice.

University of Illinois at Chicago

Home institution of Dr Salman Safir. Our collaboration supports exchange on critical psychology, decolonising mental health and interdisciplinary ethics.

Universidad Autónoma de Madrid

Home institution of Dr Tamara Rizo. We are collaborating on comparative approaches to arts therapies education across Europe.

Karolinska Institute, Sweden

Partner on our developing Horizon Europe youth mental health application. Karolinska brings expertise in existential health research, the Swedish “Existential Public Health” policy mandate and advanced health economic modelling.

Sigmund Freud University Vienna and Swiss-Italian partners

Collaboration with Dr Guenda Bernegger, Dr Luis [surname] and Professor Michael Musalek through SFU’s Social Aesthetics clinical research programme. This partnership is developing ecological digital infrastructure for arts and health research and contributes to our European consortium work.

Manchester Metropolitan University and University of Liverpool

UK partners in our developing European youth mental health consortium, contributing expertise in creative health research and implementation science.

University of Edinburgh

Partner on a pilot project exploring puppetry and vertigo, bringing together drama, performance and health perspectives.

South African collaborations

We have developed cross-cultural methodological expertise through collaborative work in South Africa, which informs cultural adaptation in research design and is particularly relevant for modifying intervention trials and evaluation frameworks across different contexts.

ENGAGE consortium

Part of the ENGAGE consortium coordinated by Anna Berqvist comprising eleven universities and cultural institutions across Europe, investigating cultural engagement. Partners span Belgium, Germany, Italy, Spain and the Nordic countries.

Cultural and community partners

Southbank Centre

Our ongoing collaboration with Southbank Centre has produced a validated youth wellbeing measure and continues through joint work on supporting evaluation in creative health programming. The outcome measure developed in this partnership serve as a template for our broader European research on youth mental health.

MAAT and Gulbenkian Foundation, Portugal

Portuguese partners contributing established social prescribing frameworks to the ENGAGE European consortium. MAAT is also involved in large-scale European evaluations of mental health social prescribing, with potential alignment with our research programme.

Athens cultural heritage partners

An emerging collaboration exploring arts and health research within cultural heritage contexts, including discussions about wellbeing measurement in museum and heritage settings.

Impulse

A London LGBTQ+ health charity partnering on our games and chemsex project. Impulse brings community expertise and access, helping to ensure that research reflects the lived priorities of affected communities.

Mortar Works and Hxly

Digital agencies collaborating on AI avatars and behavioural technology research. These partnerships support our work on ethical questions around AI in therapeutic contexts and contribute to digital infrastructure for mental health research.

Red Pencil International / Red Cross

Partners supporting doctoral research on art therapy with displaced populations in humanitarian settings across Spain, Greece and other regions.

Professional networks

European Federation of Art Therapy (EFAT)

Professor Havsteen-Franklin serves as Vice President of EFAT, contributing to strategic development and European collaboration. We hosted EFAT’s 2025 biennial conference at Brunel. Current work includes navigating issues related to arts therapies and psychotherapy regulation through the European Association for Psychotherapy, which has important implications for professional positioning across Europe.

European Consortium for Arts Therapies Education (ECARTE)

Commissioner of the tacit knowledge project and a key platform for international dialogue on arts therapies training. We contribute to ECARTE working groups and help shape European standards.

Finnish YOUROPE network

ENGAGE Partners through the YOUROPE participatory democracy project, providing access to large-scale youth cohorts for our developing European research on young people’s mental health.

Interested in partnership?

We actively seek collaboration with organisations that share our commitment to improving health through the arts.

We offer expertise in research design and mixed-methods evaluation; access to academic literature and methodological guidance; doctoral student projects and placements; connections to international networks; and validating outcome measures for creative health contexts.

We look for co-producing research with participants in complex settings; practice expertise and clinical insight; co-funding or in-kind support; and a commitment to translating findings into improved practice and policy.

Prospective partners are invited to contact Professor Dominik Havsteen-Franklin in the first instance. Dominik.havsteen-franklin@brunel.ac.uk