Professor Caroline Scarles
Professor of Technology in Society

Research area(s)

With 20 years of experience as an academic, my research interests are varied, but lie in the key areas of:

* technology for social good;

* mixed reality and immersive technologies in arts, culture and heritage;

* connection to nature (physical and virtual, green and blue space) for wellbeing;

* the visual and embodied, multisensorial engagements and interplays

* social media, storytelling and creative narratives of place

Bringing together my work on the visual, technology and digital solutions, my recent research has focused on: enriching the visitor experience through augmented reality in arts and heritage; the role of immersive experiences (principally multisensory immersions and VR) as providing stimulating environments for healthy ageing; connection with nature for wellbeing (working in care home, community centre, day centres and school contexts). I also have expertise in storytelling and social media, and have a passion for creative methodologies and methods, in particular the use of visuals and art-based facilitation.

Throughout my career, I have secured funding from a range of bodies, including: ESRC, EPSRC, AHRC, NESTA, InnovateUK, iCURE, DEFRA, amongst others, and work closely with a range of research partners, including: Natural England, the Environment Agency, Forest Research, Smartify, Bradt Travel Guides, Emirates, and the Disability Coalition Network.

Research Interests

To date, I have secured approximately £2.5m of funding from a range of projects and funding bodies. Below is an overview of some of these from the last ten years:

2023, PI, Accessing Nature for All: Developing a portable, multisensorial immersive experience of nature for hardto-reach communities. HEIF funding. Project partner: Creative Core. Project costs: £10k funded/£10k match funded by partner.

2023 Co-I, Blue Spaces Knowledge Exchange Symposium with the Environment Agency, May/June 2023. Kelly, C. & Scarles, C. University of Brighton funding. Project cost: £7k.

2022 Co-I, Creative Core, University of Surrey Innovation Exploratorium, Virtual Experiences of Nature. Investigating Team: Xu, T. & Scarles, C. Project Cost: £50k approx.

2020, Co-I, Nature Engagement and Wellbeing Pre-, During and Post Covid-19: Supporting the UK (Green) Recovery (ESRC). Partners: Natural England. Project cost: £225,761.

2020, PI, Virtual Experiences of Arts and Heritage in Times of Crisis (Research England Industrial Strategy Innovation Voucher Fund). Investigating Team: Scarles, C., Li, G., Chen, J. & Zainal-Abidin, H. Project Partner: Smartify. Project costs: £9936.

2020, Co-I, Economic and Social Impact Study of Arts (SME Innovation Voucher, Research England). Partners: Yvonne Arnaud Theatre, The Lightbox, Watts Gallery. Project cost: £9k.

2020, Co-I, COVID-19 extension programme: Commercialisation and Impact of Next Generation Paper (EPSRC). Investigating Team: Frohlich, D., Scarles, C., Bober, M., Sporea, R. & Revill, G. Project Partners: Bradt Travel Guides, James Brown Publishing. Project Costs: £203,583.

2020, PI, Cap-Ex REI Investment, Biometric mobile eye-tracking and VR eye-tracking technology investment, Project team: Scarles, C., Tussyadiah, I., P., Fife-Shaw, C., Cojuharenco, I., Hilton, A. & Whitehouse, C. Project cost: £78,325

2020, Co-I, Ready2Drive: investigating the user experience of video simulations for older adult driving, (HEIF Strategic Fund). Investigating Team: Thomopolous, N., Carey, N. & Scarles, C. Project Partners: NervTech (Sodnick, J. & Stojemova, K), University of Woolongong (Traynor, V.). Project Costs: £97k

2019, PI, Digital Futures: Augmented Reality in Arts and Heritage (SME Innovation Voucher, Research England). Partners: Smartify & Watts Gallery. Project cost: £13.5k

2019, Co-I (PI for TC2) Living Environments for Healthy Ageing. Investigating Team: Barghani, P., Dijk, D.J., Scarles, C., Humbracht, M., Moessner, K, & Skeldon, A. Industrial Strategy. Project partner: The Digital Line. Project costs: £128k.

2017-20, Co-I, Next Generation Paper (EPSRC) Project Partners: Emirates Holidays, Bradt Travel Guides, TUI UK & Ireland, TTG, Hewlett Packard, Ifolor Finland, Novocentrix, VTT, Visual Atoms, and independent travel writers. Project costs: £1.174m.

2015, Co-I, Integrating Data Sources to Enhance the Experience for Passengers with Special Needs Through Privacy Aare Mobile Applications (RRUKA), Project costs: £68k.

2015, Co-I, Let’s Explore: Commercialising Augmented Reality for Cultural Organisations (Innovate UK/ICURe) Project Partners: The Lightbox, Project costs: £15K

2015, Co-I, Let’s Explore: Commercialising Augmented Reality for Cultural Organisations (Innovate UK/ICURe). Project Partners: The Lightbox, Project costs: £35K

2014, Co-I, Visit-AR: Augmented Reality in Spaces of Exhibition. Development of a mobile application for wide-scale adoption of augmented reality in cultural organisations to recognise both 2-D and 3-D objects (Research+/NESTA/AHRC). Project costs: £49K

2014, Co-I, Beyond the Visual: Augmented Reality in Spaces of Exhibition II: Product Deployment. Investigating team: Treharne, H., Scarles, C. (co-I). EPSRC/IAA. Project timeframe: March 2014-January 2015. Project partners: Pervasive Intelligence (Casey, M), The Lightbox (Scott, M. & Hall, P.), Consultancy from Slater, A. & Smith, M. Project costs: £25K

2013,Co-I, Beyond the Visual: Augmented Reality in Spaces of Exhibition II. Investigating team: Treharne, H., Scarles, C. (co-I), Culnane, C. & Casey, M. EPSRC/MILES. Project timeframe: September 2013 – June 2014. Project partners: Brooklands Museum, The Lightbox, Visit Surrey, Watts Gallery. Project costs: £56K