Caitlin has a multidisciplinary career as an award-winning academic researcher and strategic advisor. She has contributed to national and multinational innovation programs supporting the creative industries and tech sectors through UKRI and Horizon Europe following a decade as an industry analyst strategically advising Fortune 500 companies and key public sector institutions on digital ethics, innovation strategy, and collaborative working practices. She is also an artist whose work has been exhibited around the world from Edinburgh to Venice to Durban, South Africa. 

 In 2023, Caitlin was diagnosed with triple-negative breast cancer. While in treatment, Caitlin collaborated with another IDI member, glassmaker Inge Panneels, to create the artwork ‘Picture Your Poisons’, a data-informed portrait of Caitlin’s cancer treatment journey. 

Caitlin McDonald’s focus with Design Informatics is supporting innovation for cultural and creative industries policy across Europe for the Ekip policy engine.

For this interview we asked Caitlin to tell us about herself and what she is working on as a member of the Institute. We asked her to share what excites her about her work and how it makes a difference. Scroll down to hear this and more about Caitlin. 

I’m currently one of several IDI members involved with ekip, a partnership of 17 universities, private sector organisations, and policymaking bodies all around Europe designed to help innovation ecosystems for the creative industries flourish through new insights, networks, and public policy recommendations to the EU. Ekip is not an acronym, but the Swedish word for ‘togetherness!’ We’re contributing in several ways: first, providing background research and analysis for the policy area priorities chosen by the consortium which are then deliberated through a series of Policy Corners and Policy Labs involving groups of stakeholders. Upcoming ekip events including future Policy Corners and Policy Labs can be found here. Second, providing a robust analysis of the impact the EU’s existing research and innovation programmes related to the cultural and creative industries has already had, and what future initiatives should look like. Finally, providing a series of Open Innovation Factories to translate these policy recommendations into practical skills for creative industries practitioners. In March IDI member Nicola Osborne and I designed a critical reflection toolkit to support inclusivity in the video games industry which can be found here, and we’ll shortly be releasing a toolkit on how creative industries practitioners can get involved in policymaking through calls for evidence and public consultations. Stay tuned for that!

The IDI community is so full of creativity, energy, and generosity. I’m consistently in awe of the work I see my colleagues doing – and I’m always humbled and delighted to be invited to participate! It’s always amazing to see work having a real impact on people’s lives, such as the work we did through Creative Informatics whose legacy has now led to IDI’s involvement in projects like ekip and CoSTAR (Convergent Screen Technologies and Performance in Realtime.) 

Because I have a background in strategy consultancy, I’m often focused on the outcomes that people outside academia will be able to take away from our work and use in their own environments. It can be very tempting to focus on journal publications as the key metric of success – but from my perspective, it’s vital that the communities we work with are also served by the work we’re producing. I’ve been lucky to work with several colleagues here at the University and through collaborations with other institutions to create guides like the critical reflection toolkit to support inclusivity in the video game industry which I mentioned above. Seeing these toolkits and other work we do in use beyond our own events is a bit like watching the cygnets which nest in the Water of Leith near where I live take their first fledgling steps towards independent flight! 

I’m one of those people with a ‘portfolio career’ which is just a fancy way of saying that I have several different jobs. I really enjoy the variety, though it can be a bit of a juggling act at times!

If you could gain a new skill or ability instantly, what would you choose and why?   ‘A very specific form of time travel in which I can sleep in as long as I want yet still wake up on time for the tyranny of the alarm clock every morning.’

Outside Design Informatics I work for Jigsaw Foresight, a consultancy which uses imaginative provocations to envision new futures and change management techniques to move people towards the futures they actually want and avoid potential pitfalls along the way. I was pleased to lead our latest creative endeavour Plague Season, a series of whimsical interventions designed to help people consider what talismans they need to hold onto the essence of themselves when the entire world around them changes. 

What started as a meditation on what has changed (and hasn’t) since lockdown dramatically changed the shape of all our lives five years ago became a very current, practical strategy for resilience-building in these seemingly post-normal times. 

 I’m also a member of the Coaching for Creatives community, who help people working across the creative sector thrive in their careers. We ran two panels discussing the value of coaching for the creative sector as part of International Coaching Week, both of which can be seen here. Finally, I coach for Working With Cancer, who help people remain in and return to work following a cancer diagnosis – something I have personal experience with.