On 13th February 2025, we had the pleasure of attending A Creative Research Café, an inspiring event organised by How Women Work, a student-led collective from SOAS University of London, in collaboration with the Women’s Budget Group, the UK’s leading feminist economic think tank. The event created a welcoming space for researchers, students and practitioners to explore innovative ways of sharing academic research. 

Furthermore, the focus was on creative research dissemination, and we were invited to showcase our work — something we at Research Retold are very passionate about, as we specialise in making research communication accessible and engaging.

Our role at the event

As active participants, we also had the pleasure to interact with researchers from diverse disciplines, learn more about their research and discuss how they could communicate their findings to a wider audience in an engaging manner. It’s always exciting to see researchers eager to explore new ways to ensure their work reaches their target audience.

At the event we set up a stall with printed materials from infographics, comics (we featured the comics we produced for the Global Lives of the orangutan project), card games, newspapers, postcards and visual summaries.

Research Retold’s stall showcasing a diverse range of visual research communication formats.

Moreover, Mihaela gave a short speech, emphasising the importance of creating materials with a target audience in mind, as opposed to starting with what may seem “cool/trendy”. 

Research Retold’s Founder & Director, Mihaela Gruia, speaking at Creative Research Café, SOAS, inspiring attendees on the power of creative research communication

Innovative ways to communicate research

1. Video games 

We learned about Usawa, a mission driven mobile game developed by Dr Marie Rodet from SOAS in collaboration with Malian non-governmental oranisations and African creative industries. The game explores descent-based slavery in an Afro-futuristic world, inspired by findings from Dr Rodet’s research project in Mali. Learn more about this game. 

Additionally, Dr Rodet’s work reminded us of two other games developed as part of the Discribe Hub+. The authors have also used games to communicate research as well as gather research insights:

• Threats and trade-offs challenges players to grow a smart healthcare startup while defending against cyber threats. Players must make decisions about cybersecurity investments, balancing risks and costs.
• CyberQuest is designed to help business managers integrate cybersecurity best practices. It is currently underway and could soon be adopted by companies and universities.

2. Zines

Another innovative format to communicate research was zines. Zines are DIY-style magazines designed to share ideas in an accessible format. In addition, The How Women Work team ran an interactive stall where attendees could create their own zines using just paper, glue, scissors and pens. You can create one too by watching this 3-minute tutorial.

If you’re curious about how zines can be used for research communication, check out this example from Engage IoT, a project exploring public engagement with the Internet of Things.

3. Filmmaking

We also met Milena Sebhatu, an intern at Chouette Films, a social enterprise producing documentaries based on social impact and research. Through their films such as Living Zoroastrianism (also displayed in a virtual reality format) and Catadores they bring research findings and deep knowledge to life.

For a great summary of the event and resources, check out this LinkedIn post from Lena Gempke, PhD at SOAS:

Looking ahead

A Creative Research Café was an exciting event that reinforced the importance of creative research communication. From video games and zines to filmmaking, there are diverse ways to make academic research accessible to target audiences.

We love helping researchers find innovative ways to communicate research. If you have a project in mind, get in touch!

Many thanks to Shloka Murarka for the invitation.