Lewis Hou

Lewis is passionate about knowledge and cultural democracy - how we can recognise, value and support everyone’s creativity and expertise to enable local action, knowledge production and social justice.

He works at the intersections - across disciplines and levels - from grassroots community action to changing systems including how funding and research partnerships can be made much more equitable and distribute more funding to underrepresented, marginalised groups.

He is the founder and director of Science Ceilidh, an intermediary social enterprise working across Scotland supporting programmes as practitioners, conveners and supporting participatory funding across the Highlands and Islands. As a consultant and speaker he has worked both nationally and internationally including India, UAE and the US, and he currently helps coordinate the global Diversci Community of Practice supporting equitable informal science learning.

Lewis was recently appointed an Engage Fellow with the National Coordinating Centre for Public Engagement and will be focusing on how systems around research be reimagined and changed to enable more equitable power dynamics and inclusive knowledge production with communities.

He is also a Fellow of the Young Academy of Scotland, undertook a UK Creative Community Fellowship with NAS and Derby Museums and now working as faculty on the programme, on the EDI Advisory Group for Creative Scotland, and awarded the Beetlestone Award for Leadership and Legacy in the Science Engagement Field in 2023.

Lewis’ explores his creativity through Scottish traditional music and dance - including playing the fiddle - and more recently training in urban dance styles.

Current programmes include:

• Exploring what participatory grant making and peer network building could look like in the Highlands and Islands when communities are given funding and support directly to collaborate with researchers on matters important to them locally around climate change, culture and mental wellbeing. This includes supporting a network of over 30 community-based research projects representing around £1.5 million of community-led funding from The Ideas Fund and Highlands and Islands Climate Change Community Grants with the British Science Association, Wellcome and UK Research and Innovation

• Hosting the Culture & Wellbeing Community Network Scotland community of practice and being one of the Scottish Ambassadors to the Fun Palaces five-year action research programme for cultural democracy. In this role, he is currently working with the Scottish Libraries and Information Council to connect grassroots communities, artists, organisations along with libraries across Scotland and share practice and make links across community-driven culture and wellbeing.

• He is also Principle Investigator for the Science Technology Facilities Council Funded Programme Curiosity in Action which is an action research programme bringing together youthworkers, young people and scientists to explore the role of STEM in youthwork as a key tool to support social outcomes such as wellbeing, confidence and resilience.

• Historic Programmes Have Included:

• Co-Investigator of the Singing Side By Side programme with University of Derby leading a community action research programme and toolkit development to promote mental health inclusive choirs.

• Supporting youth workers to explore creativity, STEM and outdoor learning as tools to engage and empower young people from underrepresented backgrounds with New Scots Connect with Multicultural Family Base (Royal Academy of Engineering) and a three-year Children In Need and Wellcome funded Curiosity Programme with People Know How.

• Working with Western Isles Libraries and UHI Division of Rural Health and Wellbeing on the Le Cheile/Together Project to support hyperlocal engagement through the mobile libraries around culture, social isolation and the lockdown.

• Developing interdisciplinary school programmes, training programmes and free resources exploring across expressive arts and wellbeing (including with Youth Music Initiative), STEM (including with Maths Week Scotland) and equity (with Highland One World)

• Being an organising member of the Anti-Racist Educator Collective and providing support, training and developing new decolonised narratives and curriculums.

More background

Science Ceilidh has also developed other workshops and projects supporting unpaid carers and groups with additional support needs, along with leading a long-term shopping centre residency Leith Labs. Lewis brings this broad experience across public and community engagement and education to his consulting and training work, informing on national programmes and funding and as of 2021, is one of the associate trainers with the National Coordinating Centre for Public Engagement.

Lewis originally trained in neuroscience - his interest of which still informs his passion around the growing evidence of the benefits of creativity to health and wellbeing, learning and pedagogy (whilst acknowledging the danger of being reductive or instrumentalising culture). Lewis’ research background was in brain imaging looking at anatomical brain asymmetries and how this may change in certain psychiatric or neurological disorders, through brain evolution and with musical training at the University of Edinburgh. He was a Science Fellow at the Exploring the Mind Through Music Conference in Rice University 2016 & was awarded both the British Neuroscience Association & International Medical Science Undergraduate Award for his undergraduate dissertation..

Lewis started in science communication (informal science learning) since 2009 alongside his degree and began to be involved with science festivals across the world from Thailand to across the Middle East. Some highlights include being part of the Alan Turing Institute’s STEM Gamechangers programme in 2019, part of the Edinburgh March for Science organising team in 2017 with over 2000 people rallying outside Scottish Parliament, competing in the first Science Show International Cup in Estonia, meeting Michelle Obama at the World Innovation Summit Education 2015 in Qatar and being a finalist in the 2019 Falling Walls Science Engagement of the Year.

CONSULTS, SPEAKS & TRAINS ON:

• Equitable public and community engagement and partnerships

• Interdisciplinary teaching and engagement strategies

• Creativity and STEM in community, learning and development contexts, youth work and additional support needs

• Creative Evaluation Approaches

• Anti-Racism, Diversity, Inclusion, Equity

OTHER ROLES:

• Trustee for Creative Lives and Arts Culture Health and Wellbeing Scotland

• Diversci Community of Practice co-organiser (2020 - current)

• EDI Advisory Group for Creative Scotland (2021 - current)

• Empire, Slavery and Scotlands Museum Advisory Group Member (2021 - current)

• Organising Member of the Anti-Racist Educator (2020 - current)

• Macrobert Arts Trustee (2019 - current)

• Science & Technology Facilities Council Wonder Initiative Funding Advisory Group (2019 - current)

• National STEM Strategy Scottish Government Working Group for the STEM Week (2019 - current)

• Midlothian Science Festival Committee (2014 - current)

• ASE Scotland Workshop Group (2017 - 2018)  

PRIZES & AWARDS:

• JCI Scotland’s Ten Outstanding Young Person in 2019 for cultural contribution

• Recipient of the Royal Society of Edinburgh’s Public Engagement with Research Innovator Medal in 2018

• Science Ceilidh was voted Community Music Organisation of the Year 2018 with Hands Up for Trad

• Social Award with Creative Edinburgh in 2014

• STEM Award with LASTheatre from the NCCPE in 2014

CONTACT:

@fiddlebrain

lewis@scienceceilidh.com

ASCUS Labs, Summerhall,      Summerhall Pl, Edinburgh EH9 1PL