This programme of Knowledge Transfer activity developed and helped to sustain the work that the partner organisations had begun as members of the AHRC-funded regional network 'Making the Connections: arts, migration and Diaspora.' Our collaborative work sought to realise the potential of our separate and combined research by enhancing relationships between the partners; cementing collaboration between the partner organisations; and by exploring the role of art in social research and in processes of social change. Working with ethnographic methods, participatory action research and participatory arts the partners took forward the key aims of the regional network, namely: enhancing the lives of recent arrivals in the East Midlands; stimulating both high-quality inter-disciplinary research and the production of art works; facilitating connection, communication and engagement with public policy; and contributing to public awareness of the issues facing asylum seekers and refugees in the East Midlands. The partners (Charnwood Arts, City Arts, Long Journey Home, Soft Touch Arts and Loughborough University) developed three strands of knowledge transfer activity:

1)The planning, organisation and hosting of an 'Artists’ Diversity Pool' event to aid networking and employability of artists and to produce a directory of artists-in-exile and artists with experience of working with new arrivals. The rationale for the design of the database was documented in the booklet developed by City Arts and Long Journey Home. The database was launched at the Artists Diversity Pool event and is in the process of being uploaded onto the web-site. www.beyondbordersuk.com

2) The extension of the 'makingtheconnections.info' web-resource that is managed in the Dept of Social Sciences at Loughborough University. The KT activity has mainstreamed this resource and it is now managed by Charnwood Arts with the support of the partners. This web resource is a hub and repository for artists and arts activity in the region and beyond. Charnwood Arts are also archiving our KT activity and outputs as integral to the management of the web-site.

3) The co-ordination of an arts/research project entitled A Sense of Belonging. This arts/research project used both participatory action research and arts practice to explore a sense of belonging, place and emplacement with four transnational communities who were defined as refugees/asylum seekers (residing in Derby, Leicester, Loughborough and Nottingham respectively) including a group of artists who are members of the Long Journey Home regional arts organization. The art works were exhibited at the Bonington Gallery at NTU during January 2009 and can also be found on line on www.makingtheconnections.info and at <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/gallery/2009/jan/13/sense-of-belonging-">http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/gallery/2009/jan/13/sense-of-belonging-..</a>