The vital contribution of workers to innovation, safer and more equitable working practices and the role of women in shipbuilding will be the focus of a new research project telling the hidden history of the sector.

A new international research project Hidden Hands of Shipbuilding: Stories of Skill, Struggle, and Solidarity from Northern Europe will uncover lost stories of the people who helped shape the modern world.

The project, led by University of the West of Scotland (UWS) , will explore the lived experiences of shipyard communities across the region – from dangerous working conditions and disappearing craft skills to the role of collective action in improving safety and protecting workers.

Led by a cross-disciplinary research team at UWS, the project aims to reanimate historic archives and reclaim voices often missing from official records, including the vital contribution of women to shipbuilding, innovation and safer, more equitable working practices.

The work has been made possible through a grant of more than £200,000 from Lloyd’s Register Foundation, an independent global safety charity focused on engineering a safer world.

Professor Katarzyna Kosmala, Chair in Culture, Media and Visual Arts and Project Lead, said: “At a time when industrial communities and maritime heritage are being reimagined, this project asks important questions about whose stories are remembered, whose knowledge is valued and what lessons can be carried into the future to create safer and more inclusive working cultures.

 

We are delighted to have the support of Lloyd’s Register Foundation for this important international project and to collaborate with the cultural sector and partners across Europe to ensure these stories are recognised and shared with future generations.

 

With Scotland’s shipbuilding past continuing to shape communities along the Clyde, the research will connect local industrial heritage with wider Northern European stories of skill and struggle.

The UWS team is led by Professor Katarzyna Kosmala, Project Lead, alongside Dr Marco Gillardi, Co-Lead and Head of the Creative Computing Technologies Research Group. The project also includes contributions from Dr Trent Kim and Dr Waldemar Affelt, Visiting Research Fellow and post-industrial heritage conservation specialist.

The project will be delivered with a range of international partners, including the European Solidarity Centre, Scottish Maritime Museum, NOMUS, National Museum in Gdansk, Arteria Association and City Culture Institute.

The project builds on UWS’s long-standing research into waterfront heritage and regeneration, including previous work connecting the former shipyard communities of Govan and Gdańsk in Poland. This earlier research looked at how post-industrial waterfront areas can draw on local history, community knowledge and heritage to shape more inclusive futures.

 

Shipbuilding shaped towns, cities and communities across Northern Europe but many of the people whose labour made that possible have remained hidden from history. This project will bring those whose voices were muted back to life. We want to show the part played by those whose skills were often overlooked, by the communities who stood together to improve conditions and by the women whose contribution has too- often been left out of the record.

Professor Katarzyna Kosmala, Project Lead

 

The award builds on more than 12 years of research led by Professor Kosmala through the Regeneration and Waterfront Heritage Zones in Northern Europe network, which has resulted in several doctoral awards in heritage and arts, community engagement and cultural planning.

The new funding marks a significant achievement for UWS and reflects the University’s commitment to socially engaged international research with real-world impact.

The project supports UNSDGs: SDG 11: Sustainable Cities and Communities, SDG 8: Decent Work and Economic Growth, SDG 5: Gender Equality, and SDG 17: Partnerships for the Goals.