Federica Farolfi receives Creative and Social Futures Fund award to grow the Glasgow Experimental Lab
Published: 13 April 2026
Federica Farolfi has secured Creative and Social Futures Fund support to help develop the Glasgow Experimental Lab’s societal impact and commercial potential.
Dr Federica Farolfi has received an award from the Creative and Social Futures Fund, recognising the promise of her work to expand the reach and impact of the Glasgow Experimental Lab (GaEL).
Backed by the Shared Prosperity Fund and the University of Glasgow’s Innovation Fund, the programme helps award holders develop promising early-stage projects with impact potential.
For Federica, the award marks an important step in GaEL's next phase of development. Established as a research and teaching lab, GaEL is equipped to run large-scale empirical studies in decision-making through rigorous, fully controlled and incentivised experiments. This gives it a distinctive role within the School: not only as a space for high-quality behavioural research, but as a platform with strong potential to inform policy and practice beyond academia.
The funded project will help Federica explore how GaEL can evolve into a facility designed for wider societal impact and future commercialisation. Her work will focus on testing the demand for co-production and co-design models that allow policymakers, public institutions and other organisations to help shape bespoke behavioural research. In doing so, the project will examine how external partners might commission experimental studies tailored to their needs and draw on the Lab’s specialist expertise and research infrastructure.
The award also highlights the growing importance of GaEL as a research asset for the School. By connecting experimental methods with external challenges, the Lab has the potential to open up new routes for collaboration, knowledge exchange and impact. Colleagues across the School may be especially interested in how this work is creating opportunities to engage external stakeholders and extend the value of research into public and organisational settings.
Reflecting on the award, Federica said: “I am truly delighted that my application was successful. This award provides a compelling opportunity to accelerate the Behavioural Lab’s commercialisation ambitions and to move confidently into the next phase of growth, while thoughtfully managing the risks of expansion.”
First published: 13 April 2026