I spent much of my commercial career working on my own, frankly I liked it that way (studios did have a single benefit, other people making me coffee). Research is not commercial design; the questions are too vast, the answers too unexpected; you need partners you can rely on (even if it is only to tell you that you are wrong). I have been fortunate to work with some very intersting partners.

LUSAD* hosts several Research Groups, voluntary associations of academics who investigate areas of common interest anlong parallel paths but in an individual way. I am a member of the:

Animations Academy Research Group: This group investigates applications and theory around animation and new media.

Drawing Research Group: This group investigates drawing as an activity, in it's widest usages from technical diagramatics to geustural mark making fine art practice.

The Drawing Research Group hosts an international academic journal called TRACEY** which hosts discussions around contemporary drawing. I am one of the editors.

I am also an active member of the Loughborough Innovation Research Network (LIRN) which investigates creativity and innovation. We at LIRN are ethereally cross-disciplinary in our membership and our research activities. If you are looking for someone to answer questions about creativity in your organisation, drop us a line.

* Loughborough University School of Art and Design.
** This is not an acronym. The journal was called 'Tracey' a concatenation of the personification and the act of drawing. Kind of an eighth Muse. Unfortunately the management miss-transcribed this in caps' as 'TRACEY'. So now we have to too. It is still title case in my heart.

He is a member of the Design Research Society and peer reviews for them; he has also peer reviewed for the publisher Laurence King.

Simon is also an Associate Editor for the International Journal of Technology, Knowledge and Society (by Common Ground Publishing). A good journal and good people. Work with them.