Professor Paul Egglestone FRSA is Professor of Creative Practice at Avondale University and Founder and Director of FASTlab, an independent research and development laboratory working across health, education, technology, energy and communities.

His work focuses on a deceptively simple question: how do we turn good research and good ideas into things that make a difference in the world?

Paul works at the intersection of creative practice, applied research and innovation, bringing researchers together with industry, government, health services and communities to tackle complex real-world challenges. His approach combines design-led inquiry, evidence, technology and creative practice to move research beyond publication towards implementation, adoption and impact.

Through FASTlab, he has developed and led multidisciplinary programmes spanning digital health and ageing, rehabilitation, education and workforce development, energy transition and community futures. A recurring theme across this work is how evidence becomes useful: how data acquires meaning and context, how research informs decisions, and how complex knowledge can be translated into tools, services and interventions that people can actually use.

Rather than beginning with a particular technology or academic discipline, Paul starts with the problem and assembles the people, methods and evidence needed to address it. He is also interested in research culture itself - particularly how universities can create the conditions for researchers to become more confident, collaborative and ambitious.

Paul previously served as Head of the School of Creative Industries at the University of Newcastle and Director of Research and Innovation at the University of Central Lancashire in the UK. He is an Honorary Professor at the University of Newcastle, an Adjunct Professor at Loughborough University, a Research Fellow with the Hunter Medical Research Institute and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts.

At Avondale, Paul is developing FASTlab @ Avondale as a platform for interdisciplinary research, external collaboration and applied projects connecting research with real-world opportunities.