In 2013 The Department of Media, Art & Design developed an inter-faculty research project with three aims focused upon evaluation, marketing and SROI:
i. To evaluate the 2013 programme of events at The Old Lookout from the points of view of the artist(s) in residence; local businesses; gallery users (visitors) and non-users of the Gallery.
ii. To gather marketing data in relation to the local communities knowledge of the Old Lookout Gallery and the programme of activities it offered and through this data improve subsequent advertising.
iii. To pilot measures of Social Return on Investment (SROI) and if salient offer the tools for use across the University (and by partners) in order to provide a measure of SROI for other venues and activities.
There are two types of Social Return on Investment (SROI):
• Evaluative, which is conducted retrospectively and based on actual outcomes that have already taken place
• Forecast, which predicts how much social value will be created if the activities meet their intended outcomes
