The Academy of Imagineering is the new name for the Clyde Imagineering Volunteer Group, which was set up in Irvine, Scotland on 26 November 2011. The Academy's goal is to enable community-led regeneration by means of action research. In other words, it is not a 'think tank', but a group whose aim is to develop new ideas and/or refine and adapt existing ones, then work with partners so that the effectiveness of these can be tested and assessed.

Since June of 2020, the Academy has decided to focus all of its work on one community, the same one in which it was itself established eight and a half years earlier: Irvine in North Ayrshire, Scotland. Alongside our partners, this becomes home to our programme of action research; this we have named: the Irvine Ideas Incubator. A page of this site provides more information on our central project.

The Academy has three separate activities, each led by a volunteer:

Our Services Scotland

The Scottish Citizen Centred Services Institute

The focus of OSS is the empowerment of individuals and community in the realm of public services. Its work will encompass health and social care, planning, leisure and recreation, welfare and all the other services which impact upon the lives of people and their neighbourhoods.

Economic Renewal Institute

Community-based economic regeneration is the subject matter with which ERI will deal. Its volunteers have already gained considerable experience in this field, dating back to 1981. Its work will draw upon existing models and it will adapt and augment these, as well as create its own. ERI has already developed a portfolio of work in this field and has partnered the private sector in delivering multiple projects in both Irvine and Lanark.

new imagineers

Three members of our group are experience educators and education is the focus of NI. We hope to develop an environmental education programme for all ages. It will cover all aspects of the physical, economic and social environment. Its aim is to develop understanding of the World in which we live and provide citizens with the knowledge required to become active and effective in their community.

Although our name and way of working has changed, the belief upon which our group was founded in 2011 has not. The CIVG motto has been transferred to the Academy of Imagineering:

‘Regeneration is like jam, best when it is homemade’