Flex Fund interview: CO-GREAT

Through a series of calls between 2024 and early 2026, the DARe Hub will fund additional research projects to complement its core research programme.

One of the projects from our first Flex Fund call is CO-GREAT (CO-created Gamified Resilience Engagement Accessible Toolkit), headed by Dr Timothy Peacock from the University of Glasgow.

What issue does your project seek to address? 

“Our project seeks to address challenges around flooding resilience in rail transport, including, for example, exploring questions around methods which may help better understand the willingness to pay to ensure mitigation of flooding and identifying what information is required by stakeholders to take decisions around such areas as future investment.”

Why did you choose to focus on flood resilience in rail transport?

“In part, the choice was inspired by, and builds upon but also goes beyond, our ongoing research around the gaming of flooding crisis response over wider areas. Our Project Tempest flooding exercise, for instance, was originally co-created in 2021, at a time when Glasgow was hosting the UN COP26 Conference. While showcasing some of this work to delegates in the COP26 Green Zone, we found there were recurring conversations or feedback about how heavy rain and flooding had disrupted rail travel to the Conference. It was something which we continued to reflect on, incorporated both into Tempest itself as a standlone element and into our application to the DARe Flex Fund scheme years later.”

Why did you decide to use gamification as a key methodology? 

“The decision to use gamification was shaped by our experiences as a Lab of studying and using such methods with favourable evaluation of potential benefits, across contexts from education to our work with varied external organisations in public, private and non-profit sectors. Our particular gamification for this project is in a form that combines elements from such methods as Serious Games and gamified discussion exercises.”

What role can gamification play in addressing rail flood risk resilience? 

“There are different potential roles. One, for example, is in providing methods which have increased interactivity and the ability to encourage greater user engagement with the processes involved. Another is enabling potential added insights while exploring imagined futures, risks and resilience. A third role is in using gamified methods to help inform reflection on the ways in which different perspectives may shape resilience decision-making.”

How do you balance the realism of the scenarios with keeping the games accessible and engaging for the participants?

“In part, our work on games is always shaped from the planning stages by different considerations including those of realism, accessibility and engagement. In prototyping new game concepts, we begin from the simplest on-paper and/or discussion-based exercises, aimed at being flexible for easy adaptation and focused on player imagination. Using these we explore, as individuals and teams, what information or materials we may need to enable an immersive experience – physically or digitally-based – for players from a range of backgrounds (such as written or verbal briefings, icons, images, maps, and/or other audio or visual materials).

We also aim to conduct iterative playtesting of the resulting prototypes as part of our work to enhance these and other elements of the game-based materials. Games or exercises are tested with varied groups of people, feedback and observation from tests informing changes to the games. Through these processes, we seek continually to improve the games themselves, and to build upon our own methods for using games and exercises as researchers and developers.”