The AIR Building (Academy for Innovation & Research)

The Academy of Innovation & Research (AIR) is designed to encourage and celebrate Open Innovation. To us, Open Innovation means cooperating with partners outside our sector, with other businesses, other markets and end-users. It means recognising that not all good ideas come from within our own disciplines. It means challenging traditional HE structures, methods and roles. It heralds the value of design thinking and the need to adopt transdisciplinary models that stimulate invention and disruption.

The overarching aim of AIR is to create spaces where people from across the University and beyond can come to collaborate, share new ideas, innovate and play.

Our spaces & facilities

Upper floor

Visitor hospitality area: This is a small hospitality area for preparing coffee, tea, water and cold drinks and is designed to cater for staff working on the upper floor of AIR, as well as the many internal and external visitors who come to the building. A larger hospitality area is available on the lower floor of AIR.

Informal seating: There are a number of soft seating areas around the office that can be used for informal meetings or as visitor waiting areas.

The Big Space: This boardroom-style room is designed to be used for hosting larger meetings of up to 12 people.

Headspaces 1 & 2: These meeting rooms are located adjacent to the visitor hospitality area and are designed for individual quiet work or small meetings for up to 4 people. The rooms are deliberately glazed with clear sliding doors so that these spaces remain as open and transparent aspossible.

The Round Table: The round table adjacent to Headspaces 1 & 2 offers temporary desk space for up to 6 people on a first come first served basis.

Meeting pods: There are 2 meeting pods, which can accommodate up to 4 people each. These are available to use on a first come, first served basis.

Open plan event space with large screen minimalist design and seating at the Creative Bridge

Office interior with desks and computers

People standing round and chatting at an exhibition at Falmouth University

Lower floor: Open:AIR

R&I thematic areas: 16 desk spaces have been allocated for use by the University’s Research Fellows, Research Theme Chairs and Research Programme Leaders on a permanent basis.

PhD hot desks: Desk spaces have been allocated as hot desks for use by PhD students.

Open:AIR hospitality area: The Open:AIR hospitality area includes two dishwashers, a hot (boiling) water tap and a coffee machine. This facility is for staff and postgraduate students working in AIR and is also used to cater for meetings and events.

Open Innovation space: In the centre of Open AIR there is a collaborative space designed for use by any staff wishing to engage in Open Innovation. The space can accommodate up to 8 people and includes a large television screen.

The Sandpit: This room provides a flexible space for a wide range of purposes including teaching, meetings, seminars and presentations. The Sandpit can accommodate up to 40 people cabaret-style or up to 65 theatre-style.

Headspaces 3, 4, 5 & 6: There are four meeting spaces on the lower floor of AIR, all of which are equipped with audio visual equipment.

Informal seating: All unallocated spaces and are available for hot desking, informal meetings and collaborative work.

Research & Knowledge Exchange

Research & Knowledge Exchange at Falmouth University is built on the principle of open innovation - the idea that the grand challenges of our age can be addressed most effectively when tackled collaboratively across disciplinary boundaries.

Find out more