The Creative Ethnology Studio is a collaborative venture initiated by the Intercultural Research Centre, Heriot-Watt University, and the Scottish Ethnology team at the University of Edinburgh. It was established following the inaugural lecture by Edinburgh University's Gary West (30 November 2016), on 'Performing Testimony: towards a creative ethnology for the 21st century', as a joint seminar/workshop series with the aim of facilitating a network of researchers interested in exploring the creative aspects and potentials of ethnological practice. 

Following more than two years of working together across various islands and between both island groupings, the “New Connections Across the Northern Isles” virtual museum, assembled by people throughout Shetland and Orkney, was launched in May 2019.

In collaboration with the Scottish Centre for Geopoetics, the IRC organised

Expressing the Earth in the UNESCO Year of Indigenous Languages #IYIL2019

- a weekend of workshops, performances and lectures.