Fiona Dowling is a materials researcher and Technical Team Leader for Physical Fabrication at UWE Bower Ashton campus. 

Fiona’s background is in digital fabrication, physical making and workshop design, and she played a pivotal role in the development of the community maker space KWMC The Factory prior to working at UWE. She is passionate about prioritising accessibility and inclusivity across technical areas and workshop spaces.

In 2015, Fiona travelled to Shenzhen and Shanghai to research the Chinese maker movement, as part of the British Council and AHRC Living Research programme.

Fiona’s current research project Bristol Materials Network explores ways to curate, categorise and showcase physical collections of materials, with accompanying workshops and resources, to improve students’ materials literacy and encourage more sustainable creative practices.