At the time, Jordan was co-supervising a PhD with Socrates Stratis (University of Cyprus) and Jordan and Mahony invited Stratis to join the project as a key collaborator. Statis research focuses on the role of architecture and urban design in uncertain, plus contested contemporary urban environments. The initial submission in 2017 achieved a strong score of 72% enabling resubmission. A second application in 2018 scored 84% but still fell short of funding.

In 2019, the Royal College of Art was unwilling to support a third resubmission. As Mahony was part-time and Stratis was engaged in other commitments, the group agreed to invite Andy Hewitt (University of Northampton) to join as the fourth member of the team. Hewitt submitted the proposal on behalf of UON and was named as the Project Co-ordinator. Jordan and Hewitt have a long history of collaboration, working together as Hewitt & Jordan, as members of the Freee Art Collective, and currently as the Partisan Social Club. Their shared research centres on spatial practices, the role of art, and the intersections between art, politics, regeneration, and policy. In 2009, Mel Jordan, together with Dave Beech and Andy Hewitt, established the ‘Art and the Public Sphere’ Journal, to support critical discussion on art and its publics, while interrogating concepts of space and the conditions of artistic production.

With Hewitt as Project Co-ordinator and UON as the lead institution, the team restructured the proposal, recruited new partners (a process that continued after the award in 2020 due to Covid-related challenges), and strengthened the project’s management plan, which had previously been identified as a weakness. The resubmission in 2019 was successful, achieving a score of 92% and securing funding.