The UK’s innovation agency, the Technology Strategy Board, has today launched a new strategy to accelerate growth in the country’s creative industries. More than £30 million of support will be made available to businesses through a series of targeted funding calls.
The sector is already a highly successful part of the UK economy, covering a wide range of activities from radio and television, through advertising and interactive media to fashion. The Creative Industries Strategy outlines ways in which it can grow further and faster with carefully-targeted support.
Iain Gray, Chief Executive of the Technology Strategy Board, commented:
“There are great opportunities for further growth in the creative industries sector, especially for the small businesses and start-ups who just need an opportunity to bring their ground-breaking ideas to market. This strategy is designed to help them turn their ideas into reality.”
The strategy focuses on opportunities for growth through greater use of digital technologies and design. The Strategy highlights the potential from: increased convergence – enabling content to work in different environments and devices; innovative ways of capturing value and managing transactions; as well as new uses of data and metadata. Importantly, digital technologies are making an impact across the whole economy, opening up new ways of working and value-creation.
The forthcoming series of funding competitions will encourage innovation in areas such as digital media production, engagement with local communities and services, as well as in ‘frictionless commerce’ – further development of online business. In all, more than £30 million of funding will be available to businesses.
In parallel with the Technology Strategy Board’s programme, Creative Skillset, the creative industries’ sector skills council, will be rolling out a series of training schemes aimed at developing the best skills and talent in the world within UK creative industries.
Dinah Caine CBE, Chief Executive of Creative Skillset, said:
“Our industries need to embrace technological advancements and innovation in order to maintain their position as world leaders. This means investment both in infrastructure and skills. We are delighted to see the Technology Strategy Board focussing support to SMEs as innovative new services and products often spring from start-ups and small companies. This programme complements our work in industry-led skills development and training in the creative sector.”
The Strategy notes the importance of collaboration with other organisations working in this field, such as the BFI, Nesta, Creative Skillset, the Arts Council, Creative England, local enterprise partnerships and others.
John Newbigin, Chair of Creative England, said:
“The creative industries are a major driver of growth and employment across the country. We welcome the new strategy and investment from the Technology Strategy Board, and look forward to working with them to help ensure that creative businesses across the regions can take full advantage of the opportunity.”
The first of the Technology Strategy Board’s funding initiatives, opening for applications on 23 September, will be a competition to support businesses working in digital media cross-platform production. Announced by the Chancellor of the Exchequer in this year’s Budget, this provides up to £15 million of grants for innovation in this area.
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Notes to Editors
Key statistics
• the creative industries contribute 5.3% of UK GVA, and employ 1.4 million people
• the UK’s entertainment and media market is the fifth largest in the world
• the UK exports more than £100 million in design services each year
• the UK film industry contributed over £4.5 billion to UK GDP in 2009
• the UK is one of only three countries (along with the USA and Sweden) to be a net exporter of music
• the UK has the largest publishing industry in Europe, exporting more books than any other country in the world
• the UK advertising industry is worth £16 billion a year. Over two-thirds of global advertising agencies have their European headquarters in London.
- The Technology Strategy Board’s Creative Industries Strategy was launched at the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) on 18 September. It can be downloaded at: www.innovateuk.org/creative-industries
- Andy Serkis, Founder of Imaginarium Studios: “Imaginarium Studios is a prime example of a company that needs funding from the Technology Strategy Board. We are at the epicentre of convergence: we use technology to arrive at new ways of telling tales, we’re expanding, we have a number of very big projects on our horizon, we have to invest very heavily in R&D.”
- Ian Livingstone CBE, Life President of Eidos, author and digital entrepreneur, said: “The Creative Industries Strategy is just what the games industry needs. If we are to remain globally competitive then we need support and investment to innovate, take risks and undertake the kind of research and development that will produce the next generation of best-selling titles.”
- Alex Hope, Managing Director of Double Negative, the full service film visual effects facility, said:”The VFX industry is highly competitive and fast-moving, driven by technological advances and innovation in a range of fields. It is therefore vital that government continues to invest in R&D as well as education and skills, giving businesses such as ours the resources to experiment and to develop new tools and applications.”
- A number of funding competitions will take place over the coming months as part of the implementation plan for the strategy, including:
- Cross-platform production in digital media: Up to £15 million available to stimulate innovation in digital media production tools and systems. Opens for applications on 23 September
- Frictionless commerce: Up to £2.5 million for projects leading to the creation of digital transactional environments for the creative industries and beyond. Opens on 30 September
- Hyperlocal Media Demonstrators: at least £1.5 million focused on demonstrating the potential for hyperlocal media and technology-led location-based services across the UK.
- Location based Services: £4 millionto help businesses to engage with their customers in their ‘here and now’ context
- Valuing & Pricing Digital Assets: £2.5 million for ‘developing ways to agree value and price’ in digital transactions
- Greater Manchester Creative & Digital Launchpad: £1 million support programme for the creative and digital cluster in Greater Manchester
- Full details of the forthcoming funding competitions for the creative industries, including their launch dates and briefing events around the country can be found at: https://connect.innovateuk.org/web/creativektn
- The Technology Strategy Board is the UK’s innovation agency. Its goal is to accelerate economic growth by stimulating and supporting business-led innovation. Sponsored by the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS), the Technology Strategy Board brings together business, research and the public sector, supporting and accelerating the development of innovative products and services to meet market needs, tackle major societal challenges and help build the future economy. For more information please visit www.innovateuk.org.
- Creative Skillset is the licensed Sector Skills Council for Entertainment Media, Fashion and Textiles, Publishing and Advertising, Marketing and Communications. It is owned and invested in by employers working in social partnership with unions and aspires to have the best skills and talent in the world to drive growth of the industries and the UK economy. Creative Skillset brings all parts of the Creative Industries together to add value through collaboration on workforce development. It supports individuals and businesses by developing skills, training and education policy; and through opening up the industries to the UK’s pool of diverse talent. It conducts consultation work with industry, publishes research and strategic documents, runs funding schemes and project work, and provides information on the challenges facing the industries and what we need to do to overcome them.
- Creative England is a national agency that invests in and supports creative ideas, talent and businesses in film, TV, games and digital media. We aim to grow the brightest, the best, and those with the most promise so that individuals and businesses can achieve their full creative and commercial potential. We help identify future opportunities to grow the economy and generate jobs. With offices in Salford, Birmingham, Bristol, Leeds, Nottingham, Pinewood and Elstree, we are a national agency with strong local and regional links. www.creativeengland.co.uk
- For more details please contact Simon Napper in the Technology Strategy Board Media Relations team. Tel: 07881 842583. Email: simon.napper@tsb.gov.uk Alternatively, contact the Technology Strategy Board press office at 07766 901150. Email: pressoffice@tsb.gov.uk
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Case studies
The Technology Strategy Board has been supporting businesses in the creative industries for a number of years:
Tangentix
Tangentix exploited its expertise in graphics compression in a partnership with Onteca, an independent games studio. Their aim was to develop technology to enable real-time viewing of high-definition 3D graphics on a web browser. The University of Bradford’s Archaeology department needed to scan its large collection of ancient bones, convert the scans into high-resolution models and then put them on the web, allowing them to be easily accessed and shared. Working together, the three organisations solved key technical challenges involving compression algorithms and 3D geometry. The results can now be applied in the digital entertainment sector.
Zoo Digital
A UK software company specialising in the creative and media industries, Zoo Digital could see a need for a secure system to track media files through film and video production processes. As a small business, though, it needed help if it was to undertake intensive research and development. It put together a consortium of academic and production industry partners for the Technology Strategy Board competition Metadata: increasing the value of digital content. The project – PARTEC, persistent and robust tracking of entertainment content – resulted in a tested prototype now ready to bring to market.
Ostmodern
Ostmodern is a young business focussing on video-on-demand content management, interface design and cross-platform delivery. It received feasibility funding that helped it to move from undertaking services for clients to developing its own content platform, HatchTV. With a content library and website builder, HatchTV allows broadcasters and other media producers to work together in teams on editorial content from programme conception to broadcast.
BioBeats
With expertise in music, computer science and medicine, BioBeats develops technology for applications in healthcare. It was able to visualise and sonify brainwaves, and then progressed to capturing a person’s heartbeat using an iPhone alone, in order to create experiential music. By collecting cardiovascular data in this way, they were also able to gain insights into a range of health conditions. A successful submission to the Technology Strategy Board’s IC tomorrow programme led to work with University College London and BUPA, starting the development of a mobile- and cloud-based service offering stress management solutions to patients and clinical information to mental health care providers.