Creative Industries Clusters: a new wave
Read all about it here
As we launch the second phase of the Creative Clusters programme, this blog post looks back at the impact of the programme so far and plans for the future.
When I started in UK Research and Innovation (UKRI), I was told that the creative industries would be the most surprising and fascinating elements of my job.
How right this was. Together with Andrew Chitty and a remarkable team, my predecessor Andrew Thompson had won the case for nine clusters as part of the Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund, and to that we added a clutch of demonstrators called Audience of the Future.
Where the clusters began…
Getting to know these projects took me into extraordinary worlds. Immersive experiences, high end fashion technology, cutting edge gamification all driven by wildly imaginative content production.
But that wasn’t all. Each cluster had an intimate relationship with its place. I came to realise that the clusters were the most innovative of grant mechanisms, and were fulfilling beyond expectation something UKRI was designed to achieve.
Funding had been devolved to an anchor institution, a university, which had used its capacity to aggregate around it, start-ups and existing small and medium-sized enterprises, for and with which it developed skills, created and safeguarded jobs, and, critically attracted co-investment.
Description of Creative Industries Clusters programme infographic
What: a five-year, £56 million investment launched in November 2018, funding nine creative research and development (R&D) partnerships (clusters) and a Policy and Evidence Centre.
Purpose: to accelerate growth in a range of creative sectors including the following industries:
- broadcast and screen
- fashion textiles and technology
- fashion design innovation
- data and design
- animation and videogames
- digital storytelling and creative audio visual
How: by bringing together a range of educational and commercial partners to undertake applied research of relevance to each cluster.
The programme in numbers:
- total public and private co-investment: £277 million
- spin-outs, start-ups and scale-ups: 466
- people trained: 5,007
- unique industry or academia R&D collaborations: 970
- engagements with local creative enterprises: 53,213
- jobs created and safeguarded: 5,563
- industry-led R&D projects funded: 1,055
- new tools, products and services: 787
- industry or academic placements: 568
Figures are subject to change on completion of the programme and final reporting.
Location of clusters:
- InGAME: Dundee
- Creative Informatics: Edinburgh
- Future Screens: Belfast
- XR Stories: York
- Future Fashion Factory: Leeds
- Clwstwr Creadigol: Cardiff
- (B+B) XR+D: Bristol and Bath
- The Business of Fashion, Textiles and Technology: London
- StoryFutures: Surrey
What the programme has achieved so far
What the clusters achieved was to show how arts and humanities can be at the forefront of innovation, content production, job creation and a deep engagement with place.
The clusters worked, I believe, because we trusted the local teams to find novel and adaptable solutions to their own challenges. The experience forced universities to reimagine what they could achieve, and the success attracted the attention of policymakers and creative industry experts across the UK and beyond.
It is a testament to the strength of the original clusters that each has gone on to further success and solidified their role in their regions and win further grant money. Four of the clusters are involved in the next major AHRC investment, Convergent screen technologies and performance in realtime (CoSTAR), a national capability for virtual screen production which will transform the industry through democratising technology and revolutionising the way we experience film, TV and much besides.
