Audience of the Future

The Audience of the Future (AotF) funding is part of the government’s Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund (ISCF). They have allocated £33 million in Grant Funding to invest as part of its plan to grow the artificial intelligence and data-driven economy – one of the 4 grand challenges identified in the ISCF.

AotF funding is focused on the UK creative industries working with immersive technologies such as virtual, augmented and mixed reality. The aim is to bring together creative companies, researchers and technologists to create striking new experiences that are accessible to the general-public – highlighting the importance of cross-industry collaboration and engagement.

By creating the next generation of products, services and experiences, the UK’s creative industry could position itself as a global leader, capturing the world’s attention and growing the UK’s market position in creative content!

Here are just a few of the new immersive experiences and attractions the UK’s creative sector is innovating in…

Immerse your senses in the fight to defend the heart of the Amazon or go behind the scenes of the Natural History Museum with Sir David Attenborough, relive Tim Peake’s exhilarating descent from the International Space Station or battle opposing clans as part of an augmented theme park experience.

Earlier this year, Innovate UK released 2 funding competitions – the Design Foundations and Demonstrator programmes with £17 million available. A further £10 million has been allocated for the recently announced hub – The Centre for Immersive Storytelling which will offer creative training and research programmes in immersive storytelling, and the next round of funding is currently open – Production Innovation in Immersive Content.
The latest round of funding is looking for projects that are business led, and looking to:

• develop tools, products or services for creating and delivering immersive content
• demonstrate innovation in software, hardware and/or development methodology
• develop, produce and audience test prototype content experiences

There is a share of £8 million available to companies innovating across the supply chain in the production of immersive content, enabling it to be created faster, more efficiently or in new ways, improving significantly on the current ‘state of the art’ in the field.

The grant funding competition is open to all creative industry organisations and applications can be from single entities, or collaborations. This competition is ideal for bringing together organisations that can work collectively to realise the full potential of new applications and immersive technologies by combining skillsets and expertise – these business connections can be difficult to make; therefore, Immerse UK have a platform on their website to allow you to search for partners and collaborators for these projects.

TBAT believe that this is a unique opportunity for creative organisations to take their concepts and through R&D funding, develop, demonstrate and test their technology to fruition, to add value to the UK’s creative industry.

Matt Symonds – MD says: “Virtual, augmented and mixed reality are already radically changing how we explore and experience the world around us. This grant funding opportunity is a great enabler for this change, creating new products and services for applications ranging from entertainment to business, with the potential to put the UK at the forefront of the immersive technologies sector.”

If you require assistance with writing your application for the latest Audience of the Future competition, please don’t hesitate to get in touch with us – 01332 819740 or info@tbat.co.uk or by using our ‘get in touch’ page.