Audience of The Future: Demonstrators

Key Features

UK businesses can apply for a share of up to £16 million to transform the creative industries by testing large, immersive experiences with mass audiences.

Programme:     Innovate UK

Award:     Share of £16 million

Opens: 21st May 2018

Closes: 1st Aug 2018

! This scheme is now closed

Innovation in the creative industries occurs through the creation of works that:

  • define audience experiences
  • develop new production processes
  • implement new technologies
  • establish new commercial revenues

This competition is an opportunity for UK creative businesses to collaborate at the pre-commercial stage. They should explore new audience propositions made possible by immersive technologies. These could release commercial revenues and investment.

Your project must demonstrate it can significantly advance the current state of the art in its chosen field.

The 9 sectors in the UK creative industries are:

  1. advertising and marketing
  2. architecture
  3. crafts
  4. design: product, graphic and fashion
  5. film, TV, video, radio and photography
  6. computer games and services
  7. publishing
  8. museums, galleries and libraries
  9. music, performing and visual arts

It must reach demanding audience targets, deal with current and future rights issues, and avoid excessive audience acquisition costs. To do this your proposal must include access to or use of globally recognised IP, or partnership with a rights holder or cultural brand.

Your demonstrator must also:

  • develop new immersive experiences at a large scale, achieving a public audience across the project of more than 100,000
  • demonstrate a high level of ambition, innovation and scale, with the goal of transforming the sector
  • bring together creativity, technology, human-centred design and data analysis in order to innovate creatively and technologically
  • generate audience, consumer and user insights that can be used to test the viability of new revenue streams and business models
  • demonstrate scalability and the potential to be exploited and replicated across the creative, cultural, live events and entertainment industries

Innovate UK have identified 4 specific themes:

  1. Moving image, including film, TV, games and interactive media.
  2. Sports entertainment, which is access to live sporting events by remote audiences.
  3. Visitor experience, such as museums, galleries, exhibitions and visitor attractions.
  4. Performance, including theatre, music and live entertainment.

Given the emergent nature of the field we will consider applications that are not confined to these 4 themes. This is providing you can show that your proposal meets all the criteria for a demonstrator.

To be eligible for funding you must:

  • be a UK-registered business
  • carry out your project work in the UK
  • intend to exploit the results in or from the UK
  • work in collaboration with others (businesses, research base or third sector)

Collaborations must include at least one SME.

Collaborative project partners can include:

  • businesses
  • universities
  • non-profit research and technology organisations (RTOs)
  • independent research organisations (IROs)
  • cultural institutions

There is up to £16 million to fund innovation projects in this competition.

Funding is available for projects with total costs £5 million and over. This total cost is the combination of the requested grant value and the applicant’s contribution. The maximum grant you can claim is £4 million.

Demonstrators are classed as industrial research, for which you could be funded:

  • up to 70% of your total project costs if you are a small or micro business
  • up to 60% if you are a medium-sized business
  • up to 50% if you are a large business