Capitalising on Scotland’s creative industries

A collaborative creative initiative spearheaded by the University of St Andrews has won a major funding award of £1.5 million.

The Institute for Capitalising on Creativity, a consortium of four Scottish universities, has been awarded a major grant to conduct research in the Creative Industries.

Scotland’s centre for research and teaching in the creative industries, the ICC is to receive the £1.5 million grant from the UK’s Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) to enhance industry-relevant research.

One of only four to be awarded in the UK, and the sole grant to focus on the Creative Industries, the award is given under the ESRC’s Capacity Building in Business Research and Engagement Scheme.

Institute Director, Professor Barbara Townley, said, “The Institute is delighted with the success of the grant.  Its award is a testament to the strength of the Creative Industries in Scotland.

“The grant will enable us to build on this acknowledged area of excellence, and by engaging in industry led research, help us build knowledge to help strengthen this sector for the future.”

The funding will support research and PhD studentships, as well as knowledge transfer partnerships, in-business projects, allowing for practical input into developing an area of research expertise.

In contributing to research in this important area of society and the economy, the ICC aims to benefit not only collaborating organization, but also the creative industries sector in Scotland more generally.

Professor Townley continued, “We look forward to building on and extending our links with those in the creative industries and we welcome ideas from organizations and businesses in the area on projects that would help individual organizations and also be of benefit to the sector as a whole.”

The Creative Industries are an area of increasing economic importance and success in the UK economy as a whole. In Scotland, which has the largest creative industries sector outside of the London and the South East, success is recognized across the wide range of the creative industries cannon including films, computer games, music, publishing, theatre and the performing arts, design, the arts, and the festivals held across Scotland.

The grant forms part of a major investment by the ESRC designed to develop closer dialogue between social science and the business sector by building links and aiding knowledge transfer between industry and higher education.

The Institute for Capitalising on Creativity is a consortium of the Management School University of St Andrews; Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art and Design, University of Dundee; the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama; and the School of Computing and Creative Technologies, University of Abertay Dundee. An inter-disciplinary Institute, the ICC brings together a range of specialist knowledge and expertise in the creative industries, providing expertise and awareness of business challenges with recognition of the distinctive characteristics of each of the creative industries and the challenges that these pose.

For further details please contact [email protected] or visit the website:- www.st-andrews.ac.uk/icc/

ENDS

NOTE TO EDITORS:

Professor Barbara Townley is available for interview on Telephone: 01334 461974 or Email: [email protected]

Issued by the Press Office, University of St Andrews
Contact Fiona Armstrong, Press Officer on Tel: 01334 462530 / 462529, Mobile: 07730 415 015 or Email: [email protected]
Ref:  ICC 29/09/08
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