Creative Industries Clusters: round two: outline stage

The Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) invites applications to establish four new Creative Industries Clusters that will bring together universities, businesses, local and regional policymakers, and private funders to drive research, innovation and growth in the creative industries. Led by UK universities, the clusters will create research and development (R&D) driven commercial opportunities, strengthen regional capabilities and deliver real world impacts. Each cluster must address a clear challenge in a specific geographical region, sub-sector or both, and focus on creating new products, services, or experiences with commercial potential. The clusters will be required to generate economic growth, social and cultural benefits, create an ecosystem for new and experimental creative content, generate long-term strategic applied research partnerships, improve creative businesses' access to skills and expertise, address key place-based or sector issues through applied research, address equality, diversity and inclusion challenges, and ensure activities have positive environmental or sustainable impact. This is a two-stage process, with successful outline applications invited to develop a full application. The funding will last for five years with projects starting by February 2027.