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University of Birmingham collaborates on £6.75 million West Midlands creative innovation consortium

The University of Birmingham is part of a collaborative project awarded £6.75m to transform the West Midlands into a thriving region for creative businesses.

28 November 2024•4 min read
A violinist playing with a VR headset on, with a computer in the foreground.

The University of Birmingham is part of a collaborative project that has been awarded funding of £6.75m to help transform the region into a thriving ecosystem for creative businesses.

The CreaTech Frontiers collaboration is led by Birmingham City University and also includes Coventry University, the University of Birmingham, and The University of Warwick. It will involve high-profile industry partners such as Vodafone, Digital Catapult, Rebellion, Holosphere, Reach plc and Hollywood Gaming.

The West Midlands Combined Authority (WMCA) believe the creative content and gaming sectors have the potential to generate £65m and create 1,500 jobs by 2030.

CreaTech Frontiers will create a network of research and development (R&D) labs that will help to nurture growth and investment, attract talent, and ensure the West Midlands is globally renowned for innovation. These include the University of Birmingham College of Arts and Law’s state-of-the-art Birmingham Transformative Humanities Laboratory and outstanding facilities for creative industries and digital media.

CreaTech Frontiers will focus on developing the region’s micro, small, and medium-sized businesses (SMEs) specialising in research and exploration of creative technologies like video games, virtual production and immersive reality.

Birmingham and the West Midlands have a rich industrial history, and we are putting them at the forefront of a potential new industry developing the amazing technology that will revolutionise visual effects in film, theatre and gaming.

Lisa Nandy, Culture Secretary

Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy said: “Talent is everywhere but opportunity is not. That’s why we are supporting firms, artists and freelancers that are innovating, using new technology and driving growth in creative clusters across the country. Birmingham and the West Midlands have a rich industrial history, and we are putting them at the forefront of a potential new industry developing the amazing technology that will revolutionise visual effects in film, theatre and gaming.”

The five-year project is funded by investment from the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) on behalf of UK Research and Innovation, which has designated the West Midlands a creative industries cluster.

AHRC Executive Chair, Professor Christopher Smith, said: “AHRC is delighted to announce a new wave of Creative Industries Clusters that will create vital support for technology and innovation in the UK’s world-leading creative industries and expand our regional investment.

“They will support artists and creators so they can benefit from new technologies across a wide range of platforms, and develop their innovation and business skills.

“The remarkable projects made possible through our Creative Industries Clusters span sustainable fashion, game design and extended reality, and have attracted major co-investment. They have helped solve real-world problems and they deliver commercial benefits to the UK economy in line with the Government’s Industrial Strategy.”

Professor Helen Abbott, Pro Vice Chancellor and Head of the College of Arts and Law at the University of Birmingham, said: “The University of Birmingham is delighted to be part of this consortium bringing together leading universities in the West Midlands with cultural organisations, providing Research and Development expertise from academics and creatives, education and skill development opportunities, generating and supporting jobs, and supercharging the creative industries in the region.”

The West Midlands has a proud cultural and creative heritage and is a hotbed of new ideas and creativity. The CreaTech Frontiers consortium will help tap into that innovative spirit and make the most of it.

Professor Helen Abbott, Pro Vice Chancellor, University of Birmingham

CreaTech Frontiers will support the growth of the creative content and gaming sectors which has been identified by the West Midlands Combined Authority (WMCA) as having the potential to generate £65m and create 1,500 jobs by 2030.

Creative SMEs will be able to apply for grants from a £1.8 million fund, access academic R&D expertise, mentoring and training, and use world-class research and development labs to create new products and services.

More than 70 paid internships and 16 funded PhDs will also be made available through the initiative to nurture talent and drive innovation among creative professionals of the future.

Sector bodies WMCA, TechWM, Create Central, and Culture Central, will also support the cluster activities.

Meanwhile, Birmingham Opera Company will engage young people from deprived areas in the West Midlands in co-creating performances and discovering potential careers in the sector.

Cultural partners will also run R&D demonstrators, including experimental performance projects utilising creative technologies curated by RSC and showcased at SXSW – an annual event in Austin, Texas that combines film, media, and music festivals and conferences.

Professor Abbott concluded: “The West Midlands has a proud cultural and creative heritage and is a hotbed of new ideas and creativity. The CreaTech Frontiers consortium will help tap into that innovative spirit and make the most of it.”

Notes for editors

  • For media inquiries please contact Ellie Hail, Communications Officer, University of Birmingham on +44 (0)7966 311 409. Out-of-hours, please call +44 (0) 121 414 2772.

  • About the University of Birmingham
    The University of Birmingham is ranked amongst the world’s top 100 institutions. Its work brings people from across the world to Birmingham, including researchers, teachers and more than 8,000 international students from over 150 countries.

  • About Birmingham City University        
    From art, accounting and architecture to midwifery, media and mechanical engineering, Birmingham City University (BCU) transforms the lives of its students by offering a wide range of contemporary and flexible courses at undergraduate and postgraduate level. Home to the award-winning School of Jewellery, the internationally renowned Royal Birmingham Conservatoire, and the innovative business incubator STEAMhouse, BCU has a history stretching back to 1843. It is also focused on the future, with its new strategy – ‘Rooted in Birmingham, Reaching Beyond’ - committed to the regeneration of the city and to enhancing communities across the West Midlands. 

  • About Coventry University
    Coventry University is a global, modern university with a mission of creating better futures. We were founded by entrepreneurs and industrialists in 1843 as the Coventry School of Design and we continue to work with businesses to ensure we provide job-ready graduates with the skills and creative thinking to improve their communities.

    With a proud tradition of innovative teaching and learning, Coventry University is now one of the largest in the UK and has world-class campus facilities, the UK’s first standalone 5G network and a digital community of learning. Our students are part of a global network that has 50,000 learners studying Coventry University degrees in more than 40 different countries and partnerships with 150 higher education providers worldwide.

  • About the University of Warwick
    The University of Warwick is one of the UK’s leading universities, marking its 60th anniversary in 2025. With over twenty-eight thousand students from 147 countries, it's currently ranked 9th in the UK by The Guardian University Guide. It has an acknowledged reputation for excellence in research and teaching, for innovation, and for links with business and industry. The recent Research Excellence Framework classed 92% of its research as ‘world leading’ or ‘internationally excellent’.

  • About the Royal Shakespeare Company
    The Royal Shakespeare Company’s (RSC) mission is to bring people together to experience stories that deepen our understanding of ourselves, each other and the world around us, and that bring joy. Shakespeare’s exploration of all human nature is our inspiration and touchstone.

    The Company’s roots lie in the bold vision of a local brewer, Edward Fordham Flower, who in 1879 established a theatre in Stratford-upon-Avon with his son Charles. The RSC as we know it today was formed by Sir Peter Hall, whose ambition was to produce new plays alongside those of Shakespeare and his contemporaries.

    The RSC continue this today across our three permanent theatres in Stratford – the Royal Shakespeare Theatre, the Swan Theatre and The Other Place – and indeed online and around the globe. We believe everybody’s life can be enriched by culture and creativity. Our transformative Creative Learning and Engagement programmes reach over half a million young people and adults each year. We have collaborated with generations of the very best theatre makers and we continue to nurture the talent of the future.
  • About the West Midlands Combined Authority
    Led by the Mayor of the West Midlands, the West Midlands Combined Authority (WMCA) brings together 18 local councils and three Local Enterprise Partnerships to oversee the transfer of powers and funding from Whitehall to the West Midlands. The WMCA is putting these new powers from government back where they belong, in local hands, bringing the region together to build a healthier, happier, better connected and more prosperous West Midlands.

    Billions of pounds are being invested by the WMCA to improve the region’s transport network, transform its derelict industrial land into new homes and workplaces, support existing businesses and help grow the innovative, green industries of the future.

    At the heart of this vision is a strong economy that is both green and inclusive, one that supports the region’s ambition to be net zero carbon by 2041 and offers everyone the opportunity of a good quality, affordable home and the skills needed for a worthwhile job.

  • About the UKRI Arts and Humanities Research Council
    The UKRI Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) funds internationally outstanding independent researchers across the whole range of the arts and humanities: history, archaeology, digital content, philosophy, languages and literature, design, heritage, area studies, the creative and performing arts, and much more. The quality and range of research supported by AHRC works for the good of UK society and culture and contributes both to UK economic success and to the culture and welfare of societies across the globe.

Featured staff

  • Professor Helen Abbott

    Pro-Vice-Chancellor and Head of the College of Arts and Law

    Biographical and contact information for Professor Helen Abbott, Professor in Modern Languages at the University of Birmingham.

    Email: h.abbott@bham.ac.uk

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