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£4 million funding to strengthen Buckinghamshire’s creative industries

15:28 02 May in Buckinghamshire, Creative Industries by Sarah Irving

Supporting and developing the county’s significant creative sector, the industry has been given a major boost by Buckinghamshire Thames Valley Local Enterprise Partnership (BTVLEP), who have announced £4 million in new funding for three initiatives.

Aligned with the four Grand Challenges of the Government’s modern Industrial Strategy, the projects that will receive funding are:

StoryFutures Academy: The National Centre for Immersive Storytelling

Based at the National Film and Television School, in partnership with Royal Holloway, University of London, StoryFutures Academy is to become a creative centre of excellence in the training, experimentation and production of immersive technologies such as Virtual Reality, Augmented Reality and Mixed Reality.

School of Computing and Centre for AI

50% of the total funding will found a School of Computing and Centre for Artificial Intelligence at the University of Buckingham, which will offer both undergraduate and postgraduate courses, in addition to a Doctoral Training Centre. It will be home to an Innovation Hub for students and industry alike, as well as specialised laboratories for Augmented and Virtual Reality.

Buckinghamshire Creates @ Pinewood

21 new degree programmes, both Bachelor’s and Master’s, will be bought to the centre of the film industry in Pinewood by Bucks New University and Creative Media Skills, via a professional higher education work-learning centre.

Paul Britton, CEO, Thames Valley Chamber of Commerce, commented:

“Fantastic that Buckinghamshire Thames Valley LEP are supporting the creative and digital multi-media industries, alongside enhancing the ecosystem of innovation that exists in the county. Encouraging investment into the Cambridge-Milton Keynes-Oxford Growth Corridor and promoting the sector strengths and capabilities of Buckinghamshire for the area to remain a destination of choice are two of our local policy priorities for 2019, and therefore we welcome the news.”

 

Andrew M. Smith, Chair, Buckinghamshire Thames Valley Local Enterprise Partnership, commented:

“Buckinghamshire’s creative sector is world-renowned, and we want to do everything we can to support and continue its growth. Funding these three major projects will help to unlock long term impact for the local economy and support the delivery of the Government’s Industrial Strategy.”

 

About Buckinghamshire Thames Valley Local Enterprise Partnership

BTVLEP is a business-led partnership between local government and the private sector, central to creating the conditions for sustainable economic growth across Buckinghamshire.

Find out more here.