Media Cymru Scale Up Funding Competition (Round 2) – United Kingdom

Deadline: 4 December 2024

Applications are now open for Media Cymru, a five year programme that aims to turn the Cardiff Capital Region into a global hub for media production and innovation with a focus on green and fair economic growth.

Media Cymru: Scale Up Round 2 will invest in companies that can match global competitors in their scale of innovation ambition and skills. They are looking for innovation driven products, services and experiences with the potential for scale within the media sector.

Aims

The aim of this competition is to deliver innovative products, services and experiences to address challenges that have been identified within the Welsh media industry, through R&D funding.
Your project must:
- Aim to provide solutions with proven feasibility, that address challenges or opportunities that you have identified.
- Demonstrate a realistic potential to deliver economic growth.
- Be an idea that is set for rapid commercialisation following project completion.
- Actively share knowledge and outputs with Media Cymru.
- Align with at least one of Media Cymru’s strategic pillars.

Themes

Your project can focus on one or more of the following:
- New media formats and the development of innovative content.
- Advanced media production, including the convergence of virtual production and traditional production.
- New and inclusive media business models and production processes.
- Net zero and the decarbonisation of the screen sector, projects that respond to the findings of the Screen New Deal Transformation Plan for Wales are particularly welcome.
- Immersive storytelling through extended reality (XR) technologies, including Virtual Reality (VR), Augmented Reality (AR) and Mixed Reality (MR).
- Video game content and production, including convergence with other media.
- Artificial Intelligence (AI) and other technologies as tools for media production
- placemaking, including cultural and media tourism.
- Bilingual and multilingual production.
- News and public information.
- Music, voice and audio production, including performance and distribution.

Funding Information

While there is no maximum on total eligible costs, your project’s total grant funding request must be between £100,000 and £250,000.
Up to £700,000 has been allocated to fund innovation projects in this competition. Funding will be in the form of a grant.
If your organisation’s work on the project is commercial or economic, your funding request must not exceed the limits below. These limits apply even if your organisation normally acts non-economically but for the purpose of this project will be undertaking commercial or economic activity.
The balance between your total project costs and the amount of grant awarded must be funded by the organisations receiving the grant.
For Research, Development and Innovation Streamlined Subsidy Scheme Category 2, Industrial Research projects, you can get funding for your eligible project costs of:
- up to 70% if you are a micro or small organisation
- up to 60% if you are a medium sized organisation
- up to 50% if you are a large organisation
For Research, Development and Innovation Streamlined Subsidy Scheme Category 2, Experimental development projects which are nearer to market, you could get funding for your eligible project costs of:
- up to 45% if you are a micro or small organisation
- up to 35% if you are a medium sized organisation
- up to 25% if you are a large organisation

Ineligible Projects

They are not funding projects that:
- That do not meet the competition scope or eligibility criteria.
- That are generic content creation, for example, the standard development of short films, feature films and television pilots.
- That are for general business development.
- That request substantial funding for non-UK based partners or subcontractors.
- They will not fund commercialisation activities such as marketing and sales.
- They cannot fund projects that are:
  - Dependent on export performance, for example giving a subsidy to a baker on the condition that it exports a certain quantity of bread to another country.
  - Dependent on domestic inputs usage, for example giving a subsidy to a baker on the condition that it uses 50% UK flour in their product.

Eligibility Criteria

Your project
- Your project must:
  - Last for up to 12 months
  - Have a primary focus within the media sector
  - Demonstrate significant potential for economic benefit to the Cardiff Capital Region
  - Intend to exploit the results in the Cardiff Capital Region
  - Not start before 1 April 2025
  - End by 30 April 2026
- Lead organisation
  - To lead a project your organisation must fulfil all three criteria:
    - Be a UK registered business with a business address in Wales.
    - Be based in the Cardiff Capital Region or collaborate with at least one UK registered business of any size, academic institution, charity, not for profit, public sector organisation or research and technology organisation (RTO) in the Cardiff Capital Region.
    - Intend to exploit the results in the Cardiff Capital Region.
- Project team
  - To collaborate with the lead, your organisation must be one of the following UK registered:
    - Business of any size
    - Academic institution
    - Charity
    - Not for profit
    - Public sector organisation
    - Research and technology organisation (RTO)
- Number of applications
  - A business can only lead on one application but can be included as a collaborator in two further applications.
  - If a business is not leading any application, it can collaborate in any number of applications.
  - An academic institution, charity, not for profit, public sector organisation or RTO can collaborate on any number of applications.