Applications open for Media Cymru Scale up Fund (UK)

This competition will be delivered by Innovate UK, part of UK Research and Innovation, on behalf of Media Cymru, a consortium of 23 partner organisations led by Cardiff University.

Through this fund they are looking to support commercially viable business led innovation.

The Media Cymru programme pillars are:

• Growth, driving growth and productivity through RD&I.
• Global, increasing international collaborations.
• Fair, creating a fair, equal and diverse sector.
• Green, reducing the environmental impact of the sector.

Themes

• Your project can focus on one or more of the following areas:
  • advances in the creation of immersive storytelling exploring Virtual Reality (VR), Augmented Reality (AR), Extended Reality (XR) and Mixed Reality (MR);
  • exploration of products at the convergence of Virtual Production and traditional production;
  • scalable and flexible Virtual Production solutions;
  • sustainable and accessible Virtual Production solutions.

Funding Information

• The grant funding request must be between £100,000 and £250,000.

Eligible Projects

• Your project must:
  • address and provide solutions to challenges and opportunities that you have identified and have undertaken work to asses the feasibility of
  • demonstrate a realistic potential to deliver economic growth
  • actively share knowledge and outputs with Media Cymru and the wider sector
  • influence and encourage an innovative approach to developing new products, services and experiences within the sector
  • align with Media Cymru programme pillars around Growth, Global, Fair and Green.

Eligibility Criteria

• Your project
  • Your project must:
    • have a primary focus within the media sector
    • demonstrate significant potential for economic benefit to the Cardiff Capital Region (CCR) or Wales
    • start by 1 April 2024
    • end by 30 September 2025
    • last between 12 and 18 months
    • carry out all of its project work in the UK
    • intend to exploit the results in the media industry
• Lead organisation
  • The lead organisation may be based outside the CCR but justification must be made in your application as to why the project could not be led by an organisation from the CCR. If the lead organisation is based outside the CCR, you must collaborate with an organisation in the CCR.
  • To lead a project your organisation must:
    • be a UK registered business of any size, community interest company (CIC) or not for profit
    • be based in the CCR or collaborate with at least one UK registered business, research organisation, public sector organisation or charity, in the CCR
    • carry out the project work in the CCR
  • Collaboration is encouraged within the following sectors and with micro, small or medium-sized enterprises (SME) in the supply chain:
    • film, television and media
    • games
    • academia
    • technology for example, IT, software, electronics and computer services
• 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

Ineligible

• They will not fund projects that:
  • are early-stage research and development or feasibility studies;
  • are content creation for example, short films, plays, live music events, feature films and television pilots;
  • are for general business development;
  • are one-off art commissions;
  • do not demonstrate the potential to be economically sustainable;
  • do not demonstrate clear innovative advancement of a product, service or experience;
  • have disproportionate involvement of non-UK based partners or subcontractors;
  • 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.

For more information, visit Innovate UK.