The taxpayer-funded Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) and United Kingdom Research and Innovation (UKRI) council have announced they are to fund nine new university-led creative clusters along with an associated Policy and Evidence Centre (PEC) for the cultural and creative industries.

This commitment to a creative industries clusters programme forms part of the Government’s Industrial Strategy and specifically part of the ‘sector deal’ announced earlier this year.

We’re delighted with this news and welcome the commitment. We’re also pleased to make our own contribution to the pursuit of knowledge in the creative sector by part-funding Michael Franklin’s post-doctoral research on examining the understanding and management of risk in the film industry in collaboration with the Institute for Creative and Cultural Entrepreneurship (ICCE) at Goldsmiths in the University of London.

Michael’s research enquires into the need for new digital-business models in the film industry: it is commercially focused but also academically rigorous. It serves as a model for the kind of industrially focused and commercially aware R&D work the new Policy and Evidence Centre should undertake on behalf of the sector.