Birmingham launch on 15th October 2013 for two new competitions from the UK’s Technology Strategy Board:
1. Cross Platform Production Tools — “up to £15m” collaborative R&D call for projects intended to stimulate innovation in digital media production tools and systems:
a) Single Company -led Feasibility Studies projects of 12 months in duration, with up to 75% of the costs funded by the award. Project cost should be around £100,000-£120,000, and must be centred on fundamental research (“acquire new knowledge of the underlying foundations of phenomena and observable facts, without any direct practical application or use in view.”). Open from September 2013.
b) Collaborative Research & Development (CR&D) projects. 12-24 months duration. Awards can provide up to 60% of a project’s eligible costs, for large consortia working on projects of £300,000 up to £2m. First round open from September 2013.
2. Frictionless Commerce — £2.5m to “address the innovation barriers to frictionless commerce” via developing “projects that lead to efficient digital transactional environments for the content industries.” Seems to be mostly interested in copyright systems and metadata? Opens at the end of September 2013.
