We are not exploiting ‘createch’ enough

The writer is co-chair of the UK’s Creative Industries Council and council chair at the Royal College of Art

Beyoncé is very big in South Yorkshire. Not many people know that. On an industrial estate, just north of Doncaster, they digitally design and physically create the massive rigs for live music tours. Some of the world’s biggest performing stars stay there while they rehearse their gigs, including Beyoncé.

Production Park is an example of research and development-led innovation in the creative industries. So is the new virtual production facility for television and film next to a biscuit factory in north-west London. There, at Garden Studios, they need a new generation skilled in traditional production, live events and real-time game engineering if our screen industries (a fifth of the UK’s entire creative sector) are to continue their rapid growth.

“Createch” — or when creative design meets technology — is a huge national opportunity. Great economic and cultural value will be derived for the UK in the coming years across fashion, advertising and publishing as well as screen and music. That’s something those who make video games knew all along.

The creative industries account for 6 per cent of the UK’s economy, employ 2.3mn and have been growing healthily, even in times of stagnation (pandemic lockdowns excepted). The sector now takes R&D as seriously as areas already well recognised for it, such as life sciences, the automotive industry and aerospace. It’s actually larger than those three put together. But for a fragmented sector defined less than 25 years ago, often dominated by small and medium-sized companies and spread out in clusters, the creative industries have been a little difficult for policymakers to grasp. This has to change.

There are some positive signs. In 2017 I proposed a small investment in creative clusters to Greg Clark, then business secretary. The idea was to stimulate growth across the nations and regions with partnerships between universities and local businesses. To its credit, the government’s UK Research & Innovation funding agency put up £56mn, which over four years has been matched by £252mn from industry and other sources.

Applied research from universities, connected with 2,500 SME’s, has yielded 700 R&D projects, 227 new start-ups and 558 new products and services for subsectors such as screen, games and fashion. There have been games that tackle obesity; robot avatars to help in disaster zones; virtual reality to reduce the pain of childbirth; high-value sustainable yarn from recycled fibres; a leather substitute derived from fungus — and that’s just a few of the projects supported.

The Creative Industries Council, a government-business joint body, will soon publish a sector vision with ideas for driving inclusive growth up to 2030. The sector needs to be better at recruiting from all communities and talents, for the benefit of the whole country.

There are three important themes to tackle if we are to accomplish this. First, continuing support for innovative clusters. As the digital industrial revolution rolls on we need to stimulate the next wave of music tech, ad tech and publishing tech. While the UKRI has backed a few creative sector initiatives, it has been slow to fund the next iteration of their success with the clusters. I’m hopeful we can find a way through this. It matters.

Second, we need to encourage more university spinout funds for createch. For instance, the Royal College of Art has curated some 80 spinout companies through its entrepreneurship centre, InnovationRCA. Some of these come from its joint programme with Imperial College London, where teams are made up of designers, ceramicists, engineers and data scientists. From this interdisciplinary richness, a range of innovations are emerging: spin-offs include methane-capturing masks for cattle; and a device to capture tyre particle pollution; novel filters for street drains are at concept stage. It is worth remembering that RCA graduates include the entrepreneur Sir James Dyson as well as the artist David Hockney.

Third, our sector must define the skills it needs for the future, with entry and career pathways for the next generation of creators. We have not been good enough at this. Last month, at a top-rated academy, a group of 17-year-olds told me about their taste in film, music, fashion and games but had no clue what jobs and skills these fields represented.

The “Stem” skills — science, technology, engineering and mathematics — are very important in createch. But we like to add A for arts into this, making “Steam”. Wasn’t the last industrial revolution powered by steam? There’s a lesson there for us.