Funding opportunity

Pre-announcement: Expanding access to creative sector R&D infrastructure

• Opportunity status: Upcoming
• Funders: Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC)
• Co-funders: Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS)
• Funding type: Grant
• Total fund: £12,000,000
• Publication date: 30 July 2026
• Opening date: 24 August 2026 9:00am UK time
• Closing date: 29 October 2026 4:00pm UK time

Join the convergent screen technologies and performance in realtime (CoSTAR) Network and host national R&D infrastructure for the creative sector.

You will reduce barriers to creative businesses’ technology adoption, improve commercialisation support for creative technology businesses and drive scale up and investment.

You must be based at a UK research organisation eligible for AHRC funding.
Over 3 years via Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS)’s Createch Futures programme, Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) will fund up to 2 Showcase Labs (up to £4m each) and up to 2 Satellite Labs (up to £2m each).

This is a pre-announcement and the information may change.
The funding opportunity will open on 24 August 2026. More information will be available on this page then.

Who can apply

This opportunity is open to organisations with standard eligibility. Check if your organisation is eligible. Organisations, such as businesses or third sector organisations, that are not eligible to receive a direct grant may participate and receive funding as collaborators or partners.

Who is eligible to apply

Additional eligibility criteria

The application must be led by a UKRI eligible organisation at the head of partnerships and/or consortia including at least:

• 1 commercial or industry co-location partner
• 1 local or combined authority or equivalent economic development body or enterprise agency

Applicants must also be able to demonstrate proof of wider industry support and collaboration locally that will deliver significant co-investment from the private, public or third sectors.

AHRC will award a maximum of 4 grants: up to 2 Showcase Labs and 2 Satellite Labs.

Lead bidders may submit for both a Showcase Lab and a Satellite Lab.

Other organisations may partner with a maximum of four bids across both Showcase and Satellite Labs.

Lead bidders that already hold grants under the CoSTAR programme lots 1, 2 and 3 can apply to this call. However, the final funding decision will take portfolio balance into account, including geographic spread of both new labs and the original CoSTAR labs.

Individual eligibility

To lead an application for this opportunity, you must:

• be a resident in the UK
• be employed at, or have a formal affiliation with an organisation eligible to receive UKRI funding under standard eligibility criteria (see above)
• have a doctorate or demonstrate equivalent professional experience or training
• have an outstanding track record of strategic planning and delivery of major capital or R&D and innovation programmes for the screen and performance sectors
• have or be able to build and maintain relationships with diverse stakeholders from the creative research community, screen (film, TV, games) and performance sectors government and the wider creative industries
• be engaged in leading-edge research and innovation of professorial or equivalent standing applicable to the creative industries
• demonstrate a level of skills, knowledge and experience appropriate to the nature of the project

You should not apply if your organisation has limited knowledge or does not have expertise in R&D and innovation in the screen and performance industries and in technology related to the creative industries.

Please see AHRC’s research funding guide for further information on eligibility.

Who is not eligible to apply

This funding opportunity is concerned with the UK context only. International collaborations are not eligible under this scheme.

Equality, diversity and inclusion

We are committed to achieving equality of opportunity for all funding applicants. We encourage applications from a diverse range of researchers.

We support people to work in a way that suits their personal circumstances. This includes:

• career breaks
• support for people with caring responsibilities
• flexible working
• alternative working patterns

UKRI can offer disability and accessibility support for UKRI applicants and grant holders during the application and assessment process.

What we're looking for

Demand management

Demand management is not being applied to this funding opportunity.

Aim

This call is an expansion of AHRC’s CoSTAR programme, AHRC’s flagship national network of creative research infrastructure.

The expansion is funded from DCMS’s Createch Futures initiative, providing £25 million in additional investment into national R&D facilities in order to drive innovation, creativity, and research commercialisation in the UK’s screen and performance industries. It builds upon and forms part of the existing network by enabling greater network cohesion, regional access, clearer commercial pathways and alignment with emerging technologies, particularly generative Artificial Intelligence (AI).

It will deliver up to two Showcase Labs and up to two Satellite Labs, a Virtual Compute Lab and additional Access Programmes, primarily funding equipment, technology, staff, utilities and an access programme to support Small Medium Enterprise (SME) utilisation.

This infrastructure will lead to:

• reduced barriers to creative businesses’ technology adoption;
• broader access for creative businesses to specialist Research & Development (R&D) infrastructure at lower cost;
• faster progression from R&D to commercialisation through support and credible demonstration environments; and
• accelerated development and commercial uptake of high-growth creative technologies, including across a wider range of UK regions

Scope

This funding opportunity represents Lot 1 of Createch Futures funding, providing up to £18,000,000 over three years to deliver the Showcase and Satellite Labs.

For more information on the CoSTAR Network, go to the Additional information section.

Successful consortia will set out a programme that will:

• design and fit out of state-of-the art creative R&D facilities including relevant technology infrastructure. These facilities may constitute a refurbishment or extension of an existing facility and must be co-sited with a screen production facility, studio or performance company.
• focus on near market Research and Innovation (TRLs 6-9) and serve an identified geographic and/or sectoral community act as a hub to drive investment in and adoption of new creative technologies, companies, experiences, applications and products (Showcase Labs only).
• collaborate with CoSTAR National Lab and the rest of the network to identify opportunities/needs for coordinated R&D programmes and disseminate research outcomes.
• contribute to demonstrator/pilot programmes with National Lab
• provide access to Knowledge Exchange, Commercialisation and Enterprise functions for CoSTAR Network partners
• manage the R&D laboratory facilities, including staff resourcing for a period of 3 years.
• develop and implement a model to secure external co-investment for their lab to ensure long-term financial sustainability.

Both Showcase Labs and Satellite Labs:

• should have sufficient capability to act as a lab contributing to the research and innovation activity and impact of the CoSTAR Network
• should be formed from a demonstrable track record of createch Research & Innovation (R&I) activity
• must be capable and willing to conform to technical standards adopted by the CoSTAR network and play a role in the CoSTAR Technology Roadmap.
• must act as a point of presence providing access to the CoSTAR National Infrastructure including support for companies engaging with the network
• should have technical expertise and staff resource sufficient to support these objectives

In addition Satellite Labs:

• should be situated in a region of demonstrable Createch Technology activity that is distinct from (and additional to) the existing CoSTAR Labs
  • should specialise in an industrial application area of sector that extends the CoSTAR Network beyond its current activity, but which also demonstrates the technology convergence underpinning CoSTAR. extra showcase requirement

In addition Showcase Labs:

• should have technologies sufficient to demonstrate research and innovation results including new content outputs, production processes and workflows and novel services
• should be able to perform as a central presentation environment for industry and investment events from small groups to conferences (10-150pp)
• should act as a performance or audience venue to demonstrate immersive experience
• must be operated by a body or partnership with clear ability to connect businesses with investors [UK creative, seed and Venture Capital) VC, UK and international technology, FDI] working with industry and/or government bodies and a track record in delivering creative technology demonstration, conferences and events

Duration

The duration of this award is three years from April 2027.

Projects must start by 31 May 2027

Funding available

The FEC of your project can be up to £2,000,000 for satellite labs and £4,000,000 for showcase labs, excluding pledged Third Party Match Funding from commercial, not for profit and local government partners. This Third Party Match Funding must be equal to a minimum of 50% of the FEC requested in your application.

AHRC will fund 80% of the FEC subject to the above exclusions.

Third Party Match Funding (Pledged Coinvestment)

Third Party Match Funding above the minimum figures indicated must be included in your response along with supporting commitment from providers of this funding. However, as the terminology suggests, these are the minimum figures that must be included.

Evidence from CoSTAR and the Creative Industries Clusters Programme (CICP) shows that place-based R&D&I programmes can generate co-investment at a multiple of AHRC or UKRI grants (in CICP’s case, more than £3 co-investment for every £1 of UKRI Grant), from a variety of sources including industry, public partners and further R&D funding.

We therefore anticipate that bidders will include Third Party Match Funding significantly above these minimum levels, alongside the necessary evidence and commitment from partners. Levels of projected co-investment and commitments will form part of the assessment of bids as they are essential to the sustainability and diversification of the infrastructure

We encourage you to follow the principles of the Concordat to Support the Career Development of Researchers and the Technician Commitment.

Trusted Research and Innovation (TR&I)

UKRI is committed in ensuring that effective international collaboration in research and innovation takes place with integrity and within strong ethical frameworks. Trusted Research and Innovation (TR&I) is a UKRI work programme designed to help protect all those working in our thriving and collaborative international sector by enabling partnerships to be as open as possible, and as secure as necessary. Our TR&I Principles set out UKRI’s expectations of organisations funded by UKRI in relation to due diligence for international collaboration.

As such, applicants for UKRI funding may be asked to demonstrate how their proposed projects will comply with our approach and expectation towards TR&I, identifying potential risks and the relevant controls you will put in place to help proportionately reduce these risks.

See further guidance and information about TR&I, including where applicants can find additional support.

How to apply

We are running this funding opportunity on the new UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) Funding Service so please ensure that your organisation is registered. You cannot apply on the Joint Electronic Submissions (Je-S) system. We will publish full details on how to apply when the funding opportunity opens on 24 August 2026.

Contact details

Get help with your application

If you have a question and the answers aren’t provided on this page

The helpdesk is committed to helping users of the UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) Funding Service as effectively and as quickly as possible. In order to manage cases at peak volume times, the helpdesk will triage and prioritise those queries with an imminent opportunity deadline or a technical issue. Enquiries raised where information is available on the Funding finder opportunity page and should be understood early in the application process (for example, regarding eligibility, content or remit of a funding opportunity) will not constitute a priority case and will be addressed as soon as possible.

Contact details

For help and advice on costings and writing your application please contact your research office in the first instance, allowing sufficient time for your organisation’s submission process.

Any questions regarding the CoSTAR programme can be directed to costar@ahrc.ukri.org

Questions about application and grant processes should be sent to the Grant Operations Team via operations@ahrc.ukri.org

Please note that until the call formally launches, aspects of the specification including timelines can be subject to change.

Any queries regarding the system or the submission of applications through the Funding Service should be directed to the helpdesk.

Email: support@funding-service.ukri.org
Phone: 01793 547490

Our phone lines are open:

• Monday to Thursday 8:30am to 5:00pm
• Friday 8:30am to 4:30pm

To help us process queries more efficiently, we request that users highlight the council and opportunity name in the subject title of their email query, include the application reference number, and refrain from contacting more than one mailbox at a time.

For further information on submitting an application read How applicants use the Funding Service.

Additional info

Background

CoSTAR is a £75.6 million investment by the UKRI Infrastructure Fund, delivered by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC). It created the first national network of R&D labs built to maintain and boost the UK’s world-leading position in the development and exploitation of creative IP. The CoSTAR Network provides facilities, technology research and a series of different academic and industry partnerships to support the continued growth of the UK’s gaming, TV, film, performance, and digital entertainment sectors by enabling the development of new products, services, or processes.

CoSTAR delivers programmes direct to industry that lower the barrier of entry to R&D and the use of new and emergent technologies, providing support to SMEs and microbusinesses who would otherwise not have access to the facilities they need to experiment and scale their innovations.

For more details on the work of the CoSTAR Network, please visit the website UK Research and Development Network for Creative Technology (CoSTAR Network).

The Challenge

The UK creative industries are a major economic asset, contributing £145.8bn in Gross Value Added (GVA) and supporting 2.4m jobs in 2024. The sector expanded by more than twice the wider economy over the longer term (2010 to 2024) and is highly innovative. The creative industries outperformed the rest of the economy in all forms of innovation.

The UK ranks 6th globally in the World Intellectual Property Organisation’s Global Innovation Index and 3rd in creative outputs and the UK’s global strength in film, music, fashion and gaming underpins strong export performance, with almost £60bn in creative industries exports in 2023. The sector has the highest employment growth projection of all the Industrial Strategy sectors according to Skills England.

Despite this performance, the sector faces challenges to growth including uncertainty around digital and Intellectual Property (IP) regulation, a £1.4bn finance gap constraining SME growth, particularly at the scale-up stages, and persistent regional disparities in concentration, investment, innovation and skills.

Rapid advances in AI, immersive and virtual production technologies are reshaping creative production, creating productivity opportunities alongside risks relating to skills, Intellectual Property (IP) and cultural value. Environmental pressures are increasing as production becomes more compute- and energy-intensive. These pressures are particularly acute in creative technology-intensive activities, where rapid advances in AI, real-time production and immersive systems are increasing both productivity potential and the capital intensity of innovation, raising barriers to entry for smaller firms.

Government policy recognises the creative industries as a high-growth priority sector. The government has also set an ambition to make the UK the best place to start and grow a ‘createch’ business, with the CoSTAR infrastructure a key component to meet this ambition.

Createch Futures is designed to extend CoSTAR’s geographical and sub-sector reach to improve integration, access and commercial pathways, rather than replicating existing provision. As one of the Industrial Strategy sectors, the creative industries developed a Sector Plan setting out a 10-year strategy for growth including a focus on innovation and the role of place. This supported the Secretary of State’s priority of growth and good jobs in every place and the government’s Growth Mission.

The Creative Industries Sector Plan sets an ambition to grow the sector, identifying innovation, R&D capability, skills and access to finance as critical enablers of growth. This builds on commitments in the Creative Industries Sector Deal and Sector Vision, which highlighted the need for stronger innovation infrastructure and university–industry collaboration to support technology adoption and export growth. In parallel, the AI Opportunities Action Plan recognises the transformative role of AI and the need to lead in both building and using AI to remain a world leader. Together, these national policies establish creative technology as a priority growth area requiring targeted infrastructure support.

These drivers are reinforced by the evolution of CoSTAR. Two years into implementation, a review of CoSTAR identified gaps in network cohesion, business-facing access, and strategic alignment with rapidly evolving technologies such as AI, while reaffirming the importance of a nationally co-ordinated approach. At sub-national level, regional and local initiatives, including the Creative Industries Clusters Programme, the Creative Places Growth Fund, and locally led creative scale-up interventions, demonstrate sustained demand for creative R&D capability and improved commercialisation pathways outside London.

Collectively, these drivers point to the need for an integrated national creative technology infrastructure that strengthens access, adoption and commercial outcomes for businesses beyond the current CoSTAR programme, providing the underpinning infrastructure to enable place-based activity.

Research and innovation impact

Impact can be defined as the long-term intended or unintended effect research and innovation has on society, economy and the environment; to individuals, organisations, and the wider global population.

Webinar for potential applicants

AHRC will be running a webinar for potential applicants. We shall also be running application development surgeries aimed primarily at lead applicants and institutions that have not previously received large infrastructure grants from AHRC. Details of registration for these events will be available on this page in due course.

Research disruption due to COVID-19

We recognise that the COVID-19 pandemic has caused major interruptions and disruptions across our communities. We are committed to ensuring that individual applicants and their wider team, including partners and networks, are not penalised for any disruption to their career, such as:

• breaks and delays
• disruptive working patterns and conditions
• the loss of ongoing work
• role changes that may have been caused by the pandemic

Reviewers and panel members will be advised to consider the unequal impacts that COVID-19 related disruption might have had on the capability to deliver and career development of those individuals included in the application. They will be asked to consider the capability of the applicant and their wider team to deliver the research they are proposing.

Where disruptions have occurred, you can highlight this within your application if you wish, but there is no requirement to detail the specific circumstances that caused the disruption.