Realtime and virtual graphical environments have been evolving with increasing speed over the last decade. As consumers we are becoming increasingly familiar with high fidelity virtualisation in film/TV and animation, video games and virtual reality. We have seen these techniques and technologies migrate from highly specialised and experimental uses to mainstream adoption and application. The use of these techniques in mainstream film and high-end theatre production has accelerated technological innovation and application across a broad range of motion and performance capture, real-time graphics processing, network and telecoms, edge computing in content and experience creation for entertainment media and live events. At the heart of these innovation is the development of real-time integration technologies primarily used for the creation of video games. Game engine technologies such as Unreal Engine and Unity are designed to integrate dynamic graphical environments with events and environmental effects in real time. For the last 5 years R&D-led growth and innovation in these areas has been driven through the AHRC Creative Industries Clusters InGAME in Dundee and Creative Informatics in Edinburgh. Both programmes have established strong, trusted networks and effective processes for driving demand led R&D into commercialised products. The CoSTAR Realtime Lab to be based in Water's Edge studio complex in Dundee and ECA in Edinburgh will bring together video games development expertise in Dundee's globally significant games cluster with world leading applied R&D at Abertay University and film, television and animation production in Edinburgh with University of Edinburgh's world leading expertise in machine learning and artificial intelligence. The CoSTAR Realtime Lab will deliver close-to-market innovation for digital productivity tools, creative production pipelines and content creation processes. The project will also bring together the existing networks, product development insight and R&D power from InGAME and Creative Informatics clusters to form a dual city creative technologies cluster supported by innovative product and service platforms that will generate new companies, products and markets for high-end, efficient, sustainable and accessible content creation. CoSTAR Realtime Lab will focus on applying innovative technology and process in entertainment contexts initially focussing on driving value through innovation in the following areas. - Performance and motion capture. - Virtual humans and dynamic procedural performance. - Machine Learning for production and Artificial Intelligence for process reproduction. - Artificial intelligence for dynamic effects and procedural graphics for visual effects. - Using advanced scanning technologies for 3D volume acquisition and ML/AI for procedural environment generation. - Developing lighting and ray tracing standards to deliver environmental fidelity. - Location based Software and hardware integration. - Integrated virtual and real-world film and TV production. The vision for the CoSTAR Realtime Lab will be to establish a mixed reality R&D centre that supports sector engagement in collaborative R&D led innovation. The Lab will facilitate engagement between multinational technology vendors and UK content creators with creative technologists and digital content SMEs to identify opportunities for innovation driven growth in scale and value for the Scottish and UK sector. Collaborative R&D will promote product innovative in SMEs by supporting new product, process and service development, driving value and stimulating diversification of product and markets. By combining world leading research with multinational technology companies and highly creative and dynamic SMEs, the CoSTAR Realtime Lab will transform the creative media industries in Scotland and the UK and deliver global leadership in next generation entertainment creation and technology innovators.

Creative Informatics is an R&D partnership which will grow Edinburgh's creative industries cluster, by helping it to tap the huge potential of using data to shape, develop and deliver new products and services for public and business customers. Over the past ten years, new data-driven products and services have transformed the way people engage with cultural experiences, conduct transactions, and relate to each other. Our ambition is to enable the sector to succeed in an increasingly competitive market, by addressing key innovation challenges and by developing the R&D capacity and data literacy of companies to ensure they can capitalise on new technology to develop new products and services. The R&D Partnership is hosted by the University of Edinburgh, with Edinburgh Napier University and has two key delivery partners: Creative Edinburgh, a well-connected network of over 3800 members, and CodeBase, the largest technology incubator in the UK and one of the fastest growing in Europe. Creative Informatics will benefit from outstanding infrastructure to support delivery including that provided by the Edinburgh and South East Scotland City Region Deal which will focus on Data Driven Innovation. We will bring together cultural partners, creative businesses and entrepreneurs with academic expertise in the fields of design, informatics, business, law and cultural heritage, to address four Innovation Challenges: 1. Developing access to and engagement with new audiences and markets 2. Developing new modalities of experience 3. Unlocking value in archives and data sets 4. Revealing new business models for the creative industries These challenges could see Edinburgh's Festivals extending the festival experiences offered both in Edinburgh and overseas. Outputs from projects could lead to new commercial products for home entertainment, new apps, games, new ways to buy products and services by experiencing them first, new ways for advertising agencies to develop campaigns and experiences for clients, and online experiences for remote participation. Museums and Galleries will be able to mine text and images in their archives to create opportunities for new product lines for SMEs and the tools developed along the way can also be licensed and sold. Partnerships across our cluster will include creative teams who understand new transaction technologies (crowd-financing, micro-payments, cryptocurrencies). This will ensure creative entrepreneurs can develop radical new products and services, whilst understanding the opportunities and threats and ensuring that social interests are safeguarded. The development of data-driven solutions for adapting and distributing content will open up new international market opportunities for a range of creative industries sub-sectors including design, advertising, gaming, publishing, film and TV production companies, music/record companies, and fashion. We will support growth of the cluster through six R&D initiatives which have been co-designed with partners to meet their needs. Challenge Projects, Horizon Projects and Creative Informatics Labs (CI Labs) will respond directly to the four innovation challenges. Creative Bridge, a dedicated data-driven business innovation programme; Resident Entrepreneurs; and Connected Innovators will respond to the challenge of developing and retaining talent, entrepreneurs and leaders to fuel the growth of the creative industries cluster in Edinburgh. Edinburgh's creative industries cluster has a vibrant creative and technology culture in a city internationally renowned for both culture and entrepreneurship. Creative Informatics provides the missing 'cog' to allow creative entrepreneurs to connect with world-leading expertise in data science and Edinburgh's tech and start-up culture and fulfil its potential to make the UK an international centre for creative data-driven innovation.

Chemical biology is spearheading the development & translation of novel molecular tools and technologies to study biology and develop biomedical understanding. Dovetailing these platforms with industry 4.0/5.0 breakthroughs in automation & robotics, artificial intelligence & machine learning, the CDT will unlock the Lab of the Future paradigm. This will redefine the state of the art with respect to making, measuring, modelling & manipulating molecular interactions in biological systems, leading to novel R&D workflows, promoting efficient design-test cycles and driving sustainability. These molecular technologies will (i) enable biological & medical research, (ii) revolutionise understanding of disease & (iii) create novel diagnostics, drugs & therapies, focusing increasingly on individual patient outcomes. They will also impact the agri-tech sector which faces huge demand to increase productivity by unlocking strategies to e.g. track agrochemicals in plants/soil, understand modes of action & drive precision farming. Similarly, advances in personal care industrial processes are critically dependent on development of molecular technologies to gain insight into structured product design. The application of novel molecular tools/technologies, Lab of the Future strategies & their commercialisation through the instrumentation science sector is thus critical to the UK economy, supporting >4,500 healthcare, personal care, agri-science & biotech companies. This will transform (i) therapeutic, agrochemical & personal care product discovery (ii) med-tech/biotech/healthcare instrumentation R&D pipelines & (iii) stimulate creation of SMEs. Working closely with civic partners including Hammersmith & Fulham Council and the NHS, the CDT's talent & research pipeline will act as a growth engine for one of the most rapidly expanding Life Science ecosystems in Europe, the White City Innovation District. Given the importance of Chemical Biology to UK plc there is great demand but short supply of Chemical Biology PhD graduates able to match the pace of innovation across the physical/life science interface, at a time when industry & health sectors need these skills to accelerate productivity. The CDT in Chemical Biology: Empowering UK BioTech innovation with its unique 5 year programme: 1 year MRes + 3 year PhD + 1 year ELEVATE Fellowship directly addresses this skills gap by training a new generation of career-ready graduates, able to embrace the Lab of the Future concept and unlock its potential by fusing innovative molecular tools & tech with industry 4.0 & 5.0 advances to study molecular interactions & develop applications in the life science, agriscience & personal care sectors. CDT students will benefit from a research and training programme created with >100 industry/external stakeholders designed to meet future employer's needs. Our cohort-based programme with EDI at its heart, will allow students to contextualise their work within wider CDT activities & find novel solutions to their research, supported by one of the world's largest Chemical Biology communities: the Institute of Chemical Biology (>165) research groups. Students will be trained in multidisciplinary blue skies/translational research, lean innovation, scale fast/fail fast approaches, creating scientists able to understand molecular technologies, sustainable product design, early-stage commercialisation, & industry's pace of change. To support this, our training includes Future Lab & HackEDU courses (prototyping training), a drug screening programme, Biz-Catalyst (entrepreneurial training), InnovaLab (SME accelerator), a Data Science course, Human Centred Design, Science Communication (with BBC) & Bioethics/RRI/Sustainability/Policy courses. Following PhD completion, students can enter the ELEVATE fellowship programme, bridging the gap between PhD & industry/academia, offering training, personalised workplace opportunities & enable students to kickstart new companies.

XR Network+ Virtual Production in the Digital Economy will provide a ten-year research agenda for content creation and consumption. XR Network+ is founded on research collaboration, co-creation and challenge-led innovation, and designed from the ground up to build a community of academic research and industry R&D at the convergence of ideas, technologies, and creative practice in Virtual Production (VP) to deliver impact and opportunity for the whole of the digital economy. Virtual Production (VP) is an emergent area of multi-disciplinary activity encompassing the wider application of digital creativity techniques and technologies across many domains. It is changing the landscape of technology-driven storytelling, media, film and television content production workflows, live and immersive experiences, both large and small scale. The UK screen industries sector is currently investing heavily in traditional studio infrastructure, with demand for production space currently outstripping supply. However, compact, flexible and technology-driven VP facilities will help to shape the future of these and other studios, their production practices, the content they make and hence the audiences that consume this content. This change is based on how a new generation of real-time technologies (motion capture, spatial computing, data, AI, machine learning, volumetric capture, haptics, real-time rendering, immersive XR and responsive media) offer, for the first time, the promise of integrating production processes and workflows from initial concept through to final result. XR Network+ will build on the success of the AHRC Creative Industries Clusters Programme (CICP) and the significant interest that has emerged from these projects in supporting R&D in XR (eXtended Reality) technologies as it converges with VP. The CICP demonstrates how leading universities can act as anchors at the centre of geographical/sectoral creative industries clusters and use their research capacity and expertise for the benefit of their SMEs, bringing opportunities for place-based growth, and economic, social and cultural impact. XR Network+ will land at a critical point, during the final year of the CICP and as a number of significant VP investments come online, offering a short window of opportunity to harness connections and capabilities. XR Network+ builds a bridge between five current CICP projects and will leverage other core UKRI, local government and industry investment. It will drive a community-led programme of complementary VP research and innovation to unlock the potential of content creation and consumption for the whole of the digital economy and related sectors. Research challenges co-created with project partners at application include: VP Integration of virtual game worlds and physical content; sound design in VP contexts; building VP environments, characters and objects; issues of ethics and IP in the use of digital assets and data; AI and data-driven automation; translation and impact in the digital economy. XR Network+ activities will be built across five stages corresponding to the five years of the project (1) Engage; (2) Explore; (3) Challenge; (4) Respond; (5) Report and Renew. An Annual Networking and Showcase event will provide a key point of dissemination for each stage of activity. Feasibility funding will support a potential range of research activities based on best practice from the five CICP projects: a Creative Bridge programme for early career researchers; a Knowledge Transfer Partnership Model; small grant funding; challenge funding; portfolio building; and commissioned research to evaluate the project and build a roadmap for future activity. XR Network+ is important and timely in terms of the significant current interest and investment in VP and the need to coordinate the UK's research base alongside industry and regional investments to provide a pathway for next stage investment and growth at a national level.