UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) has launched a new platform called Creative Innovation, showcasing how industry is being transformed through landmark, high value R&D (research and development) funding programmes such as the Creative Industries Clusters Programme (CICP) and Audience of the Future, convening UK wide teams of industry and cross disciplinary academics.
Working within regional clusters, these programmes are fuelling unprecedented levels of innovation and growth across UK Industry.
Following an initial 5 year investment of £80 million, the CICP alone has already attracted £110.6 million additional co-investment – with one more year of the programme still to go. Both programmes combined have achieved £201.6 million co-investment, 3935 jobs, funding for 906 businesses, and with a reach to 36,992 UK businesses, to date.
So the Creative Innovation platform is a new space to share the incredible stories arising from this place-based transformation and growth in the UK creative industries.
UAL's Creative R&D Partnership, the Business of Fashion, Textiles and Technology (BFTT) with Loughborough University (LU); University College London; Queen Mary University of London; University of Leeds; University of Cambridge; and the Victoria and Albert Museum – is funded by the £80 million CICP. BFTT is one of 9 UK wide R&D partnerships bringing together world-class research talent with SMEs and leading companies and organisations from across the UK.
BFTT will run until the end of 2023, working to delivery multiple impacts and success across approximately 45 large scale R&D projects with industry and SMEs. BFTT is delivering sustainable innovation within the entire fashion and textile supply chain, and publishing reports with insight into this rich industry.
In November 2021, Creative Innovation published an article about 2 new apparel and textile focused Institutes emerging out of the footprint of the CICP: UAL’s Fashion, Textiles & Technology Institute (FTTI) and Leeds Institute of Textiles & Colour (LITAC).
The complementary East London and Leeds institutes represent a significant investment into world-class research, with radical talent and entrepreneurial energy. Each will go some way to help meet the scale of the challenge, and the opportunities shaping the future of fashion and textiles, related technology and wider apparel industry at a global level, addressing sustainability and other industry challenges, such as ethical working practices, working to a 20-year timescale with ambitions of bringing academic and industry expertise together indefinitely.
UAL FTTI’s innovative whole-systems approach incorporates design, STEM, cultural anthropology, and business practices to ensure long-term change and improve access to R&D, while harnessing advancements in technologies related to the sector. It also brings the potential to integrate with other industries such as architecture, automotive design, and healthcare.
The UAL FTTI’s future base within the developing East Bank in Stratford (2023) is at the heart of this story and FTTI will build on East London's heritage in fashion, textiles and apparel production to provide this thriving industry sector with greater agency to innovate. Based in UAL’s new home for London College of Fashion, FTTI will continue to work with established partners at East Bank and a host of higher education and cultural neighbours including the V&A, the British Council, and the BBC. A community of over 6500 students, this new place of creative innovation will be the largest dedicated centre for fashion education in Europe.
In January, Creative Innovation shared the FTTI and British Council’s FTT Catalyst programme. This current work brings together 5 sets of UK and ODA country business partnerships, supporting them in sustainable research and development. This initiative is stimulating international collaboration to re-evaluate the industry’s relationship with climate change, the environment, and the need for radical transparency and social responsibility; with projects across manufacturing and commerce, materials and digital production practices.
The Creative Innovation platform raises the profile of the UK fashion, textiles and technology industry and its sub sectors, and its goals towards sustainability and the circular economy. It supports our work to position the sector to play a huge role in the country’s future economic prosperity and sustainable leadership.
The Business of Fashion, Textiles & Technology (BFTT) has published a major report which identifies opportunities for growth and investment in the UK fashion, textiles and technology (FTT) industry.
UAL FTTI in partnership with British Council are pleased to announce 5 UK and ODA country SME pilot partnerships, to share £100k funding and business support for sustainable design and production.