Written by Research England through its Connecting Capabilities Fund will establish the Games and Innovation Nexus (GAIN) project, which aims to explore the strengths and opportunities between two of the UK’s largest games clusters, Warwickshire’s Silicon Spa and Guildford in Surrey.
GAIN is a collaborative effort that will foster innovation within these clusters and, in turn, support the thriving video game clusters, create a dynamic ecosystem, foster economic growth, and drive innovation in the UK games industry.
The project, supported by the University of Surrey, the University of Warwick, and the University for the Creative Arts (UCA), in conjunction with key partners and investors including Surrey County Council, Warwickshire County Council, UK Interactive Entertainment, Warwickshire Games Collective and Guildford.Games Ltd. Together the partners are poised to redefine how universities collaborate and support the UK video games sector.
Rachel Davis, Director of Warwick Enterprise, University of Warwick said,
“Innovation in the games and creative technology sector is fast moving, complex but very exciting. The University of Warwick is fully committed to actively supporting its Creative Cluster, ‘Silicon Spa’ alongside other regional strengths in immersive technologies, screen, performance and content creation. The GAIN project will enable a step change in how we can help knowledge exchange between universities and business, laying new foundations for sustainable approaches. Being able to do this in partnership with Surrey and UCA will be hugely beneficial.”
GAIN has four key objectives:
- Design and implement a new collaboration model that drives innovation activity between Higher Education and the UK Games industry
- Invest and expand in games infrastructure on campus to establish convening platforms for collaboration
- Be a catalyst for greater regional economic cohesion
- Promote growth, innovation, and sustainability within the games industry
The University of Warwick, using its Creative Futures team, will play a pivotal role in driving this project forward with activities and events which strengthen and develop the innovation ecosystem and respond directly to industry challenges, launch collaborative R&D projects and connections between academics and CreaTech companies regionally and nationally.
Clare Green, Associate Director at University of Warwick, explains,
“GAIN represents a significant leap forward for the wider creative tech sector in Leamington Spa. By connecting these two prominent games clusters and nurturing innovation, GAIN will help us better understand the uniqueness of our region and explore areas of support required with the aim to reshape the landscape of the UK games industry and offer a wealth of opportunities for knowledge exchange and commercialisation.”
Media Contact:
University of Warwick
Creative Futures
creativeanddigital@warwick.ac.uk
Find out more about Creative Futures’ work at Warwick and how we build collaborative R&D projects between CreaTech companies, researchers and academics currently.