Creative Scotland, the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) and the National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts (NESTA) today (17 January 2012) announces the Digital R&D Fund for Scottish Arts and Culture, a new £500,000 fund to help projects harness digital technologies to connect with wider audiences and explore new ways of working.
Arts and cultural organisations of all sizes from across Scotland are being asked to work with those with digital expertise to help them understand the potential offered by new technologies and together develop innovative project proposals for submission to the new research fund.
It is hoped that the research and development projects, supported by the Digital R&D Fund for Arts and Culture, will not only support Scottish cultural organisations to innovate to increase their audiences and revenues, but will also ultimately have the potential to produce new data and research insights that can be shared with, and benefit, other organisations in the arts and culture sector.
Jackie McKenzie, Head of Innovation Programmes in Scotland for NESTA said: “The rapid development of digital technologies opens up exciting new opportunities for Scotland’s world-renowned arts and culture sector to reach new audiences and develop new business models. Through this programme we aim to explore and demonstrate what these opportunities are, and show how technology can benefit the sector.”
Iain Munro, Creative Director of Creative Scotland, said: “Many creative organisations across Scotland already work successfully across digital platforms but, as the pace of technology accelerates, our cultural sector needs to source new opportunities to increase their audiences and improve their revenues. This new strategy – our first commitment from our Cultural Economy programme – is a dynamic new route to boosting Scotland’s digital presence and we welcome the co-investment from our other partners.”
Chief Executive of the AHRC Professor Rick Rylance said: "We live in exciting times as we discover more about the interactions between the new digital technologies and the arts and the potential for innovation they bring. This joint project will enable us to understand these opportunities more fully and encourage their realisation. We are delighted to be working once more with NESTA in this area, and for the first time, with Creative Scotland. The AHRC has long supported the huge talent in the Scottish creative economy and it is thrilling to be developing this into a new phase.”
Fiona Hyslop, Cabinet Secretary for Culture and External Affairs, said: “Scotland is a creative nation and our world renowned creative sector play a vital part in Scotland’s digital future ambitions. We already have world-class strengths in many areas relating to digital technology, and this new Digital R&D fund will help our artistic and cultural organisations become even more innovative, further enhancing the ways in which they use new technology to reach people across Scotland and worldwide.”
The call for applications follows an online scoping exercise with the sector to determine the areas and themes of most importance. This exercise revealed several themes that the sector is keen to explore including:
• Digital content distribution ( delivering content in new ways)
• Social media (using technology for interactive engagement),
• Making the most of archives through digital technology,
• Mobile and location-based services
• Fundraising (using technology to generate giving, sponsorship and membership)
Applications are invited from all sizes of arts and cultural organisation based in Scotland from today (Tuesday 17 January) until Friday 20th April. To be eligible organisations must be either predominately publically funded and/or registered charities and want to work with digital technologies.
Applicants will be asked to take part in one of a series of workshops to be held in Perth on 6th March, Glasgow on 14th March and Edinburgh on 16th March to help them collaborate with potential technology partners. Following these workshops and an online application process, successful applications will be announced in May 2012.
For further information and to submit an application, visit http://www.nesta.org.uk/digital_rnd_scotland