A trailblazing scheme aimed at funding innovative creative tech projects from the Bath area has been launched for the fourth year running.
The Studio Innovation Fund has backed a range of pioneering projects ranging since its start – last year these included using Artificial Intelligence (AI) to create art and building low-tech robots from recyclable materials.
Run by The Studio at Palace Yard Mews, Bath Spa University’s city-centre research and innovation hub, the fund aims to help freelancers, micro-businesses, social enterprises and third sector organisations progress their creative technology project ideas.
This year’s £30,000 fund will be split into awards ranging from £2,000 and £10,000. Each project must explore creative technology solutions that address pressing social issues, and they must also include a collaboration with one or more of the Studio’s residents.
The deadline for proposals is 10am on 15 January and funding supports new or established projects over a six-month period, beginning in February and ending with an event in July 2024.
Other projects funded by the scheme in previous years have encouraged young people to re-engage with learning through the creative use of AI, helped visually impaired people to connect through sound and movement, supported neurodivergent artists to make theatre productions more accessible. and raised awareness of the unethical patenting of botany and the indigenous communities affected via augmented reality (AR) and performance.
All have sought to improve the world around us using creative tech.
Supported by the university’s Strategic Centre for Cultural and Creative Industries, the fund utilises a UKRI Policy Support Fund grant from Research England which supports new interdisciplinary programmes helping solve pressing public policy challenges.
This links to the ambitions of the West of England Combined Authority’s (WECA) cultural plan and its visions for social change and the growth of the creative industries in the region, as well as the core policies of the Bath & North East Somerset Council’s corporate strategy.
To find out more about the criteria for the Studio Innovation Fund and how to apply, visit thestudioinbath.co.uk/funding
