Scanning the Globe: An introduction to the Foresight Lab’s international research
Scanning the Globe: An introduction to the Foresight Lab’s international research
Dr Vicki Williams, Policy & Partnerships Manager
The UK plays a significant role on the international stage when it comes to the creative industries, a key growth sector identified by the UK Government that is recognised as an engine for national economic growth, as well as adding £25bn to the UK’s international trade balance (2021). Not dissimilarly, the UK’s digital and technology sector has consistently ranked as 3rd in the world behind only the US and China.
Yet, when it comes to assessing the UK’s strengths at the intersection of digital technology innovation and the creative industries, the picture is yet to be comprehensively painted.
Rapid advances in digital technologies such as Artificial Intelligence (AI), Extended and Virtual Reality (XR/VR), blockchain technologies and new tools across visual effects (VFX) and creative content production, mean that the sector is constantly evolving, innovating and rapidly changing. New methods of producing creative content and delivering new products, services and experiences are evolving at a new-found pace – in the UK and across the world. This poses new opportunities and disruptive challenges for the sector
The CoSTAR Foresight Lab fundamentally believes that the combination of the creative industries and digital technologies, and the UK’s world-leading strengths in these areas, provides an underexploited opportunity to drive national growth. We believe that the UK’s global leadership in the creative industries should be leveraged to drive global partnerships and private investment in digital technologies.
This is the driving motivation and context for the CoSTAR Foresight Lab’s ongoing programme of work, which will map the current and future landscape of technology-driven creative R&D and innovation across screen, games, live performance and digital entertainment. You can find out more about the lab’s broader programme of work in a recent blog from lab Director, Professor Jonny Freeman.
Our international work is cross-cutting, and complements our other areas of work like futures and foresight, carbon and sustainability, and tracking the adoption of technological tools across the industry.
As such, the lab will be assessing the international context of technology-driven R&D and innovation in the creative industries, placing the UK’s strengths and challenges in a global context, and tracking key developments, trends and dynamics over time.
We will be tracking a multitude of trends over the next five years, including across international markets, to inform our insights and intelligence gathering, as well as monitoring signals of change that are set to shape the future. Our aim is to deliver intelligence to inform our key stakeholders, support the design and implementation of policy recommendations, inform industry practice and drive further growth in creative technologies across the UK.
First in a series of ‘international scans’
Today we are launching the first in an ongoing series of outputs that will look at emerging global trends related to advanced technologies and their use in the creative industries, giving key insights and tracking developments across:
Policy and regulation
Mergers and acquisitions, deals and investment
Workforce and skills developments
Facilities and infrastructure investment
Technology advancement and adoption
Environmental sustainability solutions and impact.
This report tracks global updates from Jan-Oct 2024, collating intelligence to determine the most impactful emerging areas and implications for the UK. It focuses on the newest developments across key global territories: the US and Canada; Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA); Latin America (LATAM); and Asia-Pacific (APAC).
Key insights at a glance
AI: International technology policy relating to the creative industries continues to evolve with an unsurprising focus on AI, its increasingly widespread adoption and calls for transparency on data use
The EU AI Act came into effect in July and is the first globally recognised regulatory bill. Many countries are using this as a legislative framework, with other policy developments responding to the increased adoption of AI technologies, for example, the development of a Select Committee focussed on AI Adoption in Australia, which is being largely informed by the creative industries sector.
Meanwhile, writer representation organisations across Europe have formed a collective stance and joint positioning statement calling for AI transparency and accountability in use of copyrighted materials. At the same time, both Alphabet and Meta are in discussions about licensing content to feed into their AI video-generation software that will be able to create realistic scenes from text prompts.
Pro-competition regulation also remains a focus of new developments, as the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority has signed a joint AI statement with the US Federal Trade Commission, US Department of Justice and the European Commission. The statement focusses on encouraging interoperability between AI technologies and ensuring that global consumers have access to a wider range of AI tools and services in the market, seeking to prevent market stifling and monopolisation.
Digital worlds: Whilst companies like Apple are investing in content creation for XR, VC investment in Metaverse, VR and AR start-ups has declined, with seed funding at £366.8m in 2024 and notable start-ups including Magic Leap and Niantic not securing new rounds since 2021.
Incentive systems: There have been a number of global movements to drive the expansion of existing incentive systems to include various digital media, including video games and immersive media
States across the US are implementing new tax credit systems to account for broader digital technology inclusion – including a bill in Illinois proposing a new tax credit for “producers of interactive digital media” and another in Massachusetts focussed on “interactive media production”. In New Jersey, a bill has been introduced to increase post-production provision in the State.
Skills: Global training and skills opportunities at the intersection of the creative industries and technology are on the rise, with new trainee programmes in VFX, games, virtual production and immersive – with notable courses launching in Ireland, Australia and the US. Courses are largely being delivered by the private sector, particularly by companies developing hardware and software solutions.
Sustainability: Reference stories on sustainability and environmental impacts relating to creative technology appear to be somewhat nascent across 2024, with relatively top-level reference stories referencing the positive environmental impacts of evolving production technologies such as VFX and virtual production. However, it is clear that there is emerging international policy and strategy relating to sustainability in the sector, as some territories consider the inclusion of sustainable practices as a requirement for qualifying for tax credits and incentives; this is particularly apparent across countries in Europe. We foresee that there will be a high rise in stories on this subject matter across the next two years as these policies and potential new investments come into force – and we will be tracking this area as central work area of the Foresight Lab and delivering new data and intelligence from a UK perspective.
The Netherlands Film Fund, building out of the Government’s Film Production Incentive has introduced sustainability as a critical component in the project development phase and encouraging the use of carbon-calculation tools. Austria, too, has established a legal basis for the implementation of ecologically sustainable production via their film production incentive.
You can find out more by downloading the latest report.
What’s coming next
This scanning report is the first in an ongoing series of publications on the international landscape developed by the CoSTAR Foresight Lab with Olsberg·SPI.
This report will be followed by a series of briefings assessing strategic and policy approaches to creative technology across the globe. We have identified five initial countries of focus based on existing and desired partnerships with the UK relating to creative industries and/or technology innovation, global leadership and reputation. The first wave of briefings will launch in 2025, covering: Canada, South Korea, India, Australia and Japan.
We will also be tracking international trends for the next round of outputs across the Foresight Lab, as well as convening roundtables and events on particular areas.
To find out more and connect with us on our international work directly, please contact Vicki Williams: v.r.williams@lboro.ac.uk.