BirminghamCityUniversity’s Contribution to the Creative Economy
Background
BirminghamCityUniversity’s impact on the Creative Industries is significant in terms of depth, breadth and duration. In our city the sector accounts for around 20,000 jobs – four per cent of the city’s workforce. The 3,450 creative businesses make up 10 per cent of the city’s total number of firms and business numbers have grown by almost 20 per cent since 2003. The Creative Industries sector employs more people than either construction or the manufacture, sale and repair of cars, and similar numbers to the legal, accountancy and management consultancy professions combined.93 per cent of creative firms in the city are micro-businesses, employing 10 or fewer people. The sector produces more than £660m of GVA (source Business Link).
Birmingham City University’s Rationale for Engagement and Source of Support
As a university we have long understood the importance of the creative economy and this is reflected in the sector being widely recognised in our course, research and industry engagement portfolios. We have world class research, we engage at international, national and regional level, we have recently networked with over 200 senior influencers in the sector, and in the last few years we have interacted with over 500 businesses, assisting and supporting them in economic development. We are the leading provider of undergraduate talent for creative industries outside of London and are considered within the top five Media Skillset Academies in the country. Our work is innovative and we have sought to challenge creative boundaries.
BirminghamCityUniversity’s extensive learning and teaching, research and knowledge transfer activities are very closely aligned with the DCMS’s definition of the Creative Industries. However the University prefers a more refined definition via the following subsets – architecture, film and animation, visual communication, arts/crafts, fashion, product design, music and performance – that allows both students and staff to acknowledge the Creative Industries’ tendency to embrace convergence and innovation.
The Creative Industries are supported through three key faculties, namely Birmingham Institute of Art and Design (BIAD); the Faculty of Performance, Media and English (PME); and the Faculty of Technology, Engineering and the Environment (TEE). We are world class in our online media provision and recognised internationally for our Conservatoire (rated in the top three for research in the UK) which recently hosted the International Double Reed Society’s convention (usually hosted in the USA).We have broken new ground in the use of technology applications (examples detailed below) and have associations with some of the world’s leading practitioners. For example BirminghamCityUniversity hosts the National Academy of Writing, whose president Lord Melvyn Bragg and committee of highly esteemed authors link with the University to assist in developing writers of the future.
While the Creative Industries have been defined by the economic mechanisms that drive the creation of IPR (Intellectual Property Rights), the University recognises the necessity of scholarly engagement with the cultural sector. The local, regional and national impact of cultural engagement is widely acknowledged and accepted as a key economic driver but the link between the University as a broker and driver of cultural engagement and the quantitative impact such work has upon the Creative Industries cannot always be measured over the short term. For example, the University recently hosted a Big Debate in partnership with the local regional newspaper Birmingham Post and NEC Group regarding how the West Midlands’ Creative Economy can lead the UK in development of its skills, reputation and ability. This was attended by some 200 leading figureheads in Birmingham and the region and featured key speaker Charles Leadbetter. The event led to a report which has been issued to the local Business Link, Screen West Midlands, Birmingham City Council, Digital Birmingham and Advantage West Midlands (AWM, the regional development agency) with the creation of facilitated discussions to support the development of activity and continues to reinforce the significant role the University plays in stimulating debate and thinking.
BirminghamCityUniversity’s Approach (including timescales, engagement, funding and involvement, with quantified outcomes)
To facilitate development of added value in the Creative Industries the University has structured its research, innovation and enterprise engagement activities into themes which are supported by our Centres of Excellence and specialist interest groups (focusing on knowledge transfer, workforce development and wider employer engagement) and these include:
- Design
- Digital
- Culture
Each theme has a range of academics who are operating around:
Learning and teaching– within this we embed work-based learning experience.There are eight foundation and pregraduate courses, 37 undergraduate and 53 postgraduate courses operating within this field.BirminghamCityUniversity looks to innovate with its courses constantly, incorporating strong engagementwith industry and insight into current research.Consequently, areas of specific working under the DCMS’s headings such as advertising can be explored and redefined across subject areas by students and practice active staff. It is for this reason that Saatchi and Saatchi, Wunderman and Trevor Beattie choose to work with a university that has contributed to their industry through research-led innovation to ‘guerrilla’ advertising. The University is recognised as an innovator for fresh ideas. For example in design over 200 students in Interior Design, Product Design and Textiles Design at BA and MA level work with international trends forecasting agency Global Color to produce an industry exhibition to showcase future trends to over 30,000 trade visitors. The students are recognised by Global Color, UBM Live (a major events organiser) and international wallcovering manufacturer, Tektura, for high quality work. The project has resulted in 20 commission requests in the last year, and five work placements and job offers (which are ongoing) in addition to creating 53 new knowledge transfer leads and two major consultancy projects with Marvell’s and the National History Museum.
Workforce development and continuing professional development – through specialist centres like the University’s Jewellery Industry Innovation Centre (JIIC) we have been cultivating design skills throughout the Creative Industries, allowing them to appreciate the potential of cutting edge technology by engaging with 563 individuals over the last three years.Our MediaSkillsetAcademy status has led to engagement with the BBC, Global Media Group and Guardian Media Group, resulting in substantial benefits to our curriculum delivery and has resulted in the development of a Foundation Degree in radio production as co-taught provision.The work of our Screen Media Lab, a tailored industry facility which promotes multimedia and content skills to industry, has allowed non-creative businesses to access creative talent through the provision of initiatives like Talent Bank and Notion Studio, while its Skills Bank has facilitated an upgrading of skills of some 500 individuals. In addition to more standard training approaches, BirminghamCityUniversity has been working with leading industry practitioners to provide cutting edge training. For example in the games industry, our School of Media led an initiative entitled Gamer Camp – an idea which Birmingham City University identified when attending South by South West, a leading international conference hosted in America, at the cutting edge of digital innovation. Offering an alternative educational experience based on work-based learning, the University identified a gap in the market to apply knowledge of games and animation in this way. The course was developed with Screen West Midlands, and in consultation with HyperIsland, Apple and leading industry stakeholders. Launched in 2009, 11 participants completed the programme, making them industry-ready to take immediate jobs within the animation and games industry because the training delivery was so closely aligned to industry requirements (with much of the course delivery being given by expert practitioners in the field).
Business assists – The University has been successful at linking up with a range of public funding providers in developing specific activity to support the Creative Industries. In December 2002, with HEIF 2 funds (Higher Education Innovation Fun for 2004-06), the School of Media established Screen Media Lab a commercially engaged entity which works either in collaboration with businesses or with interns and graduates to offer leading-edge web, video and mobile services. The University invested in the area to offer graduates work based opportunities, to develop relevant curriculum, and to build a development capability to directly support industry. The initiative was funded initially via ERDF (European Regional Development Fund), ESF (European Social Fund), commercial income, HEIF , SRIF (Science Research Investment Fund), National Lottery , NESTA (National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts) , AWM and Business Link. Work is now focused on commercial and research-based income to make it sustainable. The JIIC through its New Product Development Programme completed 427 individual business assists given to over 270 businesseswith over £2m generated in new sales, 25 new jobs created and 213 jobs safeguarded over a five-year period from 2003.An example of how the JIIC provides assistance to a wide range of creative industries is the way it created small-scale dragons for a Harry Potter movie using its extensive CAD/CAM facilities. The centre is internationally respected for its expertise in using small-scale, highly complex rapid prototyping to provide new product development solutions for companies.
Other projects which support industry have included Media Vault, Net Infinity and Design Knowledge Network (which target a range of sectors from designer makers through to manufacturers e.g. of furniture – figures of which are provided below), Digital Central and Interactive Digital Media (which targeted the digital media and games companies). Collectively these have undertaken well in excess of 1,000 business assists to regional companies over the last five years which have made a major contribution to the region’s upskilling and regeneration programmes.
Knowledge transfer –BirminghamCityUniversity is one of the leading providers of Knowledge Transfer Partnerships (KTPs – a government supported scheme for business and other organisations) in the UK.Over a 10-year rolling period BirminghamCityUniversity has run36 KTPs, related to Creative Industries, this represents a wealth of experience in knowledge transfer.Our KTPs are peer reviewed and the majority have been graded 1 (outstanding) and 2 (very good). The impact of these KTPs on the companies’ profit before tax has been significant.Average profit increase for Creative Industry related KTPs, as a direct result of a KTP, three years after project completion is £191,000.Average profit increases over 32 completed KTPs, (three years since project completion) is £6,112,000. Our KTP Associate working with R. Holts & Co Ltd managed by BirminghamCityUniversity’s JIIC has just won Business Leaders Tomorrow Awards 2009.
Research – BirminghamCityUniversity has long been a leading research university in the Creative Industries. The returns from RAE-2008 (Research Assessment Exercise) showed that BirminghamCityUniversity made one of the largest improvements since RAE-2001, moving up 26 places in the THE’s (Times Higher Education publication) research quality tables. Three-quarters of the research submitted was judged excellent (4*, 3* or 2*) with almost one-fifth judged to be world-leading (4*). Art and Design was rated in the top 10 submissions in the country, andthe Birmingham Institute of Art and Design was judged to have a 100 per cent 4* research environment. Birmingham Conservatoire was judged to be the third highest rated Conservatoire in the country and the highest rated outside London. Much of the world-class research was found within the design, digital and cultural themes, demonstrating our commitment to research, knowledge exchange and third-stream activities within Creative Industries sector.As a result of the excellent RAE results, QR (Quality Related) funding for research) from Hefce(Higher Education Funding Council for England ) doubled and the University is investing significantly in research through the creation of a network of 12 Centres of Excellence and the formation of the Institute for Digital Experience and Applications, specifically to integrate research that is of direct relevance to the Creative Industries and digital economy, from across the University.
Engagementsby the University in this space are wide and varied in terms of focus. The University has led the way in reviewing how digital infrastructure is changing the mode of operation for the industry, and led an AHRC (Arts & Humanities Research Council) project into change withinthe music and radio industry in the new digital age.Working with Capsule, Punch Recordsand Unity FM the project has been able to forge innovation, review communication and promote consolidation, with the creation of new prototypes for advocacy, new networks and new knowledge exchange. A project in Digital Archiving, in partnership with Screen West Midlands, TV Junction, MACE, the British Library, and Birmingham Archive and Heritage, has opened up access of digital archives to the cultural sector, aiding knowledge exchange and development. Our work with digital technologies as enablers of new forms of creative media applications is also extending understanding.
The LUCID (Location, User and Context-Aware Information Delivery) project funded by Advantage West Midlands through Science City is just one of many projects we have engaged in that contributed to the Creative Economy – Birmingham City University’s User-lab’s ongoing work in usability and user-centred design regularly sees it working with creative industry organisations such as regional SMEs and larger organisations such as Birmingham City Council. The LUCID project’s focus is on enabling technology and applications development for local creative companies to help them engage with their clients in areas where they lacked expertise (specifically in delivery of context-aware mobile applications/services). With significant experience of how users and audiences respond to innovative technologies through the University’s work and our extensive engagement with local creative industries, BirminghamCityUniversity was well placed to facilitate and lead this project, which provided some eight demonstrations of practical applications of value adding audience development activity. Working in partnership with 383 Project, Urban Pie, Flatpack, Trilby Media, Digital Birmingham, TV Junction, MACE, and the British Library the project highlighted a range of application opportunities for the cultural sectors to develop interactive communications with their audiences.
Our research is leading to the development of new technology. BirminghamCityUniversity’s Visualisation Research Unit (VRU) has been experimenting and developing technologies for extending and enhancing the creative practice of artists, filmmakers, composers and choreographers. It has recently filed a patent for a novel motion capture/HCI (human computer interface) device, and has presented 20+ conference papers and a public education programme for artists using technology as well as collaborative agreements with local arts organisations. The VRU addresses directly the increasing demand from practitioners and postgraduate students to explore and extend the use of technology in creative situations, by integrating technology expertise into creative practices such as music, dance and fine art. Supported by University funds and a SRIF grant (to acquire the motion capture equipment and computing power required), the project has attracted AHRC, JISC (Joint Information Systems Committee for Higher Education)and Arts Council funding and been supported by Elmhurst School for Dance, Eastside Projects, VIVID, Ikon, Animazoo, Wolverhampton University and Kings College.
Our Design research group has been employing innovation design principles to traditional engineering based disciplines. Using an ‘arts’ based designing approach permits the creation of FM (functionally marvellous) user experiences rather than FU (functionally unacceptable) user experiences in software. This work crosses the disciplines of psychology, computing, design and linguistics. The potential benefits available through our investigations into the design of more successful user interfaces are enormous, both in terms of enhanced creative access to software for users, time/money saving at the user interface, greater user satisfaction and reductions in user stress levels leading to enhanced psychological wellbeing. The work funded by BirminghamCityUniversity is being followed worldwide and is widely exposed within scholarly publications and conferences demonstrating the University’s international influence within this field of expertise.
Our Visual Communication research team has been writing and disseminating materials that demonstrate how typographic history has made a contribution to the current practice of typographic arts by Birmingham designers and scholars. This builds on a major piece of work undertaken by academics and students to revive interests in the Baskerville font, which resulted in a new commissioned piece featured at Hello Digital 2008. It will support an evolution in typographic thinking which will impact on a wide section of the advertising and graphics community.