THE HEART OF MYWORLD: We named the programme, ‘MyWorld’ because this represents both the individual and the global impact of mediated information and entertainment. A ‘World” can be a perceptual space that we create individually or collectively, but it can also refer to the planet we inhabit. ‘My’ describes our personal experiences and our journey through a story, but also our shared ownership of, and responsibilities for, all that surrounds us.
At the core of MyWorld is its R&D framework which spans the creative continuum of production, delivery and consumption, with investments being made at all levels – from basic interdisciplinary research, through R&D and experimental productions, to pre-production prototyping and demonstration. Alongside targeted research funding, we are running Open Innovation competitions, driven by strategic challenges, which will widen access to R&D funding for businesses and individuals.
State of the art studio facilities, linked to existing university infrastructure, are being developed, coupled with an operational structure that seamlessly supports both commercial and research usage. In parallel, investments from our partner universities will provide advanced digital skills programmes, developed together with cluster partners and local government, that will enable us to share expertise more widely within our cluster. Alongside these R&D activities, the programme has created a MyWorld Observatory that will analyse and assess the impact of our interventions to inform both regional and national policy.
Through these investments, MyWorld will enable us to address some of the big creative-technology challenges facing our sector. For example: building collaborative and interactive worlds with seamless interfaces between the physical and virtual; delivering these new experiences to massive audiences across networks of the future; understanding immersion and the real impact of new technologies, enabling us to create more engaging experiences; fully exploiting the use of AI to transform the production and delivery of new experiences; and helping to sustain the planet’s resources.
All of these initiatives combine to build reputation, foster sustainable growth, develop and diversify talent, attract inward investment and further internationalise our offering. While the five years of the MyWorld programme are key, it is its legacy beyond this terms of growth and job creation, that will be the real measure of its success.