On 27 November 2017, BEIS published the Industrial Strategy – Building a Britain fit for the future White Paper. The Industrial Strategy included a number of valuable opportunities for the Creative Industries including a £33M fund for Audience of the Future Challenge.

How Audience of the Future Challenge is designed to support the immersive tech sector

Immersive technologies such as virtual, augmented and mixed reality are changing how we experience the world around us – from entertainment and art to shops and classrooms. The challenge is to bring creative businesses, researchers and technologists together to create striking new experiences that are accessible to the general public. This can create the next generation of products, services and experiences that will capture the world’s attention and position the UK as the global leader in the creative and commercial implementation of immersive technologies.

Design Foundations 2

UK registered businesses can apply for a share of up to £800,000 for early-stage, human-centred design projects in creative or immersive experiences.

£25k-£50k per project. The aim of this competition is to support early-stage projects to generate ideas that meet customer needs, using research and human-centred design principles.

Full details and how to apply can be found on KTN’s funding pages. Closes Wednesday 29 September 2021 11:00am.

Previous competitions

The first wave of Audience of the Future Challenges opened in May 2018, including:

  • The £16m Future Demonstrators Programme
  • The £1m Design Foundations Competition
  • The Production Innovation for Immersive Content Competition
  • The Immersive Technology Investment Accelerator

All these competitions closed for applications in 2018-19. Find out more about these competitions and the beneficiaries, or access archived information on applying for these competitions.

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