BTHL - Industry
We welcome enquiries from external organisations and partners interested in using the BTHL’s facilities and expertise, and are already making them available to local freelancers and businesses in the creative industries as part of the CreaTech Frontiers scheme for the West Midlands.
Interested in working with us?
Get in touch to find out more: bthlab@contacts.bham.ac.uk
CreaTech Frontiers
A new creative industries cluster for the West Midlands, CreaTech Frontiers is made up of five collaborators: University of Birmingham, Birmingham City University, Coventry University, University of Warwick and the Royal Shakespeare Company.
A funding pot of £250,000 will give freelancers and SMEs access to academic R&D expertise, mentoring and training, and use of world-class research and development labs to create new content, products and services.
At the University of Birmingham, that includes access to the BTHL, with equipment that can help test and develop AI and machine language for creative applications. The College of Arts and Law academics who have offered their expertise to grant applicants are:
- Huanjia Ma – gaming
- Scott Wilson – immersive audio and interactive music systems
- Annie Mahtani – sound art, sound installations and electronic music
- Joanna Bucknell – augmented performance
- Chen Zhu – creative IP challenges
Other University of Birmingham academics involved are:
- Chris Baber – pervasive and ubiquitous computing
- James Davies – measuring economic impact and identifying trends of creative sectors and clusters
- Matthew Lyons – measuring economic impact with proprietary model designed for the creative sector
This is CreaTech Frontier’s first round of funding, with a minimum of £1.8 million expected to be awarded over the next five years.
The University of Birmingham is delighted to be part of this consortium bringing together leading universities in the West Midlands with cultural organisations, providing research and development expertise from academics and creatives, education and skill development opportunities, generating and supporting jobs, and supercharging the creative industries in the region.