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Media City at night - By Andrew Brooks 

The vision for the FIRM initiative is to introduce a powerful, multi-disciplinary research ingredient into the open innovation ecosystem of the iconic MediaCityUK development, in such a way that strategic impacts of national and global significance are achieved in the domains of theory, practice and policy.

FIRM is a global collaborative research and innovation partnership with a physical base in MediaCityUK, comprising partners drawn from higher education, business and the community. The partnership has already secured £2.72 million of competitive funding from the Research Councils UK, and £630,000 from the Northwest Regional Development Agency to carry out a programme of innovative research into a range of digital and creative industry themes, as well as investigating the phenomenon of MediaCityUK itself as a rapidly developed industry cluster with economic and social impact. FIRM will:

  • improve understanding of the digital and creative industries, including the development of technological advances, finding innovative uses for existing technology, and pushing forward the research and innovation agenda on a range of fronts;
  • provide an open, interactive research and innovation facility located in the Media Enterprise Centre in MediaCityUK, a space for action and ideas which will draw on the best examples of innovative spaces and designs worldwide, bringing together universities, creative industries and communities.

Core Partners:

  • BBC
     
  • University of Cambridge
     
  • Goldsmiths College, University of London
     
  • Lancaster University
     
  • Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)
     
  • North West Vision and Media
     
  • University of Salford
     

We are funded by: