Creative industries gain £369m future funding boost

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The creative industries have been allocated £369m of new funding as strategic growth sectors for the UK economy in an announcement by UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) which covers annual funding until 2029-2030.

The sum, agreed as part of the UK Government's Spending Review, is split between £269m of investment for contributing towards strategic government and societal priorities and £100m in support for innovative companies.

The allocation underlines the importance of creative industries to the UK's future strategy and growth.

The funding announcement by UKRI was led by Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) and Innovate UK and, was described as bringing to bear all of research and innovation strength across UKRI.

In a post on LinkedIn, Professor Christopher Smith, Executive Chair of the AHRC, said the funding allocation was a tremendous achievement for R&D for the creative industries and the most connected and coherent settlement, with clear links to members of the Creative Industries Council.

Prof. Smith said the AHRC will publish its strategy in January 2026, focused on CoSTAR Network, clusters, scaling and growing business, talent and skills and policy and evidence.

In addition, the announcement also included an allocation of £1.58bn for digital and AI, and just over £1bn for quantum technologies, as part of a total four-year £38.6bn allocation from government.

The priority ‘buckets’ were set out by Science and Technology Secretary Liz Kendall and UKRI CEO Ian Chapman at an Innovation for Growth Summit.

The priority ‘buckets’ are:

• £8 billion on targeted research and development (R&D) addressing national and societal priorities, including clean energy, health resilience and national security
• £7 billion to support innovative company growth, helping UK businesses scale and commercialise cutting-edge technologies
• £14 billion for the curiosity-driven research that underpins the UK R&D system‍

UKRI CEO Ian Chapman said: "We’re aligning our budget to a new single mission, to advance knowledge, improve lives, and drive UK growth.

"Over the next four years, we will scale research and innovation investment to almost £10bn per year and target world-leading areas with the strongest return for the UK."

Science and Technology Secretary Liz Kendall said: "There is no route to stronger growth without science, technology and innovation, so we must grasp the opportunities our world class researchers and innovators offer with both hands.

"By doing fewer things better and backing winning ideas, this round of record UKRI funding can help more promising UK businesses to scale up while homing in on projects which have the best chance of benefiting us all."

The new outcome-focused approach to allocations means that it is not possible to directly compare these allocations to previous budgets including comparisons with historic sector or research council investment levels.

More at UKRI.

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