10157997MediaCity Immersive Technologies Innovation Hub Phase 2ClosedInvestment AcceleratorInnovate UKOVERVIEW This project establishes a people-centred immersive technologies innovation hub in MediaCity, strengthening GM's Digital & Creative economy. Driven by creative technologies, the hub will support GM's frontier sectors by combining R&D and innovation around creative technologies and their broader applications across all sectors. This will support businesses to design, develop, and test new products, services, solutions, and workflows for content creation, production, distribution, and commercialisation in an unparalleled environment. The aim is to drive productivity and economic growth, with a commitment to sustainability and social good. Underpinned by continuous investment in people via our partners, we are working in partnership to create a multi-agency innovation ecosystem for immersive technologies. The hub promotes collaboration with creative industries to tackle current challenges and pursue emerging innovation opportunities both at a national and regional level, fostering a dynamic environment where creativity and technology intersect to inspire groundbreaking advancements. THE PROGRAMME The programme will continue to build on the initial phase of the MediaCity Immersive Technology and Innovation Hub, which was designed to be dynamic, providing flexibility, and continuing to evolve to support the changing business requirements driven by customer and consumer demands, as well as advancements in technology, both nationally and internationally. Our 2025-26 programme will: \*Deliver tangible impact on innovation and R&D outputs, productivity, skills and jobs by using the best collection of business and academic minds to address the technology barriers and seize market opportunities. \*Delivering collaborative innovation interventions at a regional, national and international level to champion the GM ecosystem \*Promote the creation of an ecosystem of research and pipeline development \*Encourage a stronger sense of community, co-creation and collaboration amongst the business community. OUTCOMES The programme aims to: \*Enhance the capacity of MediaCity's research-led innovation ecosystem and portfolio, building on its existing assets to connect cutting-edge technologies with industry -- "applied innovation" -- enhancing and growing the existing cluster of innovative businesses, universities and entrepreneurs, leveraging investment from the founding partners, and attracting private R&D and innovation spend, exceeding Innovation Accelerator contributions, \*Establish a public facing environment, which positively impacts the lives and productivity of communities in all parts of GM, through a programme of outreach and targeted research projects, delivering social value and addressing health and employment inequalities in Salford, GM, and across the UK.