Strategy key to progress

Jul 3 2008 Evening Gazette

TEESSIDE's digital media champions have welcomed a university think-tank report, which urges greater support for the sector.

The report from Million+ held up the University of Teesside, which was among the first to launch postgraduate courses in digital and creative media, as a flagship centre.

The authors called for a new Arts, Humanities and Creative Industries Research Council to promote skills and development in the industry, a relaxation of the finance rules governing knowledge transfer projects between private companies and academics, and greater international promotion of the UK’s world leading status as a digital developer to attract more foreign students.

They said the industry needed an overarching government strategy similar to that adopted for science and technology.

One NorthEast and Teesside University welcomed the report. A spokesman for the university said the university’s Institute of Digital Innovation, which offers incubator units, and Digital City, an enterprise partnership, was working towards building a cluster. “But it’s not without its problems.”

“Halch [the Teesside based games developers who graduated from Tees] are good examples of where it succeeds, but others have fallen by the wayside.”