The Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) has published a CREATe Report to support the Launch of the Creative Industries Clusters Programme, part of the UK Government’s Industrial Strategy.

The study -  Intellectual Property & Collaborative Agreements in the Creative Industries, written by University of Glasgow and CREATe’s director Professor Martin Kretschmer, Bartolomeo Meletti and Dr Sukhpreet Singh -  was published at the Beyond conference at the Barbican, London on 17 November 2018, which launched the UKRI Clusters programme.

It includes interim recommendations developed with Ben Green of Ben Green Associates and Professor Andrew Chitty, the AHRC Creative Economy Champion, on how the experimental nature of Research & Development (R&D) collaborations between universities and industry may be supported by a new approach to collaborative agreements.

At the University of Glasgow, CREATe is now beginning work on a major new project. Within the UK Creative Industries Policy and Evidence Centre (PEC), led by innovation foundation Nesta, part of the AHRC Clusters programme, CREATe will lead the work strand on Intellectual Property, Business Models, Access to Finance and Content Regulation.

At the launch of the Creative Industries Cluster Programme, Sir Mark Walport, CEO of UKRI, stressed the central role of the new PEC for creating an independent evidence base that will inform decision-making across the creative industries and underpin future policy decisions.

Professor Martin Kretschmer, Professor of Intellectual Property Law, School of Law, Director of CREATe and a member of PEC's management board, said: "The industrial organisation of the creative industries is changing rapidly.

"We now live in a platform economy. All online behaviour is potentially observable, and whoever controls this data infrastructure will have a stake in the creative economy that is very different from the role of earlier cultural intermediaries.

"A new set of questions about the effects of intellectual property and information laws on creative production and consumption needs to be addressed. The UK Policy & Evidence Centre is the right forum to make a difference."

Professor Philip Schlesinger, Chair in Cultural Policy, Deputy Director of CREATe, PEC Co-Investigator, said: "‘We are in the midst of a new crisis of regulation. In the foreground are calls to regulate major data-driven corporations and mounting concern about the impact of social media on the tenor of political life as well as everyday interaction and behaviour.

"The classic model of regulating public service media also is coming into question. Systems will change and we want to influence new thinking."

CREATe will develop digital and open data tools that consolidate the evidence on the effects of IP rights on creative production and consumption, changes in business models, and the emerging data economy. This builds on CREATe’s highly effective evidence resources that are used by many 100,000s of visitors. These include www.copyrightuser.org; www.copyrightevidence.org; and the topical and comprehensive EU Copyright Reform intervention 

In close partnership with the Centre for Cultural Policy (CCPR) at UofG, CREATe will also undertake new research on the challenges for the production, distribution and international exploitation of UK audio-visual content, and analyse new approaches to content regulation in the context of the evolving platform economy, globalisation and Brexit. In partnership with the University of Sussex, the work strand will research barriers to finance in the creative industries and how policies should address these.

Professor Gillian Doyle, Professor of Media Economics, Director of Centre for Cultural Policy Research (CCPR), PEC Co-Investigator said: "As audiences shift to players such as Netflix and Amazon Prime and, more broadly, as the forces of digitisation re-shape patterns of ownership and economic power across media, the need to harness evidence and expertise that builds understanding of what role public policy-making can and should play in promoting the sustainability and success of our audio-visual industries has never been greater. A focus on the development of creative industries in a rapidly evolving policy context is at the heart of our research.’

Professor Iain MacNeil, Alexander Stone Chair of Commercial Law, Head of the School of Law, said: "CREATe, our international research centre specialising in copyright and information law, focuses on innovation in the creative economy. Since 2012, CREATe has delivered more than 50 projects, covering value creation from production to intermediaries and use, as well as wider public interest perspectives. Taken together, the research programme constitutes the first attempt at a sustained interdisciplinary evaluation of copyright law. We are proud of CREATe’s policy influence, both in the UK and internationally."

Professor Kate Oakley, Professor of Cultural Policy, Head of the School of Culture and Creative Arts, said: "The University of Glasgow has long been at the forefront of critical engagement with the cultural industries and media policy. The Policy and Evidence Centre continues and deepens that work at a time when rapidly changing technology meets old questions of power, access and responsibility. Improving the quality of evidence matters greatly for creative and cultural policy. The university is committed to strategic investment towards a significant world-class research centre."

Professor Sir Anton Muscatelli, Principal of the University of Glasgow, said: "The creative economy is one of the UK’s fastest growing sectors, and a bellwether for far reaching changes in a society disrupted by digital technology. The Policy & Evidence Centre is of particular interest and relevance because it aligns so closely with the University’s strategy to develop its work on the creative economy still further."

In a series of public lectures this autumn, CREATe is exploring critical new thinking on these issues. The latest lecture by Antony Taubman, Director of the Intellectual Property Division at the World Trade Organisation, will present: ‘Discontent Industries? Creative works and international trade law: making sense of ‘analogue’ IP rules in a digital age’. The lecture will take place on Wednesday, 28 November, from 5.30pm in the Humanities Lecture Theatre, Main Building, University of Glasgow.

 

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About CREATe

CREATe is the UK Copyright and Creative Economy Centre, based at the University of Glasgow. From 2012-2018, it was funded as an RCUK Centre jointly by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC), Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) and the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC). From 2018-2023, CREATe will be leading work on Intellectual Property, Business Models, Access to Finance and Content Regulation within the AHRC Creative Industries Policy & Evidence Centre (PEC).

Antony Taubman Lecture - 28 November 2018

Antony Taubman, Director of the Intellectual Property Division at the World Trade Organisation, will present: ‘Discontent Industries? Creative works and international trade law: making sense of ‘analogue’ IP rules in a digital age’. The lecture will take place on Wednesday, 28 November, from 5.30pm in the Humanities Lecture Theatre, Main Building, University of Glasgow. Further information about CREATe’s public lecture series can be found here. 

First published: 26 November 2018