PDR and Cardiff Region win £50m funding to develop media innovation
We’re thrilled to announce that PDR, with our parent organisation Cardiff Met and the newly-established media.cymru consortium, has recently won a share of the £50m Strength in Places fund to develop a world-leading cluster for media innovation in the Cardiff Capital Region.
Made up of 24 organisations, some of our cohorts in media.cymru include Channel 4, Cardiff Council, S4C, Welsh Government and a host of other innovative institutions dedicated to driving inclusive, sustainable economic growth and an additional £236m in Gross Value Added (GVA) by 2026 through the media sector.
Together, we’ll spearhead a series of industry-led challenges, including sustainability, bilingual production, diversity and inclusion, tourism and technology. These will position the Region’s media sector as a testbed for new content, approaches and formats.
We are delighted to be part of this exciting partnership and look forward to sharing our expertise for the benefit of the media sector here in Wales.
Jarred Evans | Managing Director | PDR
Part of our remit will be working to develop infrastructure, including a world-class virtual studio and virtual studio lab with new forms of connectivity and storage. We’ll curate an innovation pipeline - moving from ideas, to R&D, to market – that involves hundreds of regional SMEs, alongside a coordinated skills strategy to generate, attract, retain and upskill talent.
Further advances will include working together to develop new formats and genres (such as interactive film and modular journalism), new forms of media tourism to showcase the sector and new immersive technology for use in other sectors.
On news of the funding, Jarred Evans, PDR Director, said: “We are delighted to be part of this exciting partnership and look forward to sharing our expertise for the benefit of the media sector here in Wales.
“We are used to leading and collaborating on projects funded across the public and private sectors, as well as with other academic partners, industry, the public sector and governments. The work will build upon our considerable experience supporting media and creative industry companies in Wales.
“We are confident and excited to bring our experience and research expertise to this project.”
Next steps
Learn more about PDR’s work - take a look at our case studies on generating design and media innovation, or get in touch to discuss a project.