InfoLab21

ISTEP is delivered as part of the governments “Solutions for Business” Portfolio and is provided as part of the Innovation, Advice & Guidance product.

Definition of the Digital and Creative Industries Sector

As stated in the Enterprise and Skills Sector Strategy and Action Plan, in 1997, the Department of Culture,  Media and Sport (DCMS) created a definition of Creative Industries businesses, ‘based on individual creativity, skill and talent [that] also have the potential to create wealth and jobs through developing and exploiting intellectual property,’ within which it included the sub-sectors of :

• Advertising,
• Architecture,
• Arts and Antiques,
• Crafts,
• Design,
• Designer Fashion,
• Digital and ICT
• Music
• Publishing
• Radio and television
• Software
• Computer Games
• Electronic Publishing
• Video, Film
• Photography
• Visual and Performing Arts

NWDA’s strategic interventions focus on a footprint of sub-sectors - Broadcast Television, Radio, Digital Industries, Computer Games, Publishing, Creative Services (including Advertising, Marketing, Graphic Design and New Media) and Music – most affected by (and likeliest to benefit from) media and technological convergence.” 

ISTEP can also assist other “Information and Communications Technologies that affect the performance of these core activities and reflect particular strengths of the region and its history of innovation.”

Facts and Figures*

• The Northwest's digital and creative sector is the second largest in Europe
• Consists of 31,000 businesses, employing around 321,000 people and estimated to be worth £16 billion
• The Digital and Creative Industries sector is seen as pivotal to the region’s knowledge economy. It generates 16% of the Northwest’s Gross Value Added (GVA), employs 10.6% of its workforce and forms the second largest creative cluster in Europe.
• The whole spectrum of creative and digital activity is represented in the Northwest, from advertising and design to television and electronic publishing, including some highly successful niche markets
• Since 1995, the sector has expanded at around twice the rate of the overall UK economy, with growth consistently outstripping national performance.
• Key areas of success include film, digital media and television-related activities and computer games.
• The Northwest is home to a huge range of independent media operators, production facilities and creative talent, including Computer games giant Sony Computer Entertainment, based in Liverpoool, alongside its recently acquired Cheshire-based Evolution Studios and the Warner Brothers owned Traveller's Tales.
• The BBC is based at MediaCityUK at Salford Quays, a state-of-the-art development which is forecast to create over 15,000 jobs and provide space for an estimated 1,150 media-related businesses.
• The Northwest’s Centre of Excellence for ICT, InfoLab21, based Lancaster University, is one of the largest ICT research facilities in the world.
• Daresbury Science and Innovation Campus ,  Liverpool Science Park, and  InfoLab21,  provide high quality accommodation for high technology and knowledge-based businesses.
• NWDA’s growth plan for the sector aims to draw in talent, skills and investment from overseas to grow regional output by £1 billion a year by 2015 with the US, Japan and China among the main targets. Other targets include:
• An investment in a NorthernNet high-speed communications network.
• A National Centre of Excellence in Computer Games.
• The creation of a ‘Beacon Business Links’ process to promote best practice.
• *The NWUA is working with stakeholders to ensure that the region’s HEIs are engaged in sector development activities. NWUA has provided a platform for engagement with a number of key initiatives including the development of  mediacity:uk in Salford, the North West Creative & Digital Industries Sector Development Plan, the DCMS Creative Economy Strategy, the North West implementation framework for this and the 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games Cultural Olympiad. In addition to this the NWUA provides HE representation on the  North West Culture Observatory Reference Group and the Sector Skills and Productivity Alliance (SSPA).

*Figures taken from Invest In England’s northwest website 23 02 2010