CITIN: Creative Industries Champion Announced
May 10, 2008 | Levent OZLER
The UK's creative industries are set to be strengthened at the cutting edge of technology and innovation with today's announcement of a new Knowledge Transfer Network (KTN) which will champion their interests with Government and the technology sector.
A KTN is a national network in a specific field of technology or business application, which brings together people from businesses, universities, research, finance and technology organisations in order to stimulate innovation through knowledge transfer and sharing of ideas.
Funded by the Technology Strategy Board and led by University of the Arts London, the Creative Industries Technology Innovation Network (CITIN) consortium includes the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA), Imperial College London, and Tiga, the trade association for games developers. This partnership bristles with a wealth of expertise, networks, experience and passion that makes it uniquely suitable to implement this KTN. CITIN aims to become a national and international centre of excellence, driving technology innovation across the creative industries.
CITIN will work with all sectors of the creative industries, from architecture to video games, from fashion to film, TV and new media. It will clarify the challenges and opportunities of a rapidly changing technology landscape and bring together creative industry companies, technology providers and researchers to exploit this potential, drive innovation, and secure the UK's international competitiveness.
As a national network, CITIN will hold engagement activities across the UK providing members opportunities to meet in person and will use an innovative web platform to facilitate collaboration and engagement in the development of a national innovation agenda for the creative industries. Membership of the network will be free, the group will begin its work in the summer.
Keith Snook, Director of Research and Technical at the RIBA, and who will be on the Management Board said:
"The objectives of this project fit perfectly with the RIBA's determination to become a true knowledge centre for architecture; the establishment of a KTN will have a significant impact on this in promoting and facilitating knowledge exchange across all the creative industries. It is a fantastic opportunity for the RIBA and architecture to be at the forefront of this important project, and to collaborate with such high calibre partners to promote the sharing of knowledge across the creative sector."
Commenting on the decision to appoint the consortium to manage the new network, the Technology Strategy Board's Chief Executive, Iain Gray, said: "If the UK is to maintain and extend its role as the world's creative hub, we need to develop the new and innovative technologies that will support the sector in the years to come and continue to exploit well established technologies in new ways. The delivery consortium has a deep and broad understanding of the creative industries, comprehensive access to scientific and technology research and well-established capabilities in delivering knowledge transfer and networking activities. I am delighted that we will be working with them."
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