CoSTAR Showcase Labs: Createch infrastructure and commercialisation

Open UKRI funding opportunity · Grant. Closes 2026-10-29. Total fund £8 million. Opportunity page: https://www.ukri.org/opportunity/costar-showcase-labs-createch-infrastructure-and-commercialisation/

Join the Convergent Screen Technologies and performance in Realtime (CoSTAR) Network and host national research and development (R&D) infrastructure for the creative sector.

You will reduce barriers to creative businesses’ technology adoption, improve commercialisation support for creative technology businesses and drive scale up and investment.

You must be based at a UK research organisation eligible for AHRC funding.

Over three years via the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS)’s Createch Futures programme, AHRC will fund up to two Showcase Labs up to £4 million each.

What we're looking for Aim

This funding opportunity is an expansion of AHRC’s CoSTAR programme, AHRC’s flagship national network of creative research infrastructure.

The expansion is funded from DCMS’s Createch Futures initiative, providing £25 million in additional investment into national R&D facilities in order to drive innovation, creativity, and research commercialisation in the UK’s screen and performance industries. It forms part of and adds significant value to the existing network by enabling greater network cohesion, regional access, clearer commercial pathways and alignment with emerging future technologies, particularly generative AI.

It will deliver up to two Showcase Labs and up to two Satellite Labs, a Virtual Compute Lab and additional Access Programmes, primarily funding equipment, technology, staff, utilities and an access programme to support Small Medium Enterprise utilisation.

This infrastructure will lead to:

- reduced barriers to creative businesses’ technology adoption

- broader access for creative businesses to specialist R&D infrastructure at lower cost

- faster progression from R&D to commercialisation through support and credible demonstration…