Lancaster shares in £2.72m grant at MediaCityUK

Lancaster University is one of three universities to share in a £2.72m grant from the EPSRC to fund cutting edge research at the new MediaCity UK.

MediaCityUK is a purpose built city on Salford Quays housing 5,000 staff in the digital and creative industries and will be the main home of the BBC outside London when it opens in 2011.

FIRM – Framework for Innovation and Research in MediaCityUK – starts in early 2010 and will fund university research into the latest digital technologies, from new gadgets to software processes. Researchers will also be supporting the BBC in developing experimental work in digital media.

Along with Salford University and Goldsmiths College London, Lancaster is to take part in this three year research project centred at MediaCityUK. Other key project partners are the BBC’s Future Media & Technology group, Cambridge University, MIT and North West Vision & Media.

Researchers from Lancaster will mainly be from InfoLab21 - one of the largest and most significant ICT research establishments worldwide. InfoLab21’s research centres on advanced communications and networking technologies and their role in next generation internet and associated web technologies, mobile and ubiquitous computing and distributed multimedia systems.

Professor David Hutchison, InfoLab21 Director and one of the lead researchers in FIRM, said “This project opens up vital opportunities for establishing the North West of England as a national and international centre for creative and digital media, in which Universities will partner with companies – both large and (very) small – in new ways of working to develop innovative products and services for the benefit of the regional economy”.

The base in MediaCityUK will also act as a gateway to Lancaster University’s range of services for its industry and community partners, including the hi-tech companies based at InfoLab21.

The North West Development Agency estimates that MediaCityUK – which is being developed by Peel Media- will deliver a billion pounds over five years to the regional economy.