UK Government publishes Industrial Strategy and Creative Industries Sector Plan

Earlier this week, the UK Government published its Modern Industrial Strategy, a 10-year plan to achieve long-term economic growth and investment across the UK.

The strategy presents an ambition to prioritise business investment and identifies the Creative Industries as one of eight highly productive, innovative sectors whose frontier industries create strategically important technologies and services that are deployed across the economy.

Sitting alongside the Modern Industrial Strategy, the Creative Industries Sector plan sets out a framework for the growth of the sector with an ambition to increase business investment from £17 billion to £31 billion by 2035.

With Advertising and Marketing, Film and TV, Video Games, and Music, Performing and Visual Arts identified as frontier technologies within the sector, the plan focuses on creating access to finance, R&D and innovation, skills, trade, place, and IP.

The plan outlines proposals for an ambitious new wave of AHRC R&D clusters that will bring together universities and SMEs to accelerate innovation. It acknowledges the success of the first  round of clusters stating that the programme delivered £5 of public and private co-investment for every £1 spent. 

The sector plan also references the AHRC’s recent investment in the CoSTAR network – including the opening of the University of York led CoSTAR Live Lab at Production Park – and outlines ambitions to expand the network, adding five new R&D labs and two showcase spaces to strengthen commercialisation and tech adoption.

As one of the first wave of R&D clusters, XR Stories realised £27m co-investment based on an initial investment of £6.5m from AHRC and the team contributed to reports that formed the evidence base for the sector plan. In November 2024, XR Stories responded to the UK Government’s ‘Invest 2035’ formal consultation, providing further evidence to inform the new strategy.  

Damian Murphy, Director of XR Stories and XR Network+ comments: “It is encouraging to see that actions outlined in the plan, such as accelerating innovation-led growth, R&D, and building a resilient, skilled and diverse workforce, are already happening at XR Stories through our ongoing creative business residencies and our upcoming Mayoral Skills Innovation Fund programme, Extending XR.

With our colleagues at CoSTAR Live Lab helping businesses to develop new technologies and experiences for live performance, the activities across our respective projects are evidence of the crucial role that universities play in facilitating innovation and growth.”

Sources

The UK’s Modern Industrial Strategy

Industrial Strategy: Creative Industries Sector Plan

XR Stories response to the Invest 2035: Industrial strategy

Published on 24 June 2025