Policy Briefing: CoSTAR Network Industrial Strategy Response
On behalf of the CoSTAR Network, the CoSTAR Foresight Lab’s policy function submitted a joint response to the UK Government’s Industrial Strategy Green Paper, combining input from across members of the Network. This briefing provides a summary of the key points made in the response.
Posted: 30 November 2024
- Creative technology is a growth lever. The intersection of creative industries and advanced digital technologies represents a high-potential area for productivity, export growth and private investment.
- Targeted R&D investment remains uneven. Despite accounting for a significant share of UK GVA, the creative industries receive a disproportionately small share of UKRI funding.
- Place-based interventions are critical. Regional infrastructure and innovation support are essential to enable SME scale-up and unlock local economic spillovers.
- Technological convergence is reshaping production. Policy frameworks must move beyond siloed technology categories and account for integrated, convergent workflows.
- Global positioning requires policy certainty. Clear, balanced regulatory approaches to AI, IP and sustainability are central to competitiveness and inward investment.
“Current policy approaches to technology and its use across sectors tend to consider individual technologies in a structurally pillared approach; that is to say, the UK often establishes technologies of focus individually. This is subsequently reflected in innovation funding opportunities which tend to be separated by technology types. Whilst this approach is successful in determining which technologies are central to growth ambitions, it does not accurately reflect the way in which tools, products and services are developed, combining and integrating different technologies - also referred to as technological convergence - and the unique growth potential enabled by such convergence."
This response advocates for creative technologies to be treated as a cross-cutting growth enabler within the Industrial Strategy, not confined to a single sector category.
It calls for:
- recognition of sectoral and technological convergence in policy design
- investment in infrastructure that enables cross-sector experimentation
- stronger support for R&D adoption and diffusion across the Creative Industries
- alignment between digital innovation and net zero commitments
The briefing positions convergence, skills development and infrastructure access as central to unlocking long-term growth.