Time: Wednesday, 27 May 2026 from 12:30 to 14:15
Place: NTU Newton, NEWN34
The event will start with lunch followed by the talk and Q&A.
"XR Stories XR Stories: Building and Supporting a Creative Industries R&D Cluster – What We Did and What We Learned.
In 2018 the UK’s Arts and Humanities Research Council invested more than £50m in Wave 1 of the Creative Industries Cluster Programme, supporting economic growth in nine locations around the UK through collaborative, University-led R&D, targeted at specific sectors of the creative industries. XR Stories was one of these projects. It was led by the University of York to deliver next generation immersive and interactive digital storytelling experiences for the Yorkshire and Humber region, representing more than £6m people and 600 businesses across film, TV, games and related media.
Over six years XR Stories delivered more than 110 projects, 16 studentships, and 80 internships, and delivered training and support for creative industries businesses and individuals wanting to break into technology-driven creative storytelling. This included a new £1.25m investment in a business facing R&D lab facility within our city centre to act as a front door to future collaboration with our University researchers. Since 2024 XR Stories has refocused its activities and supports projects both nationally and locally, in the latter case as a key innovation intermediary as part of the newly formed Mayoral Combined Authority of York and North Yorkshire.
This presentation will highlight some of the highlights, successes, challenges and learning from the XR Stories project and look to what is emerging next for our work in the context of creative sector R&D across the UK.
Bio:
Damian Murphy is Professor in Sound and Music Computing at the AudioLab in the School of Physics, Engineering and Technology at the University of York, UK, where his research focuses on the development and creative application of immersive audio and virtual acoustic modelling. He is an active sound artist, and the Director of the XR Stories Creative Industries R&D Partnership and the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council XR Network+ project, both exploring the next generation of convergent immersive and interactive media technologies for the UK’s creative industries and wider digital economy.