Studio Ulster

Tender description

Studio Ulster (SU) is one of the five innovation pillar projects that underpin the Belfast Region City Deal (BRCD), & has been developed by Ulster University (UU), in partnership with: • Belfast Harbour Commissioners, hereafter referred to as Belfast Harbour; & • supported by Northern Ireland Screen. The Vision for Studio Ulster (SU) is to be a leading Commercial Centre of Excellence in Virtual Production (“VP”) in the UK and Ireland and to establish a ‘Tier 1’ Centre of Excellence in Research & Development and Innovation (R&D&I), in Real-time and Virtual Production, a rapidly developing suite of technologies and methodologies for screen content production. Located on the North Foreshore in Belfast, the development of SU in conjunction with the Belfast Harbour Film Studio complex creates a unique blend of facilities, that will drive commercial activity & collaboration in R&D on an unprecedented scale involving all strands of production and technology professionals involved in the virtual production, film, broadcast, animation, games, VFX & immersive sectors. SU contains commercial & industry research-led activities, developed in response to the identified strategic needs of the screen sector of the creative industries, locally, nationally, & internationally. This transformative project seeks to build on the incredible success story that the creative industries have created for Northern Ireland, already generating over £1.3billion GVA to the NI economy & employing around 26,000 people, contributing to a wider UK creative sector that employs over 2 million people & generates £116billion in GVA. The commercial activity undertaken at SU will support production driven Research & Development & Innovation (R&D&I) activities, working directly with industry during the production cycle to improve efficiencies in production, enhancing production processes, and expanding opportunities for the commercialisation of new technologies, & applications in an emerging sector.