Industry partnerships
Partnering with the Creative Industries
Inclusive digital media isn’t just a social imperative — it’s the foundation for equality and a thriving creative economy. Designing content and services that work for everyone unlocks opportunities, amplifies voices, and drives deeper engagement with diverse audiences.
Together with the creative sector, we’re shaping a future where accessibility and innovation go hand in hand — because inclusion isn’t optional, it’s essential.
Why inclusion, why now
The era of one-size-fits-all media is over. Content and services designed for everyone reach wider audiences, deepen engagement and open new markets. They also help build a fairer society and a stronger UK creative economy.
The UKRI Centre for Doctoral Training in AI for Digital Media Inclusion (CDT) brings together world-leading AI researchers, creative businesses, technology companies and user advocacy groups to turn that principle into practice.
What a partnership can give you:
1. Fast, fresh thinking
Our doctoral researchers take on your challenge and turn it around quickly, often producing something concrete within a week.
“The PhD students are really phenomenal, being able to take all this information in and whip it around and spit something out in a week’s time was really impressive.”
- FinalPixel
2. A route from idea to funded proof of concept
Move from challenge to business case, prototype or proof of concept, with academic rigour behind you. One partner’s CDT exploration gave them the confidence to apply for funding, and they secured a grant to develop a proof of concept.
“It put us in a position where we saw we had something really valid. We put it into the market and actually got a grant to develop a POC out of it. If it wasn’t for this opportunity to at least explore the landscape of possibilities, we wouldn’t have had the confidence to even put it forward for that.”
- FinalPixel
3. Answers you wouldn’t have found alone
Researchers bring perspectives from outside your sector, and often surface directions you hadn’t considered.
“The research team led us to something that we would never have considered, and that’s really helped us.”
- Nationwide
4. A wider ecosystem
Connect with partners across the whole media value chain, from broadcasters and studios to device makers, SMEs and advocacy organisations.
“What has been evidenced through this work is you need to partner with others. There’s no one industry or no one brand that can answer it. Collaboration with partners across sectors is really powerful.”
- Nationwide
5. A fresh view on AI
Not sure where AI can add value in your organisation? We’ll help you identify opportunities for inclusive growth and impact, grounded in responsible practice.
What, actually, are the challenges?
We invite industry partners to share the digital inclusion challenges they're facing but can't solve alone. We connect them with other partners facing similar problems, and with our AI inclusion researchers.
Together they form collaborative teams and roll up their sleeves to tackle the challenge. Challenges are time-boxed and run every Autumn and Spring. They deliver exciting potential solutions in the form of proofs of concept, prototypes, written reports or design plans. The CDT has coordinated 13 challenge projects to date.
Our challenge-led research and industry partnerships
CHALLENGE VALUE
When industry partners and academic researchers join forces, magic happens.
- Fast, fresh, iterative thinking
- Rapid analysis of what has already been achieved on your topic
- A range of proposed solutions
- A drive towards concrete outcomes
- The latest in responsible AI capability, shared with your team
- The opportunity to take your project into the next challenge season
What we work on
Our challenge-led approach starts with real problems from our partners. Typical areas include:
- Inclusive front-end design: personalisation that adapts media to different accessibility needs.
- Multi-modal AI: using one sense to enhance another, such as voice to text and automated scene description.
- Representation and narrative: addressing stigmatised or stereotyped portrayals.
- New challenges from you: if your problem isn’t listed, bring it to us.
How it works
- Tell us your challenge. Share an inclusion or accessibility problem, or an area where you want to explore AI.
- Shape it with us. Our team helps scope it into a research challenge with clear value for your organisation.
- Collaborate. Researchers work with you on the problem, with access to the wider partner network.
- Deliver impact. Take away insights, prototypes or proofs of concept that you can build on.
Our CDT Pilot Partners
We have been working with a pilot group of partners in designing this new way forward. These include IBM, Channel 4, Nexus Studios, Anagram, Synamedia, Final Pixel and English Heritage.
Our full list of inaugural partners
- Access Entertainment
- Activate Learning
- Ada Lovelace
- Anagram
- Atos
- Bang & Olufsen
- BBC
- Blesma
- British Screen Forum
- Creative UK
- Darkfield
- Digital Catapult
- Disguise
- Dock10
- M3 LEP
- English Heritage
- Figment
- Final Pixel
- Gideon Reeling
- iLife Media
- ISO Design
- Lord David Puttnam
- MKAI
- NetMC
- Netmind.ai
- Nexus Studios
- NVIDIA
- Open Inclusion
- Samsung
- Sir Peter Bazalgette
- Sony Europe
- Surrey Heartlands ICS
- Surround Vision
- Synthesia
- Target3D
- Tetralogical
- Marshmallow Laser Feast
- TechUK
- Surrey County Council
- Ofcom
- IBM
- Blessed Foundation
- Pact
- NFTS
- AudioScenic
- Aspierations
- Arwen
- Osborne Clarke
- Orbit RRI
- Open Education AI
- Channel 4
- Framestore
- Ukie
Partners
Our CDT in AI for Digital Media Inclusion's adaptive learning challenge with Bridewell Hospital.
As part of the CDT in AI for Digital Media Inclusion, researchers are partnering with Bridewell Hospital, a leading educational charity, to co‑design an adaptive learning challenge focused on improving access, personalisation, and wellbeing for young learners with diverse needs.
UKRI AI Centre for Doctoral Training in AI for Digital Media Inclusion
The CDT combines the world-leading expertise of the Surrey Institute for People-Centred AI at the University of Surrey, a pioneer in AI technologies for the creative industries (vision, audio, language, machine learning) - with StoryFutures at Royal Holloway University of London, leader in creative ...
Quotes
“Collaboration and real-world testing with industry are where research becomes real inclusion impact.”
“Working with industry connects theory to the world it’s meant to serve.”
What our partners say
UKRI AI: CDT IN AI FOR DIGITAL MEDIA INCLUSION | Industry Challenges - 2026 Promo
Video summary of the intensive Challenge Projects our teams just completed with fantastic partners including BBC, Nationwide, Bridewell schools, RNID, Boomtown festival and more — real progress on moving the dial for digital media inclusion. This video focuses in on the Boomtown festival and RNID (R...
UKRI AI: CDT IN AI FOR DIGITAL MEDIA INCLUSION Industry Challenges x Boomtown Festival 2026
Check out our exciting collaboration with Boomtown festival, Amplify and Monks - see how our CDT research team came up solutions to promote pro-social behaviour. They used AI and digital media to make good citizen actions visible and measurable. The research was put into action at Boomtown 2026.
Bridewell Challenge Project
PhD researchers from the University of Surrey - Surrey Institute for People-Centred AI (PAI) and StoryFutures @ Royal Holloway, University of London to co‑develop a safe, closed AI system that supports critical thinking and learning in subjects such as English and Science. The project exemplifies the Spring Challenge ethos: tackling real‑world problems through collaboration, care and creativity.
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