BFI National Lottery Innovation Challenge Fund to provide £350k of funding for the UK video games industry

The BFI National Lottery Innovation Challenge Fund today opens its first call for projects. Set up to provide solutions which tackle the UK screen sector’s most critical challenges, the area of focus for the fund’s first call is the UK video games industry which is facing a range of challenges alongside a rapid pace of change.

The BFI National Lottery Innovation Challenge Fund, as part of the BFI’s National Lottery Funding Plan, 2023-2026, seeks to support new solutions to the UK screen sector’s most critical challenges. Between 2024 and 2026, up to £1.8 million will be distributed across up to six challenges, to help not-for-profit organisations to innovate, developing new approaches to persistent problems, whilst also gaining insights that benefit the whole screen sector.

Rishi Coupland, BFI Director of Research and Industry Innovation, says: “The UK has a creatively and commercially successful video games industry, however, through consultation with industry we have heard how specific barriers around a lack of access to data and tools is restricting smaller-scale and emerging under-represented developers in bringing their products to market. The aim of this fund is to tackle those barriers and directly benefit UK video games, particularly independent developers, talent and studios.”

The fund’s first call will provide £350k across two separate challenges where innovative proposals will support the video games industry. The challenges are:

Challenge A: Transformative open data for the UK video games industry 

The first challenge seeks proposals to collect and publish useful open data for the UK video games industry including a delivery plan to develop and test a viable data collection process and launch a public-facing platform.

Currently, data on and for the UK video games sector is fragmented, incomplete or inaccessible, making it particularly challenging for smaller-scale developers and producers who cannot access useful information to support the development of their projects. It also means that the independent UK video games sector cannot accurately evidence the current UK video games landscape, its value or where issues exist and how they could be addressed, therefore limiting its ability to instigate policy change. Long-term, this reduces the diversity of the range of developers and organisations whose projects can thrive in the industry.

This challenge will  support innovation in this area by inviting organisations to collect and publish useful open data for the UK video games sector. Specifically, it will challenge the successful applicant to provide ongoing access to never-before compiled information and insights, and potentially new data, that will directly benefit the video games sector, particularly independent developers and studios.

The amount of funding available for this challenge is up to £250,000.

Challenge B: Support for under-represented emerging developers 

This challenge seeks to fund innovative ways – eg the development of a new tool, application of technology or approach – to address the barriers facing emerging under-represented developers, supporting them to bring their products to market.

The video games industry can be difficult to navigate for emerging developers; a lack of transparency around how the sector operates effectively restricts new, emerging and smaller-scale games developers with creative talent and high-potential ideas from being able to develop their work effectively and reach their customer base.  In addition, the workforce, which is 67% male and 89% white according to the latest Ukie Census, severely lacks diversity.

This means established developers can more easily secure financial support and exposure, limiting opportunities for emerging and under-represented developers. Ultimately, the industry loses out on including a broader range of voices who create more diverse and innovative new games.

The amount of funding available for this challenge is up to £100,000.

The deadline for applications for both strands of this first call for projects is Monday 20 May 2024, with funding awards expected to be made in August 2024.

Full information and guidelines on making an application to the BFI National Lottery Innovation Fund can be read and downloaded here.