CoSTAR Satellite Labs: Accessible creative R&D infrastructure
CoSTAR Satellite Labs: Accessible creative R&D infrastructure supports UK partnerships to build regional labs that give businesses access to specialist technology and help bring creative innovations into commercial use.
Funder: UK Research and Innovation
Due Dates: October 29, 2026, 4:00pm UK time (application)
Funding Amounts: Up to £2 million per Satellite Lab; three-year awards
Summary: Supports UK partnerships to establish creative R&D labs that widen access to specialist technology and help businesses commercialise innovations.
Key Information: Consortia need a commercial co-location partner, an economic development partner, and third-party match funding of at least 50% of requested full economic cost.
Description
The Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) offers this opportunity through UK Research and Innovation’s CoSTAR programme and the Department for Culture, Media and Sport’s Createch Futures initiative. It will support up to two Satellite Labs that extend the CoSTAR Network into additional UK regions and industrial applications. Labs must be co-sited with a screen production facility, studio or performance company.
Successful partnerships will establish and operate creative R&D facilities, provide specialist technology and technical expertise, and give businesses a local route into national infrastructure. They will work with the CoSTAR National Lab on coordinated research and demonstrators, share outcomes, and provide knowledge exchange and commercialisation support. The programme aims to lower barriers to technology adoption and help creative innovations progress from R&D to commercial use, with particular attention to emerging technologies such as generative AI.
