An exciting new virtual production facility, Futures Studio, has now opened at Royal Holloway, University of London, to provide creative technology businesses a space to innovate, showcase their work and collaborate with industry experts and world-class researchers.

The launch was celebrated with an interactive showcase event attended by leading partners in the creative technology industry including Sky, BT and Limax Studios. The event featured a series of inspiring demonstrations in the studio led by Disguise and CoSTAR National Lab specialist teams, while also providing businesses attending the opportunity to network with their fellow industry experts and researchers from academia.

World-leading creative technology

Jointly funded by Royal Holloway and Surrey County Council, the studio is based at the University’s Egham campus and packed with cutting-edge equipment. This includes a unique combination of a virtual production environment and a next generation audio system. The Futures Studio is powered by Royal Holloway’s partnership with Disguise, the platform behind world-leading (and record-breaking) visual experiences including live events for Taylor Swift, Adele, Beyonce and Massive Attack.

The Futures Studio offers businesses an advanced facility to innovate and generate new products and services, and will enable the flourishing local creative economy to thrive and grow. It is also the first facility to be opened as part of the CoSTAR National Lab, a £51.1 million project funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) to create a national infrastructure for creative innovation.

Matt Furniss, Surrey County Council’s Cabinet Member for Highways, Transport and Economic Growth, said: “We want to nurture and grow this world-class sector, which is why we have invested £3 million in supporting Royal Holloway and the CoSTAR National Lab.

“This exciting project has innovation and collaboration at its core, allowing local businesses to tap into the cutting-edge research and technologies at Royal Holloway, one of our leading universities in the county.

“In time, this initiative will deliver real benefits to our regional economy, creating up to 300 jobs and supporting 180 businesses while stimulating further investment into our creative sector.”

The Futures Studio launch comes just weeks after the government’s budget confirmed its commitment to support the UK’s growth-driving creative industries, worth £125 billion to the UK economy.

Professor James Bennett, Director, CoSTAR National Lab and Royal Holloway’s Associate Pro-Vice-Chancellor (Creative Industries), said: “Futures Studio is CoSTAR National Lab’s first step in building the UK’s infrastructure for the next generation of creative innovation and entertainment and we’re excited to see how local businesses can benefit from this unique space.

“By providing an accessible facility that combines research and the latest technology we’re lowering the barrier for local smaller businesses to not only compete, but to lead the wider evolving creative tech industry.”

Futures Studio project lead Professor Peter Richardson, Vice-Dean of Research and Knowledge Exchange (School of Performing and Digital Arts) at Royal Holloway, and Head of Worldbuilding for the CoSTAR National Lab, said: “Technology often powers creativity; our approach is to have creativity power technology which allows us to push the boundaries of what is possible. The Futures Studio gives us a space where we can push the boundaries with creative companies in a way that will de-risk their research and development projects.”

How local creative business can get involved

Futures Studio has the potential to support local businesses by creating hundreds of jobs and deliver on the objectives set out in the recent Civic Agreement for Surrey. Small and medium-sized local businesses in Surrey will be offered access to creative technology showcases throughout the year and are encouraged to apply for access to the studio and expertise to develop their projects.

For more information about the upcoming opportunities within Futures Studio, please contact CoSTAR National Lab’s Enterprise and Commercialisation team: futuresstudio@rhul.ac.uk

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Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd (SSTL), has successfully signed a deal with the UK Ministry of Defence (MOD) to supply a new Earth Observation satellite.

The £40 million project will support around 200 skilled jobs between now and the planned delivery date of 2027, boosting the UK’s space sector and helping to grow both the UK and regional economies.

The new satellite, named Juno, will capture daytime images of the Earth’s surface, strengthening the UK’s Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance (ISR) capabilities. Juno joins an existing satellite also manufactured by SSTL, (named Tyche), in supporting military operations such as monitoring the activities of military adversaries. The two satellites will also contribute to other key government observation requirements, including natural disaster monitoring, the development of mapping information, environmental monitoring and tracking the impact of climate change around the world.   

MOD Procurement representative Maria Eagle said, “The contract for Juno shows the the UK’s commitment to grow one of the most innovative and attractive space economies in the world, and keep our competitive edge in space science and technology.

“Juno will not only support Armed Forces personnel deployed globally, but also support highly skilled jobs, delivering on the government’s growth mission.” 

SSTL Managing Director Andrew Cawthorne said: “We’re incredibly proud that the Ministry of Defence has again placed its trust in SSTL to deliver the UK’s next sovereign intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance spacecraft.

“Juno will offer a step change in imaging capability over Tyche, SSTL’s demonstrator spacecraft which launched in August (2024) and is now being operated for UK Space Command. We look forward to continuing our successful relationship with UK Space Command, DE&S, and Dstl, and playing a leading role in delivering the UK Defence Space Strategy.”

For more information on this key new satellite deal, read more on SSTL’s website.

Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd started out in the late 1970s as an experiment in a small university lab in Surrey, and has since grown to employ more than 400 staff and has launched more than 70 satellites into space for 22 countries. Read our full case study looking at the history of this Surrey Success Story here.

The UK Space sector – a national and regional success story

The UK Space sector is a national success story, employing 52,000 highly skilled professionals and with labour productivity levels of 2.3 times the national average.

SSTL is a member of the UK’s largest space Cluster, Space South Central. This Cluster represents more than 170 space-related businesses and 4 academic institutions across Surrey, Hampshire and the Isle of Wight. The Cluster accounts for nearly 20% of the GDP generated by UK Space businesses. 2023 figures show that Surrey and Hampshire alone account for around £3 billion of national space industry turnover, with more than 12,000 people working in the sector across the region.

Space South Central aims to amplify the growth of the space sector both regionally and nationally, by developing long-term partnerships between industry, acadaemia and government.

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