BU’s largest grant to boost digital media

5 December 2008

BU is celebrating the awarding of its largest ever grant from a major UK research council.

BU’s world renowned Media School will receive half of close to £6 million awarded by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) to establish a new Industrial Doctorate Centre in Digital Media, Special Effects and Animation.

BU’s Industrial Doctorate Centre is part of Britain’s biggest ever investment of £250 million aimed at training the scientists and engineers Britain needs for its future. Over the next three years, some 2,000 PhD students will be recruited to 44 centres across the country to tackle some of the biggest challenges currently facing Britain.

In a joint initiative with the University of Bath, the BU Industrial Doctorate Centre will focus on providing research-level skills as well as technical and management expertise to people heading into the specialist industries of special effects, animation and post-production.

The Centre will focus on the resources and expertise provided by the National Centre for Computer Animation (NCCA) based at BU. Professor Jian Zhang and his experienced colleagues in the NCCA will link with major partners from the digital media industry as part of the initiative by endeavouring to turn the students’ pioneering ideas into commercially-viable products and services.

“Bournemouth University is delighted by the news of this award, which recognises the international excellence of research undertaken in the NCCA and the fundamental support it receives from industry,” said Professor Nick Petford, BU’s Pro-Vice-Chancellor (Research and Enterprise). “The grant is a glowing endorsement of our strategic plan to engage the University in high-profile, collaborative research and greatly improve our ability to compete at the highest level.”

The NCCA has achieved BU’s highest research rating and enjoys close working relationships with leading companies in the games industry, including Codemasters, Lionhead Studios and Rare. The University’s major partners in the film industry include Framestore CFC and Dreamworks.

In film alone, NCCA graduates have had their skills featured on most, if not all, of the world’s biggest blockbusters in recent years, including the 'Lord of the Rings' trilogy, the 'Harry Potter' series and the ’Shrek’ films as well as 'King Kong', 'Happy Feet', 'Madagascar' and many others.

For the past two years, 3D World magazine has rated the NCCA as the best place to study computer animation in the UK. The publication also rated the Centre as number eight in the world.