Apply with a creative collaboration of £1,000 and get your idea funded!

At each of the InGAME Insights event, we have an open call for one Insights Collaborative Commission of £1,000. We’re pleased to launch the second call which invites applications that combine creativity and games to demonstrate the early-stage potential of creating positive social impacts through experimental collaborations. 

We’re making this commission available to stimulate new, collaborative ways for creative communities across the city and wider region – artists, designers, makers, games developers – to come together around topics that matter. 

Whilst it is a small amount of cash resource, we believe there’s an opportunity to spark new collaborations to form around topics which have the potential to positively impact society, through some paid time to develop early-stage conversations, digital or physical prototypes.

Through this commission we aim to: promote partnerships between Dundee and the wider region’s creative and games sectors; provide time for collaborators to learn from each other and visit each other’s work spaces, either physically or virtually; champion collaborative learning and opportunities for experimentation; create space for concept development, with clear societal benefits; and share insight blogs on Creative Dundee’s website following each commission. 

Applying:  

People eligible to apply for this commission are: 

• A creative practitioner / business collaborating with a games practitioner / business, or vice versa. Freelancers, SME businesses, students, creative social enterprises, charities and collectives are eligible. 

• This commission is about creating new collaborations and concepts – applications must involve a collaborative partnership, therefore collaborators should not be from the same business / organisation / collective. The two collaborators must be working together for the first time. 

• Each collaborator must be based in Dundee, or within the Tay Cities region. This region covers Dundee City, Angus, Perth & Kinross and North Fife.

The commission will be awarded to a partnership who can demonstrate they have an early-stage experimental idea that has the potential to positively impact society – such as protecting and improving our environment, supporting equity and inclusion, improving health and wellbeing… The commissioned resource will be used to further scope out an early-stage digital or physical prototype. 

Your application should:

• Show how your collaboration will combine creativity and games to experiment and positively impact society.
• Advance new and experimental ways of working for your practice.
• Generate debate about the role of creativity and games to impact our lives.

Selection: 

Creative Dundee’s team will consider applications on:

• How innovative is the proposal, is it experimental and does it have a social impact focus?
• Do the collaborators have the right mix of skills to deliver the proposed exploration?
• Is the proposed time frame achievable?
• Can the exploration be achieved within the proposed budget?

The deadline for application is: 9am, Monday 25th January 2021. 

FAQs:

Responses to any questions asked will be shared here.

• Please make sure you have read the information including the eligibility criteria: the Insights Collaborative Commission is open to: a creative practitioner/business collaborating with a games practitioner/business, or vice versa. Freelancers, SME businesses, creative social enterprises, charities and collectives are eligible. The two collaborators must be working together for the first time. Each collaborator must be based in Dundee, or within the Tay Cities region. This region covers Dundee City, Angus, Perth & Kinross and North Fife.

• The deadline for applications to the Insights Collaborative Commission is 9am, Monday 25 January 2021.  All applicants will be contacted after selection by Monday 1st February 2021. We’d like the collaboration to take place within 3 months of being awarded. 

• The collaborators will retain intellectual property of any work they develop during this period. The successful collaboration will be paid £1,000 – 40% of which will be paid at the start and 60% upon completion and submission. This will be paid into one collabator’s designated bank account. 

• Although we’re looking for social impact potential, we welcome ideas that are experimental and playful – fun is allowed and encouraged! We will network potential collaborators at the InGAME Insight events, but if you are unable to attend, please note that this commission is open to anyone eligible to apply. 

• An Insights Collaborative Commission of £1,000 will open for application after each InGAME Insights event, which are held every two months. Four commissions of £1,000 will be awarded between Sept 2020 – May 2021. We anticipate announcing each successful commission at the next event. The next commission will open following the early 2021 event.

• The original concept for this call is based on the Light Bytes Curiosity Awards, which was run by Creative Dundee, Creative Edinburgh and We Throw Switches in 2016, supported by Creative Scotland. 

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InGAME is an ambitious research and innovation programme based in the heart of Dundee’s vibrant videogames cluster. Led by Abertay University, in partnership with the University of Dundee, the University of St Andrews and a network of industry partners, our purpose is to drive sustainable innovation and growth within the cluster. We do this through a programme of R&D funding, research collaboration and cluster engagement. InGAME is part of the Creative Industries Cluster Programme, funded by the Arts & Humanities Research Council and part of the Industrial Strategy.

Creative Dundee exists to support creative talent to base, grow and sustain their practice in and around Dundee, by amplifying and connecting the city’s creativity. We create the spaces to enable opportunities, galvanise action and profile the city so that citizens and visitors alike can access, experience and enjoy Dundee’s active creative scene. We lead collaborative projects which generate local, national and international opportunities for people and the city – to support Dundee’s strong creative ecology.