Deadline: 8 November 2024
The Media Cymru has announced the second round of the BBC Content Innovation Fund for Wales-based production companies to research and develop projects with a focus on innovative approaches to climate content.
The fund offers dedicated time and resource for indies to explore innovative ways of engaging audiences with the climate crisis across Wales and beyond.
Funded companies will develop an ambitious idea for climate content aimed at a mainstream audience, with innovation at its core, and with broad appeal for BBC One Wales or network. Ideas can relate to genres such as drama, entertainment and comedy, as well as in traditional factual formats.
Funding Information
- Up to five Wales-based companies will be chosen to develop ideas for climate content, each receiving up to £20,000.
- Successful applicants will carry out a three-month R&D sprint (taking place between February and April 2025) to research and develop a new idea and deliver a pitch deck and sample sequence. They will also attend an Insight Day (29 January 2025) to engage with the BBC’s Climate Creatives strategy, and to discuss scientific perspectives on climate change and insights into how diverse audiences engage with climate content.
Eligible Activities
- R&D activities are defined as creative and systematic work undertaken to address challenges and to create new or improved products, services, processes or experiences.
- In a media context, this could mean exploring, experimenting with or testing new technology such as extended reality, artificial intelligence or virtual production. It could also mean exploring radical, fairer and more planet-friendly ways of working. It could involve testing new methods of producing, distributing and experiencing content, or new ways of reaching audiences and being more sensitive to their needs and demands.
- The kind of R&D projects they are looking for are:
- Novel: they will be based on original concepts and hypotheses, not obvious ones.
- Creative: they will take experimental approaches and generate new findings.
- Uncertain: they will begin with a degree of uncertainty about the final outcomes.
- Systematic: they will be based on a planned and budgeted approach.
- Transferable: they will generate results that can be reproduced to gain wider benefits.
Eligibility Criteria
- To be eligible to apply:
- You must have an idea for an innovative R&D project focused on climate content that is aligned with the BBC’s Climate Creatives Strategy.
- Your project must be aimed at mainstream audiences, with broad appeal for BBC One Wales or network.
- Your company must be based in Wales and must qualify as a ‘Regional Production’ from Wales in accordance with the regional production criteria in Ofcom’s Guidance for public service broadcasters.
- Your company must have at least one television credit in the last six years.
- You are able to dedicate time and effort to complete a R&D project between February and April 2025.
- They will only accept and fund one application per individual/company/organisation as a project lead.
For more information, visit Media Cymru.
