Eight pioneering projects that will harness digital technologies for the benefit of the arts and cultural sector have been selected to receive funding from the Digital R&D Fund for Arts and Culture. The Digital R&D Fund for the Arts, which follows a pilot project in 2011, is unique in encouraging collaboration between the arts, digital technology providers and the research community in order to undertake experiments from which the wider arts and cultural sector can learn.

We expect that the fund will support approximately 90 research and development collaborations. Projects will be funded up to a value of £125,000.

Arts Council Chief Executive, Alan Davey, said: "The large number of applications to the pilot Digital R&D project clearly illustrated that there was significant unmet demand in this area.

"The fact that we've been able to continue to work together in developing these useful partnerships on a large scale is a fantastic achievement and we look forward to seeing the terrific and radically creative ideas which will emerge and develop as we continue to work to encourage a resilient, sustainable and innovative arts and culture sector."

The fund (which will run until the end of 2014/15) will support research and development projects that use digital technology to enhance arts audience reach and/or explore new business models. It will focus on six key themes:

  • user-generated content and social media
  • digital distribution and exhibition
  • mobile, location and games
  • data and archives
  • resources
  • education and learning

Organisations can apply to the fund from today. The process will have two stages: a call for expressions of interest and a final application stage. Expressions of interest will be accepted continuously throughout the first two years of the fund.

More information on the application process, including key eligibility criteria, can be found on the Digital R&D Fund for the Arts website.