The Centre will provide a step-change for three main stakeholders - industry, policymakers and the wider research community - in the quality of evidence for the creative industries, tasking some of the best researchers across the UK with answering some of the most pressing questions about the sector.

The PEC is part of the Creative Industries Clusters Programme led by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) and funded through the Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund.

It is led by Nesta and involves a consortium of UK-wide universities, comprising Birmingham; Cardiff; Edinburgh; Glasgow; Work Foundation at Lancaster University; LSE; Manchester; Newcastle; Sussex, and Ulster.

The Centre will work with a broad and inclusive group of partners from across the creative industries, including the Creative Industries Federation. Initial industry partners also include Creative England, the British Film Institute and Tech Nation.

To find out more about the PEC and to see the centre's first piece of research, published in partnership with Nesta, visit the PEC website.