CoSTAR National Lab - AHRC

The CoSTAR National Lab will bring together world leaders in applied technology research and story. It is led by Royal Holloway University of London with partners:

  • Pinewood Studios
  • BT
  • University of Surrey
  • Abertay University
  • disguise
  • National Film and Television School
  • Surrey County Council

Video credit: AHRC

The CoSTAR National Lab will enable small and medium businesses (SMEs) and wider industry to do what they could not do alone by:

  • building, commissioning, testing and demonstrating the facilities of the CoSTAR National Lab in Applied Research, enabling early stage research to experimental prototyping
  • placing applied research side-by-side with live commercial productions, with a network of industry leaders offering routes to commercialisation and markets beyond most SME networks
  • providing unique access to world-leading creative businesses and talent to stimulate feedback between creative technology research and development (R&D) and commercial and creative exploitation
  • fusing R&D with production expertise and industry via the UK’s National Film and Television School, the world’s leading film school, coupled with research-in-action PhD programmes

The National Lab will also deliver a Knowledge Exchange and Commercialisation Function and a Pilots, Demonstrators and Trials programme on behalf of the CoSTAR network.

The National Lab will include dedicated stage and studio space, featuring advanced creative computing technologies, a large-scale virtual production system, a 5G-6G private network, a motion capture rig, and a state-of-the-art creative artificial intelligence (AI) compute facility accessible across the UK. Its networked facilities will provide access to the nationwide CoSTAR infrastructure.

Find out more about the CoSTAR programme.

Last updated: 2 April 2025

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