Long-term support vital for innovation in the creative industries, experts say
5 November 2025
Cardiff University experts are calling for policymakers to prioritise long-term, sustainable investment for innovation activity to support the creative industries in Wales.
Media Cymru’s new campaign, Fuelling the Future, highlights the impact that research, development and innovation (RD&I) investment has had, playing a significant role in driving productivity, growth and innovation in Wales.
Creative businesses and freelancers have been supported to grow by Media Cymru, a £54m innovation programme, which is led by Cardiff University and part of the UKRI's flagship Strength in Places Fund.
Through a series of targeted funding calls since 2022, Media Cymru has invested more than £4.4m directly into the sector via its Innovation Pipeline. The 22-partner consortium has also helped to support an active ecosystem, providing commercialisation expertise and bespoke training as well as a range of networking and knowledge sharing opportunities.
Director of Media Cymru Professor Justin Lewis said: “Creative industries have unique challenges when it comes to innovation; 95% of businesses are small and often lack RD&I capacity. But our work in the Cardiff Capital Region - both with Media Cymru and previously, with the innovation programme Clwstwr - has shown that building a supportive innovation ecosystem can produce tangible economic returns.
For every £1 invested in RD&I, £6 is added to the economy. That multiplier speaks to the kind of strategic value this sector can deliver and why it is vital that we have a plan for long-term support for creative innovation.
The programme’s latesteconomic analysis shows an economically valuable, yet fragile, creative sector which supports more than 100,000 Welsh jobs – almost 7% of Welsh employment - across 11,740 enterprises.
The sector’s turnover of £5bn grew 20% in the period between 2022 and 2023 and has grown by an average of 750 businesses per year since 2019. More than half (54%) of the Welsh creative industries workforce based in the Cardiff Capital Region (CCR).
Cardiff is one of the top UK centres for creative output, alongside London and Manchester.
Professor Sara Pepper, Deputy Director of Media Cymru, said: “We’ve seen creative industries businesses weather a wide range of challenges over the past five years. From the impacts of the global pandemic and industrial action in the US to ongoing digital disruption, changes in audience preferences and behaviour and economic uncertainties. The sector has shown extraordinary resilience and while some businesses are feeling uncertain about the long-term future, the industry as a whole maintains its adaptability, creativity and ability to navigate challenges.
“We are seeing the emergence of a creative cluster in the Cardiff Capital Region that understands and is benefitting from RD&I activity and where investment of this kind is directly linked to growth and productivity. But to sustain this, we need policy frameworks and funding structures that recognise and reinforce the value of targeted innovation activity for the needs of this complex sector.”
Explore the data, Industry Insights: the size and composition of the creative industries in Wales in 2023 here.
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