What we did?

The Digital Research and Development Fund for Arts and Culture, Scotland was a partnership between Creative Scotland, Arts & Humanities Research Council (AHRC) and Nesta.

We invited arts and cultural organisations in Scotland to submit projects which tested digital propositions around audience reach and engagement and new business models.

Find out more about the 10 successful projects from the first and second calls here:

• Dundee Contemporary Arts
• National Piping Centre
• National Theatre of Scotland
• An Iodhlann
• Scottish Documentary Institute
• Publishing Scotland
• Glasgow Film Theatre
• Culture Republic
• Edinburgh Cultural Quarter
• National Galleries of Scotland

This fund was part of Creative Scotland's portfolio of digital initiatives to support the arts and cultural sector in Scotland.

Why we did this?

With the £500,000 fund, we wanted to support collaborative partnerships between arts and cultural organisations and technology providers; and to provide a body of rich research evidence, data and case studies that inspires and supports the capacity of the wider arts and cultural sector to innovate.

What types of projects did we look for?

• Innovative digital projects which expanded audience reach and engagement and/or developed new business models
• Proposals from all sizes of arts and cultural organisations in Scotland - there were 2 award levels of projects: 1) under £25,000 and 2) £25,000-£100,000
• Collaborations between arts and cultural organisations, technology providers and where possible, other cultural/arts organisations.

Our findings

Where user statistics were available they pointed towards a close link between marketing activities and user uptake of the respective digital product or service. They also provided valuable insight into how such quantitative data can only provide a limited insight into a project’s results.

In terms of broader impacts, engagement with digital technologies prompted a rethink of how arts organisations generally produce products and deliver services, i.e. both digitally and non digitally, and the processes and policies they employed in doing so.

The projects also offered general lessons on project scope and expectations, choosing digital experts, balancing innovation and project management, and legacy creation.

See the report for full details.