Six Scottish creative and cultural institutions are looking for individuals or SMEs with the skills to help them overcome obstacles in their work using data and data-driven technologies.

Funding of up to £20,000 is available to successful Challenge Respondents for the Creative Informatics programme who will retain all or part of the intellectual property for their work, enabling them to commercialise any products or services they produce.

All six of the organisation’s have unique, data-related requirements – which you can read below. Have a look and see if their needs match up with your skillset.

Traverse Theatre

Traverse Theatre has committed to cataloguing and digitising its extensive archives in an accessible way, ahead of its 60th anniversary in 2023.

The theatre’s challenge is to create an online interactive experience that can help audiences, artists, academics, and others visualise its global legacy, reinforcing and celebrating the theatre’s unique position in Scotland’s performing arts and literary ecosystem.

Edinburgh Festival Fringe Society

Edinburgh Festival Fringe Society, the charity that underpins the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, would like a Challenge Respondent to create a new platform for capturing, collating and sharing as many Fringe reviews as possible from the multiple channels used by amateur and professional critics.

This new platform must also provide the Fringe Society with a range of data insights, enabling it to better support the media outlets, artists, and audiences that take part in the Fringe each year.

SkyShows Aerial Ltd

SkyShows Aerial Ltd is developing state-of-the-art drone light shows with the aim of becoming the first company in Scotland to offer a drone light show package that meets the rigorous safety standards of the UK’s Civil Aviation Authority.

SkyShows’ challenge is to develop swarm management software that can define a flight-path for each of the 200 SkyFire drones in its “swarm” and synchronise lighting programmes to make a drone light show possible.

Fruitmarket

Fruitmarket, a free, public space for culture in the heart of Edinburgh, is keen to explore how demographic data gathering can be conducted in a more inclusive and identity positive way.

Fruitmarket’s challenge is to establish a new approach to capturing visitor data that celebrates the many and varied characteristics of the people that engage with their space.

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South of Scotland Enterprise

South of Scotland Enterprise (SOSE), the economic and community development agency for Dumfries and Galloway and the Scottish Borders, would like to develop a platform or mechanism that will allow participants engaging in creative and cultural activities to give feedback on their experience in a fun and engaging way.

SOSE are looking for a Challenge Respondent that can help them to develop an Index of Wellbeing as a starting point for collecting feedback at museums, galleries and theatres.

Anarkik3D

Anarkik3D, a micro software development company, would like to explore the potential of VR to enhance their haptic 3D modelling programme Anarkik3DDesign.

Their challenge is to combine their Anarkik3DDesign software with VR technology and create an interface that provides users with a more immersive experience, incorporating grounded force feedback technology with stereo 3D vision.

Finding a solution to this challenge would enable Anarkik3D to offer an affordable haptic VR product that could be used by artists, designers and makers that do not have access to or resources to purchase some of the current high cost haptic VR offerings.

Applications for Creative Informatics programme are open now and close on Monday 11th February at 5pm.

Visit the Creative Informatics website to view full details for all the Challenge Project listed above.