In our 2013 study, A Dynamic Mapping of the UK’s Creative Industries, we noted that concepts like the ‘creative industries’ and ‘creative economy’ – indeed ‘creativity’ itself – although widely used by policymakers, lacked sufficiently clear and rigorous definitions. The report aimed to address this weakness by introducing clear criteria for which occupations should or...

The UK's creative economy is one of its great national strengths, historically deeply rooted and accounting for around one-tenth of the whole economy. It provides jobs for 2.5 million people – more than in financial services, advanced manufacturing or construction – and in recent years, this creative workforce has grown four times faster than the...

Dynamic Mapping of the UK’s Creative Industries (125), by Hasan Bakhshi, Peter Higgs and Alan Freeman of the ARC Centre of Excellence for Creative Industries and Innovation (CCI), adopts a definition of creative occupation as ones with “a role within the creative process that brings cognitive skills to bear to bring about differentiation to yield...

This paper proposes a new model for innovation policy that clearly distinguishes it from industrial policy.

Seemingly a paradox exists in the arts: creativity and novelty lie at the heart of all artistic endeavour, yet funders call on arts and cultural organisations to be more innovative. Understanding this paradox is one of the reasons why NESTA embarked on the research on which this report is based.