CoSTAR National Lab

Description

The CoSTAR National Lab is the central hub of the CoSTAR Network, the United Kingdom's national research and development infrastructure for the creative industries. It is a state of the art, AI-enabled virtual production and spatial audio facility, led by Royal Holloway, University of London, that harnesses the network's infrastructure to scale creative research and development from concept to market-ready pilots for the film, television, live performance, immersive media and gaming sectors. Its prototyping facility, the Futures Studio at Royal Holloway's Egham campus, provides LED-volume virtual production, real-time Unreal Engine pipelines, camera and motion tracking, cinema-camera capture, immersive and spatial multichannel audio, XR and mixed-reality experimentation, and an acoustically treated live-performance space. A flagship converged-media production stage, the CoSTAR Stage, is launching at Pinewood Studios in late 2026, with LED and projection systems, motorised rigging, an ST-2110 IP backbone and real-time control systems. The lab operates a dedicated AI compute cluster for training and prototyping advanced AI systems and a private 5G network for development, testing and demonstration. It delivers funding calls and access programmes for creative businesses and runs a doctoral programme whose first cohort began in October 2025 across Royal Holloway, Abertay University and the University of Surrey's Institute for People-Centred AI. It is funded through the UK Research and Innovation Infrastructure Fund and delivered by the Arts and Humanities Research Council.

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Currently active

Yes

Offers funding

No, this infrastructure does not provide funding.

Founding year

2023

Contact details

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Categorisation

Type

Tags

Partner Infrastructures

StoryFutures

The technology available today has opened up and transformed the creative industries. People have more ways than ever before to tell stories, share experiences and explore cultures. But these opportun… read more about StoryFutures

Egham

Surrey Institute for People-Centred AI

The Surrey Institute for People-Centred AI emphasises the centrality of humans within AI, aiming to augment human capabilities and create a responsible and inclusive tool for societal benefit. The Uni… read more about Surrey Institute for People-Centred AI

Guildford

Partner Universities

Royal Holloway, University of London

Abertay University

Additional Partnerships

National Film and Television School; Pinewood Studios; Disguise; BT; Magnopus