Ekip: help shape the future of the creative industries!

Ekip is the EU’s engine for developing innovation policies for the creative industries. We’re currently looking for CCI practitioners and policymakers to let ekip know what are the most important ways that EU policymakers can intervene to help shape a better & more innovative future for everyone working in the creative industries – in Europe and beyond. Please join in our innovation consultation survey here:

https://app2.welphi.com/Pages/RedirectPage.aspx?iBEP3lrjv0Ki8SLGp+c+W/TUmHZQcfphf1TQmPQM8T4=

You’ll be able to see anonymised answers from other survey respondents as you take part, so participating is a good way of getting an on-the-ground view of what people from across all the CCIs think are the most pressing issues for innovation right now and for the future.

Design Informatics ekip researchers recently hosted an Open Innovation Factory on the subject of inclusivity in the games industry. Open Innovation Factories are ekip’s means of communicating its research outcomes and policy recommendations to creative industry practitioners, with the aim to foster greater open innovation capacity across all the creative industries. The event opened with a panel chaired by Gemma Milne of Gecko Box. We welcomed Luke Hebblethwaite (Head of Games, BAFTA), Jérôme Dupire (CapGames), Nikolina Finska (Rebel Studio) and Sophia Coney (Included Games and Out Making Games).

We will shortly be publishing the video of the panel and a write-up of key research findings emerging from the workshop we held with games industry practitioners talking about barriers to inclusivity in the gaming industry and how different aspects of open innovation could help overcome those barriers. We will also publish a how-to guide for running your own open innovation workshop with key reflective questions and the ekip open innovation prompt cards as guides for possible routes to greater inclusion. Ultimately, these insights will be fed back to the EU to shape future policies for unlocking greater inclusivity in the gaming industry through specific open innovation initiatives.

To help game developers and publishers improve their inclusive practices, we have developed an open-access resource titled “Inclusivity in Games: a Critical Reflection Toolkit” comprised of self-assessment questions to help businesses evaluate their inclusivity, covering areas such as workforce diversity, accessibility, representation, and audience engagement. The toolkit is available here: Osborne, N., & McDonald, C. (2025). Inclusivity in Games: a Critical Reflection Toolkit. ekip. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.15022367.

We always welcome hearing how our open-access resources are being used – and how they can be improved! Please get in touch with Nicola.osborne@ed.ac.uk or caitlin.mcdonald@ed.ac.uk to share your thoughts.