CREATe: Law for a Creative Future – Interim Report to AHRC
In 2023, CREATe received a major AHRC Infrastructure Grant to enhance the UK’s knowledge infrastructure for evidence-based policy in digital regulation. Today, we are releasing an Interim Report (October 2023-September 2025) that highlights CREATe’s three commitments: engaging with stakeholders and contributing an independent voice to national and international policy debates, building interdisciplinary research capacity, and developing sustainable digital tools and resources that support the wider research ecosystem. This blog post presents the introductory summary to the Interim Report by our Centre Directors, Prof. Martin Kretschmer, Dr Magali Eben and Prof. Kristofer Erickson and can also be read in full on the CREATe website.
CREATE: Law for a Creative Future
Summary by the Centre Directors
When CREATe was first established in 2012 as a consortium (jointly funded by AHRC, EPSRC and ESRC), the creative economy was grappling with the digital revolution. Copyright law seemed out of step with the realities of participatory media. The goal of the CREATe Centre (short for Creativity, Regulation, Enterprise and Technology) was to provide an evidence base for policy, to make sense of law in a transforming world.
Today, artificial intelligence, immersive platforms and data-driven markets are continuing to reshape creativity and cultural production, but the key challenges have accelerated beyond copyright. New sources of capital associated with big technology firms are flooding the creative economy. The UK’s position in global digital governance is contested.
With regulation spanning communication and competition laws, intellectual property rights, privacy and data laws, as well as tailored technology laws, demands for independent expertise have become ever more urgent.
A project based research centre was insufficient for building interdisciplinary policy capacity at this critical junction.
By invitation of the AHRC, we applied successfully for core funding as UK research infrastructure. This was established from October 2023, ensuring seamless continuity from CREATe’s role in the (also AHRC-funded) Creative Industries Policy & Evidence Centre, where we had led research on intellectual property law and regulation since 2018. In addition to the new 5-year AHRC award of £1.1m, we received generous matched commitments from our host, the University of Glasgow.
Anchored in the School of Law, with a R&D function in the University’s interdisciplinary Advanced Research Centre (ARC), our new status committed us to a five-year programme with three pillars:
Policy and stakeholder engagement
Capacity building
Digital tools and resources
Our ambition is straightforward: to increase and sustain state-of-the-art knowledge of the laws that shape creativity, technology, and markets.
Knowledge that is open and impactful. Knowledge that enables the cultural and creative industries to flourish. We now summarise CREATe’s key contributions during the first two years of our new status, covering the period from 1 October 2023 to 30 September 2025.
1. Policy
As we anticipated, CREATe is regularly approached by policy makers to provide independent evidence to help assess policy options in the regulation of technology. A range of new policy concerns has emerged since generative AI became more visible with the launch of ChatGPT in November 2022. Among the societal concerns raised are UK competitiveness and growth, protection of livelihoods of creative industries, promotion of effective and fair competition and ensuring trustworthiness and public safety. CREATe has been asked for input and assistance by Dept. for Business and Trade (DBT), Dept. for Culture, Media and Sport (DMCS), Intellectual Property Office (IPO), Digital Regulation Cooperation Forum (DRCF), OECD, World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), British Academy as well as the UKRI research councils themselves (ESRC smart data, UKRI copyright & AI). Annual (Chatham House) roundtables in Glasgow with regulators Ofcom, CMA, ICO and DCMA have become a tradition. Engagements have taken place with visual artists, the audio-visual sector (directors, actors), journalism and news, the games industry, as well as Culture & Heritage Institutions (BL, BFI).
Given our expertise across different legal and policy fields, we have been well-placed to comment on emerging challenges which require a joined-up understanding across policy areas. Our ongoing research enables us to participate in dialogue with different regulators and enforcers (in the UK, EU, and abroad). CREATe has undertaken new research that addresses specific questions raised by the consultations of policymakers and regulators in the UK (such as by the UK Digital Regulation Cooperation Forum, Intellectual Property Office, Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) and Competition and Markets Authority (CMA)). Our research is influencing UK AI policy by providing primary evidence of risks and opportunities. For example, the CREATe centre response to the UK consultation on copyright & AI (February 2025) is widely cited (including in Select Committee and Government Reports), proposing a new way forward that balances rightsholders’ and innovators’ concerns.
Copyright and AI: Response by the CREATe Centre to the UK Government's Consultation
Martin Kretschmer, Bartolomeo Meletti, Lionel Bently (University of Cambridge), Gabriele Cifrodelli, Magali Eben, Kristofer Erickson, Aline Iramina, Zihao Li, Luke McDonagh (LSE), Emma Perot (University of the West Indies), Luis Porangaba, Amy Thomas
This submission is based on evidence published or reviewed by CREATe as an independent national research centre. It was subsequently published by a leading journal: https://academic.oup.com/grurint/article/74/11/1055/8209765
At European level, CREATe research is influencing policy regarding eLending and encryption of copyright materials, and is feeding into calls for evidence in the enforcement of competition law and intellectual property law as well as the design of regulation and policy in a changing economic and technological landscape. For example, research by Erickson and al. and Yi et al. has fed into the European Commission via our response to the Consumer Agenda 2025-2030 consultation: https://zenodo.org/records/17130484. Stylianou et al. addressed Competition in Virtual Worlds (EC Consultation, March 2024). Eben and Reader responded to the Draft Guidelines on the application of Article 102 TFEU to exclusionary abuses of dominance (EC Consultation, October 2024). Rapid responses were offered by the CREATe team to The very complex game of finding a Chrome suitor (December 2024) and The Apple-Epic Saga and the Digital Markets Act (March 2024).
CREATe is actively rethinking regulation, policy making, and law enforcement at a time when the problems policy makers and creators face cannot be addressed exclusively from within one legal field. We not only aim to undertake research which provides evidence upon which to design best policy, but to bring different stakeholders together beyond legal and policy siloes.
2. Capacity building
CREATe is engaged in capacity building to support UK research at the interface of technology, creativity and law. Our ambition is to train a new generation of early-career scholars equipped with methodological tools to confront challenges with an interdisciplinary approach. To that end, we have innovated in establishing a new Spring School, forging new interdisciplinary links across subject areas and approaches, developing new experiential and practice-based learning opportunities, and sharing knowledge directly into organisations with policy challenges (including the Gallery, Archive, Library and Museum (GLAM) sector.
Supported by the AHRC Infrastructure award, we have successfully launched and run two editions of the CREATe Spring School. The Spring School is a unique capacity-building offer, gathering doctoral candidates, early career researchers, industry representatives and policy makers with an interest in cultural and creative industries, in a reflection on the interplay between human creation and technology and the need for holistic policy responses. The School aims to provide its participants with a comprehensive understanding of the effects digital technology has on the cultural and creative industries, and how those effects are being addressed by legislators and policymakers in the UK and Europe. The Spring School addresses these from three perspectives: creativity (copyright), markets (competition) and technology (tech regulation), with each perspective addressed on a separate day, and ultimately brough together in an overall reflection.
In doing so, we equip participants with much-needed understanding of the overlaps between and impacts of one area of law policy on another. Each year, we also invite creators to share their lived experiences of working with and relying on technology to further their creative work.
We have launched a new LLM in Technology Law and Regulation (2025), adding to the suite of CREATe-led Masters programmes comprising competition, IP and now technology law. The programme is recruiting higher numbers than anticipated and attracts a diverse international cohort. The Technology Regulation Maker Lab course launched in 2024 provides a hackathon-like competition encouraging law students to experiment with software prototypes leveraging AI technology. A panel of external judges evaluate student pitches, and students are assessed on their ability to reflect on legal challenges their product might face. The IP Policy Challenge puts students in contact with representatives from larger organisations to answer a policy brief determined by the organisational hosts.
3. Resources
CREATe digital tools and resources have become an essential part of the knowledge infrastructure for the UK research ecosystem. The infrastructure award has allowed CREATe to maintain and consolidate our existing digital resources, which in the reported period have attracted over 200,000 visitors. We have also experimented with emerging technologies and successfully launched and curated new research-based tools in other areas of the law. These include the Creators Earnings Calculator, DB-COMP, and the Data Protection Evidence Wiki.
Our Evidence and User resources function as reference portals for policy makers, researchers and practitioners in the creative and cultural sectors. The Copyright Evidence Portal has reached the milestone of 1,000 catalogued studies, which can be explored using a visualisation tool. CopyrightUser.org and CopyrightUser.EU are in demand at both user and institutional level. The EU portal, for example, was used in a series of awareness webinars organised by the European Commission between June and September 2025. Among our core digital resources, the digital archive of primary sources CopyrightHistory.org, edited jointly with the University of Cambridge, has become a global reference point and our most visited site in the last 12 months.
CREATe also continues to translate events and conferences into digital resource pages, comprising video recordings, photographs, and edited transcripts. In the reported period, these include two major interdisciplinary events: i) Can I Really Use This? Copyright Exceptions for Filmmakers (21 November 2023), a knowledge exchange event with leading scholars and practitioners in the fields of filmmaking and copyright law; and ii) From Scotland to the World (18- 19 April 2024), a 2-day conference bringing together leading intellectual property scholars with practitioners and professionals in the fields of museums, heritage and repatriation.
CREATe is actively addressing the challenge of building and sustaining digital knowledge infrastructure within a research ecosystem facing significant funding constraints. While centralised university systems provide stability for simple tools, advancing experimental projects and R&D demands risk-taking, creativity, and agility to ensure innovation and long-term impact.
4. Grants
During the first two years of the Infrastructure award, the following new grants were obtained:
UKRI meta science – Dr Zihao Li was awarded a UKRI AI metascience fellowship for two years from October 2025. The programme supports exceptional young scholars to explore AI’s impact on science. He will address legal hurdles in copyright and data privacy for AI-driven research.
Knowledge Rights 21 (KR21) – 21st Century Access to Culture, Learning & Research (Arcadia Philanthropic Trust): We secured funding in 2023 and 2024 to conduct a series of studies on the potential interference of technological protection measures (TPMs) on the lawful enjoyment of exceptions to copyright in preservation, research and innovation settings.
ESRC Impact Acceleration Award – Data Protection Wiki: The aim of this project is to establish an AI-based interactive digital resource (database) which synthesises the empirical evidence of the GDPR and makes it accessible for industry, policymakers, and technology designers. This project will address the disconnect between the GDPR’s theoretical aspirations and its real-world effects.
Creative Commons – In 2025, CREATe was awarded funding from Creative Commons to conduct research Informing best practices around open licensing of legally and culturally sensitive materials held in archive and museum collections. See our international report on open licensing commissioned by Creative Commons: https://zenodo.org/records/15691432.
The CREATe team delivered a series of surveys of Creators’ Earnings and Contracts, funded by BECS (audio-visual performers), DACS (visual artists) and DirectorsUK (screen directors).
5. Research Culture and Impact
Over the past two years, we have achieved some impressive number; they tell a story of engagement, innovation and influence.
200 blog articles, 67 events, and 21 working papers—each a window into our research and dialogue with society.
10 major policy interventions, including responses on AI and copyright, competition in virtual worlds, and data protection. Our evidence has shaped debates in Parliament, informed regulators such as Ofcom and CMA, and contributed to OECD and WIPO discussions.
7 Creative Earnings Reports, based on surveys of more than 100,000 authors, performers, journalists, and visual artists. These reports have been cited in UK parliamentary debates and by cultural institutions worldwide.
Launch of the Creators’ Earnings Hub, an open-access resource that visualises income trends across creative professions—praised by policymakers and widely covered in the media.
Development of new digital resources: from the interactive Copyright Evidence portal to the Data Protection Wiki, and the AI Licensing Economy tracker.
Our research themes, ranging from Automation and Platforms to Legal History and Cultural Memory, have delivered insights into pressing issues: AI governance, open licensing for cultural heritage, and the social cost of technological protection measures.
Behind these activities lies a distinctive culture of collaboration, openness and rigour. We work with regulators, industry and civil society, but we guard our independence fiercely. Our role is not to lobby, but to illuminate, to provide evidence where rhetoric often dominates.
Regulation is not just a technical exercise. It is about shaping the conditions under which creativity flourishes, markets remain fair, and technology serves society. Copyright law will remain an anchor, but the big questions of today – about AI, platforms, and data – require a wider lens and dialogue. CREATe stands ready to support new forms of inquiry and a better evidence base. We invite policy makers, creators, technologists, scholars to join us in this endeavour.
Prof. Martin Kretschmer, Professor of Intellectual Property Law
Dr Magali Eben, Senior Lecturer in Competition Law
Prof. Kristofer Erickson, Professor of Social Data Science
School of Law & Advanced Research Centre (ARC), University of Glasgow
(CREATe Directors)
This article was originally posted on the CREATe website on 21 April.
