The New Media Factory was a pilot cross border initiative aimed at creating a sustainable pool of specialist labour within the East Border region to support and consolidate the strategic
development of the digital content industries and to enhance the capacity of the region to become a hub for the creation and exploitation of digital and new media products and services.
Through an innovative human resource development and upskilling framework, the project provided a range of cross border industry-led, project-based training initiatives to support the region’s capacity to develop the production, post-production and commercial exploitation of digital content particularly within film, television, animation and mobile market sectors.
The project focussed upon implementing a range of learning initiatives specifically tailored for SMEs, individuals and freelancers that brought a blend of industry level, professional training together with state-of-the-art technology within a commercial, market focused context to help increase knowledge, skills and economic capacity in the region to create jobs and generate wealth.
There were three main contexts for the project
- the digital content industries have been recognised as offering
significant potential for economic growth across the island of
Ireland, and for the East Border region in particular,
- the MIDAS Initiative, a cross border clustering project for the digital content industries, has been successful in creating an
infrastructure for the promotion and development of these industries in the region, most specifically with the establishment of the Bright Room, and
- the successful establishment and development of the Louth Newry and Mourne Film Commission in attracting film and television projects to the East Border region.
