The CCi Annual Report for 2010 is now available to download as a PDF. Alternatively, if you would like to receive a print copy, please email infocci@qut.edu.au to request a copy.

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The Australian Games Industry is facing significant pressures to remain relevant, both locally and overseas. In recent years, the industry has experienced the closure of many major local development houses and the ‘letting-go’ of hundreds of highly skilled employees. Of compelling interest to many industry observers is the opportunity that exists for individuals possessing high-end skills within the interactive media industries to apply their knowledge of the interactive or game-play environment into ‘non-entertainment’ industry sectors. The ISIS program, funded by DEEWR’s Workforce Innovation Program is a two year industry development project that Justin Brow says will model the interplay of interactive media expertise with ‘non-entertainment’ industry sectors.

Applicants are invited for a number of three-year PhD scholarships with the Creative Workforce research program of the ARC Centre for Excellence in Creative Industries and Innovation, hosted at Queensland University of Technology.

More Information Here. or Contact Ruth Bridgstock

Dr. Ruth Bridgstock of CCi’s Creative Workforce Program and Melissa Hyde of the School of Psychology at QUT have been awarded funding under the QUT Faculty of Health Collaborative Grants program to investigate psychological aspects of university graduate education-to-work transitions in the fields of Creative Industries and Psychology.

Dr. Mark Ryan was awarded the Creative Industries Faculty Dean’s Award for Excellence in Research and Innovation (2009) on the 8 July in recognition of excellence by an early career researcher (ECR) for the impact and utilisation of his research by the media and industry.

Mark is an ECR, completing his PhD one year ago, who has 20 HERDC works published or accepted for publication. In addition to his productivity, Ryan’s research into genre movies like horror, and the future of filmmaking, has received significant public exposure.

CCI's Creative Workforce Program has launched the Games Industry Skills Project website. The site provides an opportunity for interested researchers and other stakeholders to participate in a dialogue about the current and future state of Australia's Digital Games Industry.

Creating Innovators is a research project which builds and tests theory about the development and deployment of ‘innovative career capabilities’ in professionals working in the key sectors of science & technology, and the creative industries. The theory will then be used to inform curriculum development in university and professional education programs.

Erica McWilliam has recently been appointed as an Adjunct Professor for the Creative Industries Faculty at QUT and will be based at the National Education Institute in Singapore from the 1 December 2008. This node is being established to focus on the creative workforce, education and digital literacy, and urban narrative. More details to follow soon.

Creativity has become the economic engine of the 21st century. No longer the preserve of creative industries, 'creative capital' – in the form of novel thinking, navigation, interactivity and border-crossing – has become crucial to success and productivity. But are young people being equipped for a work future in which creativity is the defining feature of economic life? In an important new book, Erica McWilliam argues that young people’s creative capacities are not being properly developed and that education, particularly in Australia, demands a massive pedagogical shift. Using both Australian and overseas examples, Creative Workforce describes what creative capacities are, why they've become important to our work futures, and what can be done to optimise the creative capacities of young people.

In 2008, the Creative Workforce Program will continue to build links and partnerships with key stakeholders, expand the Learning Lab Coalition, attract funding of benefit to the Creative Workforce Program, and disseminate Program findings and activities. Planned activities include:

• contributing to the development and promotion of an online repository of creative teaching practices. The repository will consist of exemplars of practice, key themes, recommendations, future collaborations, nodes of contact, and a short film of Creativity Showcase presentations and highlights;

The National Creativity Showcase