Introduction

This volume of essays draws on the work and the research findings of Creativeworks London.¹ Creativeworks London is a Knowledge Exchange Hub for the creative and cultural economy, whose aims are to build new and productive relationships between arts and humanities researchers and the creative economy in London, and to generate research findings that will have a major impact on that economy. Between 2012 and 2016, Creativeworks London received £4 million of funding from the UK’s Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC), and was thus able to develop a number of innovative funding schemes to promote collaboration between academic researchers and small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Through a range of funding schemes it was able to support co-created research that addressed diverse research questions and contributed directly to the business needs of a range of companies within the creative economy in London, and led to a number of collaborative projects between creative SMEs and academics.