Innovate UK Business Connect Launches Innovation Challenge with Eros Innovation to Build Trusted Cultural AI Infrastructure

London, Oct 07: Eros Innovation today announced the launch of “Trusted Cultural AI Infrastructure: Film, Character & Rights,” an Innovation Exchange challenge supported by Innovate UK Business Connect.

The initiative is seeking UK innovators developing specialist, interoperable technologies that can help address a fundamental challenge emerging as generative AI becomes increasingly integrated into the creative industries: how cultural and creative assets can be used with clear rights, provenance, identity, consent and authenticity.

The challenge focuses on two connected areas: rights, attribution and provenance, and identity, consent and cultural authenticity.

Solutions being sought may include:

•  Machine-readable rights, attribution and automated licensing
• Provenance tracking across the content lifecycle
• Identity, consent, likeness, voice and character-rights management
• Cultural authenticity across original and synthetic media
• Secure, interoperable infrastructure capable of integrating into existing workflows

Eros Innovation is an AI-driven media and technology company combining entertainment IP, digital infrastructure, cultural AI models and creative-economy platforms. Its assets include film, characters, music and cultural datasets alongside AI-assisted and synthetic media.

Selected innovators will have the opportunity to test their technologies through defined Eros use cases using Eros-controlled assets, records and legal permissions. Proposed solutions should be capable of scaling across different assets, rights types, territories, platforms and cultural AI workflows.

Ridhima Lulla, Co-President of Eros Innovation, said:

“As generative AI transforms the creative industries, the next challenge is not simply what AI can create, but whether what it creates can be trusted, authorised and traced.

For cultural AI to scale responsibly, rights, provenance, identity and consent need to become part of the infrastructure itself. Through this challenge with Innovate UK Business Connect, we want to identify outstanding UK innovation that can help turn these principles into practical, interoperable technologies for the creative industries.”

Babar Javed, Knowledge Transfer Manager - Global Alliance at Innovate UK Business Connect, said:

“Innovate UK Business Connect is pleased to support Eros Innovation through the Innovation Exchange in identifying UK innovators developing practical solutions for trusted cultural AI.

This challenge brings together important questions around rights, provenance, identity, consent and cultural authenticity, with an opportunity for successful applicants to demonstrate their technologies through real-world use cases.”

Successful applicants will be invited to pitch to Eros Innovation and Innovate UK Business Connect. Selected solutions may progress to a focused proof of concept, with potential for further adoption, licensing, partnership, commercial engagement or investment if successful.

The proposed proof-of-concept period is approximately three months, with potential support of £25,000–£50,000 per selected solution, subject to scope and approval. Eros is seeking up to four solutions to pilot.

Applications are open now and close on 13 November 2026.