Prestigious Multi-platform Training Lab Offered

Media graduates across the UK and European are being urged to apply for an intensive cross-platform ideas lab that hopes to develop the next generation of multi-platform content creators.
Hosted in Wales for the first time, Transform@Lab is a high-level European scheme which aims to address the current industry need to develop cross-platform creatives and will draw on the Europe-wide pool of recent graduates in animation, games, interactive media, writing and producing degree courses.
Coordinated by Skillset Media Academy Wales, the Transformat Lab will be hosted in Wales by the University of Wales, Newport, and in Europe by two of the leading media schools: the Danish Animation Workshop, Viborg; and the Maholy-Nagy University of Art & Design, Budapest.
Funding for the high-level scheme has come from the European Union MEDIA Initial fund, making Skillset Media Academy Wales and its partners the first training providers in Wales to receive MEDIA Initial Training support.
The intensive Transform@Lab programme will offer nine trainees selected in March 2011 the opportunity to attend 17 days of residential workshops over six months.
During this period they will cover a variety of specialist areas, from designing mobile phone applications, and writing interactive narratives, to copyright and funding issues surrounding cross-platform content creation.
Three carefully matched teams will work on innovative multi-platform projects with assistance from tutors and mentors from the partner Universities, and will benefit from the 11 masterclasses and 12 project development labs with leading new-media practitioners from the host countries.
The nine graduates selected will also benefit from studio visits and networking events with industry professionals and e-support through online learning modules before they put their finished projects before a Dragon’s Den style industry panel in a pitching session.
The first week in Wales will be taking place on April 16th-21st, with weekend sessions in Hungary (July 15th-17th) and Denmark (August 19th-21st) and the final week in Wales on September 17th - 21st. The application deadline is 5pm on 28 February.
Transform@Lab selection procedure is open to all European media postgraduates who are either currently studying or have recently graduated (within a maximum of two years).
Applicants from all areas of media studies will be considered, however, the Transform@Lab is targeted at students from the following areas of study: Animation Production, Animation Direction, Games Design and Web & Mobile Phone Content Design.
Also, the Skillset Media Academy Wales is offering two bursaries of £450 to post-graduate media students in Wales as a contribution towards the £670 fee for the transform@lab course.
Check the eligibility criteria checklist or apply and find out more online: www.transformatlab.eu/
(BMcC/GK)