Galway's digital sector thrives but investment is required for future
The West and North-West has built a strong and rapidly growing digital creative industries sector over the past decade – but the next phase of growth will require more coordinated investment and supports, tailored to how digital creative enterprises actually operate.
Those are the headline findings from a new landmark report will be launched today (Thursday) at Ireland’s inaugural EDGE26 Creative Economy Summit.
The study identifies 1,045 active companies across games, screen, animation, immersive technologies, digital design and creative technology, pointing to a significant opportunity for the region to further strengthen its position within the global digital creative economy.
Commissioned by EDGE26 organisers CREW (Creative Enterprise West), in partnership with UrbanLab at University of Galway, the whitepaper – From Momentum to Scale: Digital Creative Industries in the West and North-West of Ireland: A Decade of Progress and the Path to 2036 – examines the growth of the sector between 2016 and 2026 across Galway, Mayo, Roscommon, Donegal, Sligo, Leitrim and Clare.
The report sets out a phased roadmap for scaling the sector over the next decade, beginning with a ‘Pilot and Proof’ phase focused on testing and refining new approaches to finance, market development and enterprise support for digital creative businesses.
Led by Dr Patrick Collins of UrbanLab at University of Galway, the research tracks a decade of significant momentum across the region – including the establishment of CREW as a dedicated creative enterprise hub; the expansion of third-level programmes in games, animation, immersive technologies and digital design; the growth of internationally-facing creative companies; and the emergence of a more connected regional ecosystem supporting digital creative enterprise.
This growth is further reflected in strong momentum across selected relevant sectors between 2019 and 2023, with enterprises increasing by almost one-third and employee numbers rising by more than 50% across the seven-county region.
The global digital creative industries are among the fastest-growing sectors in the world economy, driven by intellectual property, AI-enabled production, immersive technologies and digital content.
Revealing a number of systemic barriers to scale in the region, the whitepaper identifies the importance of more coordinated approaches across enterprise, education, technology, research and innovation, and market development.
Industry discussions at EDGE26 are expected to explore the levels of coordinated investment and cross-agency collaboration required to support that next phase of growth.
The report argues that the next phase of growth will require a more coordinated national approach across enterprise, education, innovation, regional development and investment policy – similar to the focused collaboration that helped scale Ireland’s audiovisual and technology sectors over previous decades.
Speaking ahead of the launch of the report at EDGE26, Niamh Costello, CEO of CREW, said the findings point to a major opportunity for the West and North-West to scale the digital creative industries over the next decade.
“For the past ten years, the West and North-West have been building the foundations of a strong digital creative industries ecosystem,” she said.
“We now have the talent, education pathways, creative networks and a growing base of ambitious companies working across games, screen, animation, immersive technologies and digital design.
“The opportunity now is scale. The progress of the past decade demonstrates what is possible when regional ambition, talent and long-term ecosystem development come together around the digital creative industries. The next step is ensuring investment, infrastructure and policy ambition match that momentum,” she added.
Dr Patrick Collins of UrbanLab, University of Galway, said the report points to a pivotal moment for both regional development and national policy.
“The evidence shows a sector that has moved from relative invisibility to real economic significance over the past decade,” he said.
“The West and North-West now has talent, infrastructure, firms and ambition. The challenge is no longer simply to prove that the sector exists. It is to build the financial, commercial and institutional conditions that allow it to grow,” he added.