A UNIQUE doctoral programme in York has been awarded a share of £446m funding.

The Centre for Intelligent Games and Game Intelligence (IGGI) at the University of York is one of the largest doctoral programmes in games research in the world, and has just been awarded funding for a second phase of PhD studentships.

The funding has come from a UK-wide £446 million investment in doctoral training by UK Research and Innovation (UKRI), which will fund more than 60 new PhDs between the University of York and Queen Mary, University of London.

Since 2014, IGGI has recruited and trained more than 65 PhD students working with companies and organisations including Sony Interactive Entertainment, Google DeepMind, BT and Sue Ryder to push new game interfaces, explore the creative potential of deep learning, and use games to improve the wellbeing of people with disabilities.

The new funding will help IGGI and partner agencies to study social, scientific, and economic potential of games in artificial intelligence, Esports, augmented creativity, and applied games for research and mental health.

Professor Peter Cowling, the principal investigator of IGGI, said: "IGGI is the first and only Centre for Doctoral Training for games research in the UK and we are thrilled that we can continue to build upon our strong international reputation of innovation and substantial real-world scientific impact."

Noirin Carmody, Chair of UK Interactive Entertainment (UKIE), adds: "The UK games industry is a global success story and major contributor to our country’s economy. To sustain their competitive edge, UK games companies are hungry for the kind of research and highly skilled graduates IGGI provides."

Currently, the university is in a partnership with the University of Essex, Queen Mary, and Goldsmiths, University of London as well as more than 80 partner organisations including the BBC, British Games Institute, Digital Catapult, Electronic Arts, Microsoft Research, and Women in Games.

To find out more about IGGI, go to iggi.org.uk