A NEW partnership has been launched to boosting creative technology businesses.

Creative England has joined with Barclays to start a new project at the Brighton Eagle Lab, which is based in Preston Road.

The idea behind Barclays’ Eagle Lab – Flight is to provide support and funding for new businesses.

The programme will offer eight investments to creative tech and digital companies with an interesting product to market.

This is aimed at companies with digital ideas, including apps and using creative technology in other sectors like health care or tourism.

It is a 12-week programme consisting of workshops, masterclasses and a mentor programme, aiming to unlock creativity for aspiring businesses.

It will cover topics such as business planning, sustainability, leadership, culture, global impacts and markets and audiences and evaluation.

Steven Roberts, MD strategic transformation at Barclays, said: "We are determined to support entrepreneurs and enterprise and help to close the UK’s scale-up gap.

"We are delighted to be the first bank to partner with Creative England – and working together means we can target the creative sector with a solution to help them to grow, and in turn stimulate economic growth.

"Our joint accelerator will be open to any business nationwide with a focus on the south east."

Caroline Norbury, CEO for Creative England, said: "As recognised in the Autumn Statement, digital is future critical as is the need to back start-ups to scale up.

"This is an important step in our mission to support creative, digital businesses, both driving economic growth and creating high wage, high skill jobs."

Barclays’ Eagle Labs launched this year across the UK, including Brighton, Birmingham, Bournemouth, Cambridge, Notting Hill and Norwich.

They are designed to help customers and non-customers in local businesses and communities learn about new technologies and boost the UK’s digital skills and confidence.

They provide workspaces and tools such as 3D printers to help individuals grow their business or ideas.

This scheme is open to customers and non-customers of Barclays.

The deadline to apply is December 31.

Apply at https://labs.uk.barclays/flight