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

UK innovators invited to develop technologies for rights, provenance, identity, consent and cultural authenticity across film, characters and synthetic media

LONDON, UNITED KINGDOM, October 7, 2026 /EINPresswire.com/ -- 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 a Super Intelligence, Sovereign Intelligence and Cultural Intelligence company developing trusted intelligence models, infrastructure and applications for governments, enterprises, creators and consumers. Eros Innovation is also 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. Learn more and apply here today:-
https://iuk-business-connect.org.uk/opportunities/ix-challenge-ai-attribution-and-ai-authenticity-for-ethical-cultural-content/

About Eros Innovation
Eros Innovation is a Super Intelligence, Sovereign Intelligence and Cultural Intelligence company headquartered in the Isle of Man, with operations across the United Kingdom, India, the United States and the Middle East. Building on more than four decades of Eros’ experience in global media and entertainment, including the cultural heritage and intellectual property associated with Eros Media World, Eros Innovation is developing trusted intelligence models, infrastructure and applications for governments, enterprises, creators and consumers.

Founded by Kishore Lulla, Manju Lulla, Ridhima Lulla and Rishika Lulla Singh, Eros Innovation combines more than four decades of experience in entertainment, intellectual property, technology and digital platforms with a new generation of intelligence focused on human capability, culture, language, identity and creativity.

At the core of Eros Innovation is its Large Cultural Model (LCM) family - multimodal intelligence models designed to understand and generate culturally grounded language, visual expression, voice, music, narrative and context. Eros’ intelligence programme draws on a proprietary corpus of approximately 1.5 trillion rights-cleared, ethically sourced cultural tokens, derived from its extensive library of films, characters, music, dialogue, mythology and cultural knowledge accumulated over four decades. Eros is collaborating with the Indian Institute of Technology Madras (IIT Madras) across areas of its Cultural Intelligence research programme.

Eros’ cultural data assets and underlying content library have received independent valuations totaling approximately US$3 billion, including a valuation by OxValue.AI, a University of Oxford spin-out, alongside other independent valuation work. Together, these rights-controlled cultural assets provide a substantial foundation for the development of trusted intelligence grounded in licensed cultural knowledge and intellectual property.

Eros Innovation’s intelligence infrastructure supports a portfolio spanning Eros Universe, Eros Brahmand, Eros AI Vidya, Eros Music World, Eros Wellness and Eros Experiences, alongside sovereign and enterprise intelligence solutions. Together, these businesses apply advanced intelligence across the creator economy, entertainment, education, wellness, tourism, immersive experiences and digital infrastructure.

Eros Innovation’s mission is to build trusted intelligence infrastructure for the emerging era of Super Intelligence - combining foundational intelligence, Cultural Intelligence, Sovereign Intelligence and domain-specific intelligence to create responsibly governed systems designed to augment human capability, preserve and advance cultural knowledge, and deploy trusted intelligence at global scale.

About Innovate UK Business Connect
Innovate UK Business Connect is the home of the UK’s innovation networks, connecting businesses, researchers, investors and partners to accelerate innovation and deliver real-world impact.

As a strategic delivery partner to Innovate UK, part of UK Research and Innovation (UKRI), we connect people, insight and opportunities across priority sectors and emerging technologies. Through our networks, we combine sector expertise with data and expertise to identify potential, support innovation and help ideas move from concept to commercial success.

We connect organisations to the partners, funding and expertise they need, creating clearer pathways for businesses to grow and scale.

Piyush Bhatia
Eros Innovation
Piyush.bhatia@erosinvest.com