Completed Economics & Business Education & Skills

OKRE: Opening Knowledge across Research and Entertainment

Funder Wellcome Charity-funded
Recipient organisation Opening Knowledge Across Research and Entertainment (OKRE)
Funding £2.8M
Period Jan 2021 — Dec 2025

In plain English

AI plain-English summary

A new organisation called OKRE will act as a permanent bridge between researchers and the entertainment industry, helping TV, film, and game makers weave accurate science and health information into their stories. The gap was clear: researchers and entertainment professionals rarely talk to each other, so health and science content in popular media often gets distorted or ignored. OKRE fills that gap by providing a dedicated hub—similar to the Science Media Centre but tailored for scripted and unscripted entertainment. It has already been registered as a charity and company, and this funding covers five years of core operations. If OKRE succeeds, it could quietly reshape how millions of people encounter research. Instead of relying on public service announcements or dry educational programmes, accurate health and science information could become a natural part of the shows and films people already watch. This matters because entertainment media shapes public understanding of issues like vaccination, mental health, and climate change. By sharing infrastructure costs with other funders, OKRE also makes Wellcome’s investment go further, creating a sustainable system that outlasts any single project.

View original technical description
The proposal outlines the request for funding to support the set-up, operation and activities of OKRE: Opening Knowledge across Research and Entertainment over five years. OKRE is a high-profile strategic initiative for working with the entertainment industries that has been developed in partnership with UKRI. OKRE enables Wellcome to build on the work it has done so far, to scale its impact and create a more sustainable transformation in the engagement of research with mass media. A gap was identified between research and entertainment sectors for a body akin to the Science Media Centre but designed to address the particular challenges of working with the entertainment industries. OKRE's business model has now been developed and the organisation has been registered with Companies House and the Charity Commission. Wellcome is uniquely positioned to establish such a body. Funding enables OKRE to deliver core services in line with Wellcome's new strategic vision. OKRE's objects include promoting research, advancing education of the public and advancing the arts in social, scientific and health-related issues, as well as promoting the efficiency and effectiveness of charities. By sharing infrastructure costs with other funders, OKRE will enable Wellcome to scale the impact of its funding.

View the original record at the funder ↗

Researchers

Iain Dodgeon (EPMC Awardee)

Related Research

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Original classification

Discretionary Award – C&S

Plain English summaries and category classifications on this site are generated by AI and may not perfectly reflect the original research.