UK racing game developer Eutechnyx has managed to secure £1.8 million from the UK government. The studio says that it will use the money to create up to 190 new jobs at the company. The firm's plan is to create a publishing operation for its new online racing game Auto Club Revolution, currently in closed beta and scheduled for release in 2012.

"We are exceptionally pleased that the Government has appreciated the unique opportunity that Auto Club Revolution presents in the world of online games," said Darren Jobling, Eutechnyx COO.

An Oklahoma research team led by communications professor Norah Dunbar and the Air Force Research laboratory have managed to score an unprecedented grant of $10.7 million USD to develop a video game to train intelligence officers in the government.

Dunbar, along with Scott Wilson, associate director for Innovative Technologies at the OU K20 Center, is overseeing the development of the game, which is called Intelligence Crisis: codename MACBETH (or "Mitigating Analysts Cognitive Bias by Eliminating Task Heuristics").

According to a Gamasutra report, the University of Abertay in Dundee, Scotland has invested £225,000 ($355,118 USD) in nine video game studios as part of its Abertay Prototype Fund. The fund is designed to support small start-up developers with staff costs related to new intellectual properties. The second round of funding awards £25,000 each to nine companies including Adamant Studios, Atomicom and Proper Games.

The EU Commission has handed out a 2.8 million Euro grant to four technology companies and two universities to develop the next generation of console hardware. Companies receiving a portion of the grant money include Edinburgh-based Codeplay, Cambridge-based Geomerics, AI company AiGameDev.com, and Greece-based Think Silicon. Germany's TU-Berlin and Sweden's Uppsala University, round out the group.

The Massachusetts Digital Games Institute (DiGI) has been awarded a five-year, $500,000 grant by the U.S. Department of Commerce. DiGI launched in April of this year with the help of grant money provided by Worcester's Becker College and the Massachusetts Technology Collaborative. The large chunk of grant money will be used to help the game industry with such things as marketing, business development, and hiring employees in the state.

According to a Develop report, Canadian development studio Digital Extremes has been given $2.5 million to move its office and create more jobs. The money comes from the Canadian government. The "provincial grant" allows the studio to add 30 new employees to its 150 strong staff, and to build new game engine technology. Digital Extremes has been tapped to create the next The Darkness game - the first game was created Swedish studio Starbreeze.

A news story from IFPress also reports that the studio will invest $33 million of its own money into its new game engine.

"Right now we can’t hire people fast enough," studio founder James Schmalz said.

The Clymer Library in Pocono Pines is putting a $4,000 grant it received last year to good use. The grant came from the Federal Library Services and Technology Act through the Pennsylvania’s Office of Commonwealth Libraries. So what have they spent that money on? A Wii to get seniors engaged and active, among other things like large print books, extra seating and more comfortable furniture.

These items are part of the library's "Savvy Senior Space," which gives the elderly a reason to spend time at the library. At first the library's board members were not convinced that this was a good use of grant money - until one if its senior members, 71 year old Don Pitzer, tried out the Wii system for himself.

As part of an initiative to chronicle the health benefits of videogames, The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) has bestowed over $1.85 million in grants to nine research teams.

RWJF’s Health Games Research program, headquartered at the University of California, Santa Barbara, is backed by $8.25 million in funding from RWJF’s Pioneer Portfolio, which operates under the mantra of supporting “innovative projects that may lead to breakthrough improvements in the future of health and health care.” The grant winners announced today are part of a second round of funding.

Pioneer Portfolio Team Director Paul Tarini stated, “The pace of growth and innovation in digital games is incredible, and we see tremendous potential to design them to help people stay healthy or manage chronic conditions like diabetes or Parkinson’s disease.  However, we need to know more about what works and what does not—and why.”

Research teams were chosen from 185 total proposals and each was awarded between $100,000 and $300,00. The grant winners, and a short synopsis of their field of study, are:

• Children's Hospital of Philadelphia - Reward Circuitry, Autism and Games that Teach Social Perceptual Skills
 
• George Washington University - Active-Adventure: Investigating a Novel Exergaming Genre in Inner City School Physical Education Programs

• Georgetown University - Wii Active Exergame Intervention for Low-Income African-American Obese and Overweight Adolescents

• Long Island University - Dance Video Game Training and Falling in Parkinson’s Disease

• Michigan State University - Buddy Up! Harnessing Group Dynamics to Boost Motivation to Exercise

• Michigan State University - Short-Term and Long-Term Effectiveness of Exergames for Young Adults

• Teachers College, Columbia University - Lit: A Game Intervention for Nicotine Smokers

• University of California, San Francisco - A Video Game to Enhance Cognitive Health in Older Adults

• University of Southern California - Robot Motivator: Towards Adaptive Health Games for Productive Long-Term Interaction

Telefilm Canada, a cultural agency of the Canadian government, has provided grant funding to several independent game projects, reports Gamasutra.

Recent recipients include DeathSpank ($536,069), a game under development by Ron Gilbert of Monkey Island fame and upcoming XBLA title Fez ($73,682) from Polytron.

Other recipients include N+, Eets Chowdown and It's Emotional.

The grants are considered "repayable advances," which means that they must be repaid out of profits. However, if a game loses money there is no requirement to repay. Releasing a title with both English and French versions scores a 10% discount on repayment

The Ontario city of Sault Ste. Marie plans to support development of a speech therapy game to the tune of $50,000, according to The Sault Star.

The money from the city's economic development fund will be awarded to Algoma University, which is partnering with the Toronto Rehabilitation Institute to build a game studio devoted to developing health-oriented games.

Council member Steve Butland called the project "different and darn near cutting edge for Sault Ste. Marie."

The National Endowment for the Humanities has awarded a $100,000 grant to a Norfolk University history professor to develop a video game which tells the tale of the Underground Railroad.

Prof. Cassandra Newby-Alexander said that the history of the Underground Railroad, a network which helped slaves escape from the South in pre-Civil War days, is not well understood:

The underground Railroad was a much more complex issue than it's been made out. When you push a person to a point where they have nothing to lose, that's when you create a formidable enemy. Ultimately, human beings are going to be free.

When you ask people to describe the Underground Railroad, they think of Harriet Tubman on foot, with a gun. Most slaves didn't escape that way. I don't want to dumb-down the game.

Newby-Alexander is working with a local playwright to create a script for the game, which is expected for PC in 2011.

Via: Kotaku