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Culture and Creativity

Digital Innovation Hubs help companies take advantage of digital opportunities to improve their processes and products with a view to enhance their competitiveness. EU funding will be made available for hubs that are already (or will be) supported by their Member States (or regions), in order to increase the impact of public funding. The Digital Europe Programme will increase the capacities of the selected hubs to cover activities with a clear European added value, based on networking the hubs and promoting the transfer of expertise.

The WORTH Partnership Project supports creative sector SMEs to collaborate transnationally with a view to develop innovative design-driven products by stimulating exchange and partnership between creatives, designers, manufacturers, crafters and technology firms. It is based on key principles such as quality of experience, including style and aesthetics, healthy and safe living environments, sustainability and circularity as well as inclusion, accessibility and affordability. Launched in 2021, WORTH II follows the success of the first edition (2017-2021).

The New European Bauhaus initiative aims to develop a creative and interdisciplinary movement that connects the European Green Deal to the everyday life of the EU citizens. The initiative is being co-designed through the direct involvement of citizens, experts, businesses, and Institutions and it aims to:

AMIF has a specific focus on early-integration measures, with a possibility for higher than standard co-financing rate for local and regional authorities, and civil society. The new programme predominantly focuses on early stages of integration and the overall aims are the following:

The Social Investment and Skills window facilitates: development of skills and key competences; the matching, deployment and higher skills utilisation through education, training, including on-the-job training and related activities. The window also supports projects involving social innovation, health services, ageing and long-term care, access to prevention, innovative treatments and e-health options, inclusion and accessibility, and cultural and creative activities with a social goal.

The LIFE Clean Energy Transition sub-programme supports the transition towards an energy-efficient, renewable energy-based, climate-neutral and -resilient economy. It provides funding for coordination and support actions that have high EU added-value, which are targeted at breaking market barriers that hamper the socio-economic transition to sustainable energy. Projects will typically engage multiple small and medium-sized stakeholders, multiple actors including local and regional public authorities and non-profit organisations, as well as consumers.

The LIFE programme co-finances projects in the areas of: • urban adaptation and land-use planning; • the resilience of infrastructure; • the sustainable management of water in drought-prone areas; • flood and coastal management • resilience of the agricultural, forestry and tourism sectors; • support to the EU's outermost regions in their preparedness for extreme weather events, notably in coastal areas. The programme provides action grants for best practice, pilot and demonstration projects that contribute to increase resilience to climate change.

Every year, the European Commission implements Pilot Projects (PP) and Preparatory Actions (PA) at the request of the European Parliament. The list changes on an annual basis. These actions sometimes target the news media and creative sectors.

The following actions are expected to be launched in 2024 for support in 2025:

The objective of the MEDIA 360° support is to exploit synergies among existing ecosystems, to develop further cooperation potential, to reach economies of scale across different supported activities, create impact across the value-chain. The action shall support a package of activities related to facilitating the creation and promotion of European content, and/or the uptake of new technologies or business models for the audiovisual sector.

The pilot project aims to contribute to a functioning public sphere which equips citizens with news and documentaries in modern audience format, necessary to contribute to European democracy, across borders and available in their own Member State, addressing challenges such as the domination of the European public sphere by a few powerful TV and video news platforms and corporations based outside Europe, and the changing consumer behaviour towards infotainment formats.

EU Missions are a coordinated effort by the Commission to pool the necessary resources in terms of funding programmes, policies and regulations, as well as other activities. They also aim to mobilise and activate public and private actors, such as EU Member States, regional and local authorities, research institutes, farmers and land managers, entrepreneurs and investors to create real and lasting impact. Missions will engage with citizens to boost societal uptake of new solutions and approaches.

As part of Horizon Europe, the European Innovation Ecosystems (EIE) programme aims to create more connected, inclusive, and efficient innovation ecosystems and support the scaling of companies, as laid out in the New European Innovation Agenda.

Innovation ecosystems

The CROSS SECTORAL strand shall promote cross-sectoral activities that aim at adjusting to the structural and technological changes faced by the media, including enhancing a free, diverse, and pluralistic media environment, quality journalism and media, literacy including in the digital environment.

This call will address media challenges and opportunities of trans-national nature. 

Media (re)presentation and visibility of vulnerable groups like migrants and refugees remains marginal in the mainstream social media across Europe and with a special consideration of the Ukraine situation. The objective remains to identify ways to promote inclusive social media in Europe, and to help these groups creating their own narratives about the place and role of the refugees and migrants in European societies and communities.

The following activities should be part of the expected actions of the project: 

The objective of the European mini-slate development support is to foster the competitiveness of European independent production companies in countries with a low audiovisual capacity (LCC group A and LCC group B) and to increase their economic weight on the market.


Support will be given to independent European production companies able to develop a slate of 2 to 3 audiovisual works (fiction, animation, creative documentary).

Support will be given to European festivals programming a significant proportion of non-national European audiovisual works, aiming at year-long activities targeted to expand and renew audiences and implementing innovative audience outreach activities as well as initiatives for young audiences.

Support will be given to the development of works and prototypes of interactive narrative storytelling with original content and/or quality gameplay intended for production and global commercial exploitation via PCs, consoles, mobile devices, tablets, smartphones and other technologies.

The objective of the European slate development support is to foster the competitiveness of European independent production companies and to increase their economic weight on the market. The aim is also to increase the capacity of audiovisual producers to develop projects with potential to circulate throughout Europe and beyond, and to facilitate European and international co-production.

The objective of the Innovative tools and business models action is to strengthen the competitiveness, scalability and sustainability of the European players, as well as to improve the visibility and availability of European works and increase audiences in the digital environment.

The aim is to support projects focusing on the specific challenges of the audiovisual sector such as discoverability, sequencing of release windows, financing and territoriality in order to enable strong and visible offers of European works online and across borders to a wide public.

The objective of the support to TV and online content is to increase the capacity of audiovisual producers to develop and produce strong projects with significant potential to circulate throughout Europe and beyond, and to facilitate European and international co-productions within the television and online sector.

Investment activities involve research, innovation, demonstration and digital activities including investments related to launching new products and technologies in the market. They also include organisational and process innovation, including new and innovative business models in different areas. Those areas may include sectors covering energy, energy intensive industry, environment, blue economy, maritime, transport, health, life sciences, biotechnology, agri-food, defence, space and cultural and creative sectors, among others.

Cluster 2, ‘Culture, Creativity and Inclusive Society’ aims to meet EU goals and priorities linked to: • Enhancing democratic governance and citizens participation; • Safeguarding and promoting cultural heritage; and • Responding to and shaping social, economic, technological and cultural transformations. Proposals can undertake innovative research on: • Democracy and Governance; • European Cultural Heritage and the Cultural and Creative Industries; • Social and Economic Transformations.

FARNET is the community of people implementing Community-Led Local Development (CLLD) under the European Maritime and Fisheries Fund (EMFF). This community brings together Fisheries Local Action Groups (FLAGs), managing authorities, citizens and experts from across the EU, to work on the sustainable development of fisheries and coastal areas. In the past, projects related to arts and crafts, as well as cultural heritage have often been supported by this initiative.

The Just Transition Mechanism contributes to enabling regions and people to address the social, employment, economic and environmental impacts of the transition towards the Union’s 2030 targets for energy and climate and a climate-neutral economy of the Union by 2050, based on the Paris Agreement. The Fund is a key tool to support the territories most affected by the transition towards climate neutrality providing them with tailored support.

ERDF is part of the EU Cohesion policy and it aims to strengthen the economic, social and territorial cohesion in the European Union by correcting imbalances between its regions, by supporting economic recovery, job creation, competitiveness, innovation, and sustainability. It delivers on the Union’s political priorities, especially the green and digital transition.

Within ERDF, the Interreg programmes support cross-border (Interreg A and IPA), transnational (Interreg B), interregional (Interreg C) and outermost regions’ (Interreg D) cooperation.

The EAFRD facilitates investments in rural infrastructure. Many rural areas in the Union suffer from structural problems such as lack of attractive employment opportunities, skill shortages, underinvestment in connectivity, infrastructures and essential services, as well as youth drain. The support for cultural projects is not clearly mentioned in the programme, however the EAFRD facilitates investments in rural infrastructures which does not exclude cultural infrastructures.

The circular economy and quality of life sub-programme aims to facilitate the transition toward a sustainable, circular, toxic-free, energy-efficient and climate-resilient economy, and at protecting, restoring and improving the quality of the environment The sub-programme involves direct interventions, or can support the integration of those aims in other policies. Thus, LIFE will continue to co-finance projects in the environmental sector, in particular in the area of the circular economy.

Enterprise Europe Network (EEN) is a regional network, a one-stop-shop for SMEs seeking to improve their competitiveness. To do this, EEN provides SMEs with business support and advises them on opportunities on the internal market. EEN cooperates with regional initiatives such as Smart Specialisation Platforms, Digital Innovation Hubs, Knowledge and Innovation Communities and Key Enabling Technology Centres (KETs).

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