EIT Culture & Creativity releases its first open calls for proposals

EIT Culture & Creativity releases its first open Calls for Proposals. These proposals are designed to address global challenges Europe faces in higher education, innovation, business creation, and society, with up to €10.45 million in funding available for 2024. The deadline for submissions is the 31 May 2023.

EIT Culture & Creativity is inviting applications for activities that have the potential to strengthen entrepreneurship, innovation capacity and accelerate the competitiveness of European Cultural and Creative Sectors and Industries (CCSI) and Europe’s Green, Digital and Social Transitions. All CCSI stakeholders and legal entities in the EU and Associated Members to the Horizon Europe Programme are eligible to apply.

Supported by the European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT), a body of the European Union, EIT Culture & Creativity will incorporate successful activities in its Business Plan for 2024-2025. The budget available in 2024 for this round of calls is up to €10.45 million. An additional allocation of up to €3.45 million is earmarked in 2025 for pluriannual projects. Almost half of the available funds are reserved for innovation projects with a clear and viable commercialisation plan. These proposals are expected to deliver innovative products, processes, services, or business models in the audiovisual and media, architecture, fashion and textile, design, and cultural heritage sectors.

“The Cultural and Creative Sectors and Industries have a long track record of delivering market-changing innovations. CCSI is often at the forefront of developing and testing innovative solutions that then become mainstream for other sectors. The first round of calls focus on innovations also contributing to Europes green transition – culture and creativity can be a green game changer!,”

Bernd Fesel, interim CEO of EIT Culture & Creativity.

EIT Culture & Creativity’s Calls for Proposals in 2023 will also include opportunities for projects in higher education, business creation, and social innovation. The later will fund cultural and social entrepreneurship initiatives that demonstrate scalable social innovation pilots to address local-based challenges and contribute to social cohesion.

The application system was open on 17 April and will close on 31 May 2023. Proposers are invited to consult all call documentation and guidelines, including application forms for one-step and two-step proposals, and register for the EIT Culture & Creativity Infoday, which will take place online on 25 April for more information. Awarded projects are expected to begin in early 2024. All details on the conditions of the calls can be found on the EIT Culture & Creativity website (www.eit-culture-creativity.eu).

These calls are the first funding opportunities that EIT Culture & Creativity will launch during 2023. More calls for proposals are expected to be launched in the second semester of 2023, for activities starting mid-2024 and in 2025.