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.

EIT Culture & Creativity will incorporate successful activities in its Business Plan for 2024-2025. For this round of calls, budget available in 2024 is up to EUR 10.45 million. An additional allocation of up to EUR 3.45 million is earmarked in 2025 for multi-annual 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.

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 challenges and contribute to social cohesion. The application system will open on 17 April and close on 31 May 2023.

Applicants 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. 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.

For more information, please refer to the source page of this call announcement: https://eit.europa.eu/our-activities/opportunities/eit-culture-creativity-launches-first-open-calls-proposals as well as https://eit-culture-creativity.eu/calls-for-proposals/

Overview of Calls

Strategic Objective 1, Education - Make students and professionals future-proofed
Call 1: New curricula within existing Master’s and new Master’s for CCSI offering hybrid learning on future skills and new technologies, societal transformation, ethical entrepreneurship, and creativity.
Call 2: New lifelong learning courses, renewing and refreshing the skills of those active in CCSI with action-based and challenge-based learning methodologies and cross-disciplinary training formats.
Strategic Objective 2, Innovation - Create cross-domain opportunities
Call 3: Support innovations close to customers or audiences with high impact on the green, digital and social transition, with a focus on Architecture, Audio-visual, Cultural Heritage, Design and Fashion.
Strategic Objective 3, Creation – Build and scale strong ventures for impact and growth
Call 4: Strengthen and innovate existing and/ or establish innovative incubation and accelerator programmes tailored for the diversity of CCSIs ́ specific profit and non-profit business models.
Strategic Objective 4, Society - Regenerate Values and Social Cohesion
Call 5: Scale social innovation on the reuse of spaces to solve local challenges and contribute to social cohesion through CCSIs-driven pilots in three countries.

RIS Scheme

Under the EIT RIS Scheme and Framework 2022-2027 EIT Culture & Creativity supports building innovation capacities in countries and regions eligible by focusing on integrating new partners from geographical areas where KIC engagement remains limited. For the Calls leading to activities to be included as part of the 2024/2025 Business Plan, partners from RIS regions are especially encouraged to participate in activities that support increased innovation capacity, increase investment in startups and SMEs, and improve integration of the extended Knowledge Triangle in their regions.

Countries eligible to take part in the EIT RIS (2021-2024): EU Member States: Bulgaria, Croatia, Czechia, Estonia, Greece, Spain, Italy, Cyprus, Latvia, Lithuania, Hungary, Malta, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovenia, Slovakia; Horizon Europe Associated Countries: Montenegro, North Macedonia, Serbia, Türkiye, Ukraine; Outermost Regions: Guadeloupe, French Guiana, Réunion, Martinique, Mayotte and Saint-Martin (France), the Azores and Madeira (Portugal), and the Canary Islands (Spain).