Creative Innovation Lab

WARNING: BEFORE SUBMITTING, APPLICANTS ARE STRONGLY ADVISED TO CHECK THE RELEVANCE AND ELIGIBILITY OF THEIR APPLICATION WITH THEIR DOMESTIC CREATIVE EUROPE DESK (https://culture.ec.europa.eu/resources/creative-europe-desks)

The InnovLab support shall support the design, development and/or spread of innovative tools, models or solutions applicable in the audiovisual and other cultural and creative sectors (CCSs) with a high potential of replicability in those sectors.

The objectives of the scheme is to encourage cooperation between the audiovisual sector and other CCSs in order to accompany their environmental transition and/or to improve their competitiveness and/or the circulation, visibility, discoverability, availability, diversity and the audience of European content across borders. The support also aims to enable the European audiovisual sector and other CCSs to better adapt to the opportunities offered by the development of Artificial Intelligence and Virtual Worlds.

Expected results

• Improve the competitiveness of the European audiovisual and other cultural and creative sectors: transparency, data collection and the appropriate use of artificial intelligence/big data, adaptation to the challenges and opportunities driven by the ongoing changes in those sectors;
• Improve the adaptation of the European audiovisual and other cultural and creative sectors to the opportunities offered by the development of virtual worlds (also called metaverse(s)).
• Improve the production/financing and circulation of European audiovisual and cultural content in the digital age;
• Increase the visibility, discoverability, availability and diversity of European audiovisual and cultural content in the digital age;
• Increase the potential audience of European audiovisual and cultural content in the digital age.
• Accelerate the environmental transition of the European audiovisual, cultural and other creative sectors, in line with the priorities of the European Green Deal and the New European Bauhaus.

Description of the activities to be funded

Projects must focus on one (or several) of the below topics:

• Virtual Worlds as a new environment for the promotion of European content, audience renewal and competitiveness of European content industries;
• Innovative Business Tools for production, financing, distribution or promotion enabled or enhanced by new technology (AI, big data, blockchain, Virtual Worlds, NFT, etc.), in particular:
  • Rights’ management and monetisation (including innovative bundled subscription offers to access diverse European cultural content from various existing European platforms), at the same time ensuring transparency and fair remuneration for creators and artists;
  • Data collection and analysis, with particular emphasis on prediction for content creation and audience development (including innovative cross-sectoral tools to improve the quality of the subscriber service and a better valorisation of European content offered by European online platforms);
• “Greener” practices in order to lower the impact on the environment of the audiovisual and other cultural sectors in line with the Commission’s Green Deal and the New Bauhaus initiative.

Cross-sectoral cooperation between the audiovisual and other cultural and creative sectors is at the heart of the Call. Therefore, applications must clearly demonstrate the extent of the cross-sectoral approach, the conditions for its implementation and the expected benefits for the sectors covered.

A wide spectrum of organisations will be invited to participate, including private and public entities, tech companies and start-ups, audiovisual, cultural and creative organisations. The participation of business incubators and accelerators shall be encouraged, to provide space and time for creative ideas to be shaped.

Content development and/or production costs can only be supported if they are clearly linked to the development of innovative tools or models proposed by the project. They must be proportionate and limited.

Financial support to third parties is allowed for grants.