European Cooperation projects Small Scale

The action European Cooperation Projects supports projects involving organisations in the cultural and creative sectors of all sizes, including micro-organisations and small-sized organisations, and from different countries to undertake sectoral or cross-sectoral activities.

The action is anchored in the policy framework of the Culture strand of the Creative Europe Programme and its cross-cutting issues (inclusion and diversity notably gender balance as well as greening Creative Europe). European Cooperation Projects are also designed to contribute to the implementation of emerging EU policy initiatives such as the New European Bauhaus.

European Cooperation Projects are open to all the cultural and creative sectors. However, considering that this action aims to pursue the objectives of the Culture strand of the Programme, projects involving exclusively organisations from the audio-visual sector and projects of an exclusive audiovisual content are not targeted for funding under it.

Proposals are expected to present a clear cross-border cooperation dimension as this is at the core of the European Cooperation Projects.

Topic CREA-CULT-2024-COOP-1 - Small-scale projects:

• The consortium most be composed of minimum 3 entities from 3 different eligible countries.
• The maximum EU grant amount is of EUR 200 000 per project.
• The funding rate is of maximum 80%

Small-scale projects are particularly suitable to promote the access of grassroots organisations and support these organisations in the creation of new partnerships and development of new activities and innovative ideas (such as festivals, art fairs, exhibitions, performances, etc.).

Support will be given to projects contributing to one of the following objectives:

• Objective 1 - Transnational creation and circulation: to strengthen the transnational creation and circulation of European works and artists;

Transnational creation and circulation is important for the advancement of collaborations, increased outreach and in many cases necessary for the viability and development of cultural organisations, institutions and individuals. Co-production is also a tool to stimulate creativity, share resources and facilitate the trans-national distribution of content and the circulation of artists. Projects will consider the new context such as health or environmental concerns and integrate innovative (digital) ways of producing and disseminating content.

• Objective 2 – Innovation: to enhance the capacity of European cultural and creative sectors to nurture talents, to innovate, to prosper and to generate jobs and growth.

Innovation, in a broad sense, is necessary for the evolution of the cultural and creative sectors and their competitiveness. Innovations can be of technological and artistic nature; they may include the joint creation and production of innovative European works and their dissemination to a wide and diverse audience. Innovations also include the development and experimentation of new practices or models, as well as the transfer and dissemination of innovative practices from more advanced European regions or sectors or disciplines to other regions in Europe.

Areas of innovation can encompass a social or societal dimension such as: audience engagement/development, gender equality, the inclusion of people with disabilities, people belonging to minorities and people belonging to socially marginalised groups, fighting climate change, digitisation, etc., as well as culture’s contribution to health and well-being, especially mental health, given the existing evidence and the persisting mental health crisis affecting in particular the youth.

In addition to choosing one of the objectives referred to above, projects must address at least one (and no more than two) of the following priorities:

1. Audience: to increase access to, engagement and participation in culture and in particular content from countries other than their own-for all types of audience;
2. Social inclusion: to promote societal resilience, including the important role of culture for health and wellbeing (particularly mental health), and to enhance social inclusion in/through culture in particular of/for people with disabilities, people belonging to minorities and people belonging to socially marginalised groups, as well as intercultural dialogue;
3. Sustainability: to co-create, adopt and disseminate environment-friendly practices, as well as to raise awareness on sustainable development through cultural activities, in line with the European Green Deal and the New European Bauhaus;
4. Digital: to help the European cultural and creative sectors to undertake or accelerate their digital transition, and to embrace the opportunities and to address the challenges raised by artificial intelligence and other emerging technologies (e.g., generative AI, big data, virtual worlds, blockchain, NFT, etc.);
5. International dimension: to build the capacity within the European cultural and creative sectors, including grass-roots organisations and micro-organisations, to be active across borders – in Europe and beyond - and to contribute to the development of international cultural relations and the Union’s global strategy for international relations through culture.
6. Annual priority: Support to Ukrainian cultural and creative sectors. With this priority, it is intended to offer an adequate response to the consequences of the war of aggression in Ukraine having devastating effects on the Ukrainian cultural heritage, on cultural organisations as well as artists, which cannot operate and reach out to their national and international audiences. Projects addressing this priority should focus their effort on supporting Ukrainian cultural organisations and professionals (including artists) to allow them to continue creating and showcasing Ukrainian culture and/or prepare the post-war recovery.

Expected impact

The action European Cooperation Projects fosters transnational cooperation and exchanges between organisations active in the culture field, to increase the European dimension of creation and circulation of European artistic content as well as to encourage the development, experimentation, dissemination or application of new and innovative practices.

This action is expected to support at least 130 projects.