Creative alliances: Fostering global partnerships in cultural policies and CCI innovation

Expected Outcome:

Projects should contribute to all of the following expected outcomes:

• Deepened understanding and comprehensive evaluation of cultural policy models, creative industry ecosystems, and strategies for promoting creative industries across world regions, identifying good practices, success stories and replicable models. Innovative practices, policy approaches, shared challenges, and opportunities for cross-regional collaboration and global development of creative industries are identified.
• International equal partnerships and collaborations are established to exchange cultural policy approaches, boost creative industries, and/or support collaborative production or co-creation, facilitating knowledge transfer and capacity building among participating actors.
• Actionable strategies are available to policymakers, businesses, and stakeholders, for cross-regional collaborations that strengthen cultural ties, leverage creative industries, culture, and the arts as central to Global Europe, and support global culture- and creativity-driven innovation and resilience.

Scope:

This topic explores how international partnerships can strengthen cultural policies and creative industries innovation, promote cross-cultural collaboration, and support sustainable development and global relations. Proposals should examine innovative approaches that benefit partners worldwide while enhancing Europe's global standing through cultural cooperation. The topic has two distinct but interconnected focuses; proposals should select one but may also consider complementarities and synergies with the other.

Focus 1: Cultural and creative industries’ innovation beyond borders

Creative industries are gaining global attention for their multifaceted impact on economies and societies, driving economic growth, job creation, opportunities for youth, women, and persons with disabilities, while generating value and fostering wellbeing across regions. By investing in digital and green transitions, adopting ethical and open AI, and leveraging cultural heritage, the EU offers a compelling paradigm for creative industries worldwide. This approach strengthens creativity within Europe and can inspire other regions developing their own cultural and creative economies, contributing to a flourishing global creative ecosystem. Creative industries support resilient, inclusive, balanced and mutually respectful partnerships that create new markets and drive innovation, advancing a global Europe. There is a growing need to explore diverse approaches to promoting cultural and creative industries, fostering knowledge exchange and mutual learning to amplify positive impacts worldwide, with Africa, the Far East, South-East Asia, Latin America being particularly promising regions for cooperation. Proposals should establish pilot projects to demonstrate the potential of cross-regional cooperation in creative industries, addressing specific regional challenges and opportunities. They may leverage the EU Global Gateway strategy to foster resilient, inclusive, and innovative global partnerships.

Focus 2: International cultural relations for global resilience

While often used interchangeably, cultural diplomacy, international cultural relations, and soft power each reflect different layers of collaboration and competition: cultural diplomacy often advance national interests through cultural exchange, international cultural relations emphasise mutual and reciprocal engagement, and soft power highlights the subtle influence of culture and creativity in shaping global perceptions.

As traditional diplomatic channels face pressures, these approaches have become vital for enhancing mutual understanding, building trust, and fostering dialogue and cooperation across borders—even amid political disagreements. They promote societal resilience and peaceful coexistence by highlighting common values, easing tensions, and bridging divides. International cultural relations also offer opportunities to strengthen existing partnerships or forge new ones—important also for Europe’s own strategic autonomy—by leveraging shared values, cooperation mechanisms, existing networks (including the EU Global Gateway), and diverse cultural diplomacy strategies in today’s geopolitical landscape.

Proposals under this focus should establish pilot projects to test innovative forms of international cultural relations, such as initiatives fostering intercultural dialogue among communities experiencing tension or affected by conflict; collaborative artistic projects promoting mutual understanding and countering nationalism, xenophobia or conflict; cultural partnerships that avoid asymmetric power dynamics; or joint activities demonstrating how culture can strengthen societal resilience through inclusion, diversity, openness and how arts, design and cultural practices contribute to social cohesion. Africa, the Far East, South-East Asia, Latin America are regions of particular interest for this focus area as well. Proposals should clearly indicate the focus they have selected.

Projects should establish mechanisms for ongoing collaboration that leverage each region's cultural assets and industry innovations to address global and local challenges

Proposals addressing either focus may also explore ways to address unequal access to global markets and imbalances in partnerships within the creative economy, with attention to gender and other intersectional aspects shaping opportunities and participation. Research organisations, policy think-tanks, creative industries representatives, artist organisations/artists, tech communities, and cultural organisations from Europe and partner world regions are encouraged to participate.

Proposals should involve CCSI representatives from the outset to ensure their central role. Proposals need not cover all CCSI but may focus on a specific area for in-depth analysis to develop a strong knowledge base and highlight strategic directions and routes to improvement. Proposals should explore synergies with other EU programmes supporting international cultural and creative partnerships, including the European Spaces of Culture,^[1] and may seek complementarities with projects funded under the topic HORIZON-CL2-2025-01-HERITAGE-07. In order to achieve the topic’s expected outcomes, international cooperation is encouraged.

[1] Among others: Cultural Relations Platform, connecting cultural practitioners worldwide; S+T+Arts4Africa digital innovation in African sub-Saharan culture and digital innovation hubs; Africa-Europe Partnerships for Culture, focusing on artistic co-creation and cooperation; European Spaces of Culture: innovative collaboration models in cultural relations between EU and extra-EU local partner organisations; Creative Africa: Audiovisual for cross-border cooperation in the audio-visual sector across the entire value chain; Strengthening African-European Museum Partnerships: an African-European museums platform to develop a new multilateral framework based on co-creation; CreatiFI: Financial instrument to support creative industries; ACP-EU Culture: assist the socio-economic development of the ACP countries by supporting their cultural and creative sectors; ProCultura: contribute to the increase of employment and income-generating activities in the cultural and creative sector of the Portuguese-speaking African countries and East Timor; EU-UNESCO Facility: technical assistance to support cultural policy strengthening and the implementation of the UNESCO 2030 Culture Indicators, the framework to measure and assess culture’s contribution to sustainable development; Transcultura: deepen integration within the Caribbean region and strengthening people-to-people cooperation with the European Union.