We support arts and culture across wider Europe, by investing in creativity and boundary crossing innovation.
Grants are at the core of our work. The connecting power of culture is essential for creating open, inclusive and democratic societies: for ‘building Europe’. We are looking for projects that have the potential to inspire people to transcend boundaries in this process.

Our grants programme stimulates transnational cultural collaboration, artistic expression and the mobility of artists and cultural actors. Our various grants schemes relate to different ECF focus areas and to specific regions of the Europea continent.

All of our activities revolve around the three strategic guiding principle outlined below.

Applications that tie in with these principles will receive a higher score in the assessment procedure.

We are interested in:

1.Diversity within our societies: projects that reduce exclusion and conflict by bringing people together; projects that target new audiences and create new places for showcasing culture.

2.Connecting Sources of Knowledge – we think sharing and connecting knowledge is vital in creating an open Europe.

- cross sectoral and cross generational online and offline collaborations: projects that try out innovative and creative partnerships to develop/produce new work, broaden knowledge sharing and public participation, as well as experiment with new technologies.

3. Linking Policy and Practice – we are interested in projects that help build this open Europe by contributing to cultural policy development locally, nationally, regionally and at European level.

Impacting on European cultural policy: projects that actively contribute to policy and practice; that connect a local perspective to the European level; also projects that bring cultural and political players together in new ways, and that raise awareness and help prove the value of cultural policy.

Eligibility Criteria

Collaboration grants fund transnational, cross sectoral activities by artistic and cultural organisations working together or with organisations from other sectors. Applications must be in line with all the eligibility criteria. Please read these carefully, as proposals which do not meet the criteria will not be considered.

1. Who is eligible?

- Lead applicant: independent artistic or cultural organisation based in Euro
- Partnering applicant: organisations from the cultural or other sectors.

2. What is eligible?

There are six different eligibility criteria. All of them are equally important to us, which is why applications must be in line with all eligibility criteria. Please read them carefully. Proposals that do not meet these criteria will not be considered.

Partnership working methodology

Transnational collaboration in Europe is the key phrase for this grants scheme. Projects are selected first and foremost on both their transnational and collaborative aspects. We need to see the transnational collaboration reflected in your entire application form. This means that project partners must be involved in all aspects of the project; working
together on the planning, the development and the realisation. This also implies that all partners should contribute financially to the project (note that we also consider in?kind contribution as financial support).

Cultural focus

The project should have a strong cultural objective and a concrete end product. In this sense, we support a variety of activities: the creation of artistic work, media projects or cultural policy development, including capacity building of cultural actors.

European dimension

The project must be organised by a cultural organisation in Europe (following the Council of Europe’s definition, which comprises 47 countries). As we also encourage cooperation with the southern European  region, projects partnering with Mediterranean countries are also eligible, as long as their content relates centrally to European cross?border cooperation. (Indeed, this is true for all projects we support.) By ‘Mediterranean countries’ we refer to Algeria, Egypt, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco, Palestine, Syria and Tunisia.

Sustainability

The project must have a clear end?result that can be evaluated. Ideally, the project is a starting point for sustainable cooperation between the partners.

Time frame

Project activities should only start after we have made our funding decision (please check the exact planning for this grant scheme on the ECF grants website section). The project must be completed 18 months after the contract has been signed.

Financial

ECF can support up to 80% (max) of the total budget. We encourage applicant organisations and their partners to demonstrate their own contributions and to apply to other funders. This should be shown in the budget outline.

ECF provides an average collaboration grant of Euro 15 000. The maximum grant awarded is Euro 30 000.

ECF specifically welcomes the involvement of local funding partners, as we believe this helps embed the project within the local context.

ECF may select your project even if your remaining budget has not yet been secured when you are applying. Payment of the grant will be conditional on an agreed percentage of other funding having been secured at least one month before the start date of your project.
Collaboration grants for independent cultural and artistic organisations
http://www.eurocult.org/grants/collaboration-grants

deadline: 01/03/11

Kontakt:
European Cultural Foundation
Esther Claassen
Jan van Goyenkade 5
1075 HN Amsterdam
The Netherlands
tel: +31 (0)20 573 38 68 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting              +31 (0)20 573 38 68      end_of_the_skype_highlighting
fax: +31 (0) 20 675 2231
esther@eurocult.org
http://www.eurocult.org