Launched by the European Cultural Foundation, the fund supports innovative cultural initiatives, big or small, that reinforce the European Culture of Solidarity.

Short- or longer-term collaborative actions should address, through cultural work, one or more challenges relating to socio-economic transformation and post-pandemic questions such as:

• How will young generations and marginalised communities recoup lost opportunities?
• How can citizens and communities in remote areas take advantage of accelerating digitalisation and labour market transformation?
• How can rising social polarisation, political radicalism and populist movements be stemmed?
• How can conventional media and digital platforms be engaged locally to better support communities?
• Are cultural revitalisation strategies and creative industries suitable transformative resources in communities affected by deindustrialization?
• How can sites of environmental destruction be turned into ecologically, culturally, and socially diverse landscapes that contribute to global climate justice while reinvigorating the quality of life of local populations?
• How can local traditions be integrated into innovative architecture, design, spatial planning and climate research projects (e.g. in the context of the New European Bauhaus Initiative of the EU)?

Who can apply
Cultural organisations as well as organisations from other fields of work and public institutions that are based and/or active in Eastern Germany or in European regions similarly affected by deindustrialization, population decline, social dissolution, failing public infrastructure, and ecological crises.

Activities
Project proposals should:

• act locally in one region but in close collaboration and trans-national solidarity with local initiatives in similarly challenged regions across Europe;
• develop local future-oriented cultural solutions to shared systemic challenges;
• align with new interregional models of knowledge and practice exchange that aspire to progressive socio-cultural changes in Europe.

Funding
Grants are available in two amounts subject to the number of partners:

• €40,000 – two partners;
• €60,000 – three partners or more.

The grant term will be up to 12 months, starting on 1 November 2021 and ending on 31 October 2022.
Project activities may take place no earlier than the starting date and no later than 31 October 2022.

Deadline: 14 September, 13.00 CEST.
 

Find out more here.