Applications open for Creative Europe Programme – MEDIA 360˚

Objectives

• Within the specific objective of promoting competitiveness, scalability, cooperation, innovation and sustainability, including through mobility in the European audiovisual sector, one of the priorities of the MEDIA Strand is:
  • To nurture talents, competence and skills and to stimulate cross-border cooperation, mobility and innovation in the creation and production of European audiovisual works, encouraging collaboration across Member States with different audiovisual capacities.

Themes and Priorities

• The MEDIA strand shall provide support for the following measures:
  • Training and mentoring activities to enhance the capacity of audiovisual operators professionals to adapt to new creative processes, market developments and digital technologies that affect the whole value chain;
  • Support to networking activities for audiovisual professionals, including creators, and business-to-business exchanges and networking activities to facilitate to nurture and promote talents in the European audiovisual sector, and facilitate the development and distribution of European and international co-creations and coproductions;
  • Support the activities of European works audiovisual players at industry events and fairs in Europe and beyond.

Funding Information

• The estimated available call budget is EUR 21000000.

Eligible Activities

• Projects must cover activities in at least two of the following segments:
  • Skills development
    • Training and mentoring activities to enhance the capacity of audiovisual professionals to adapt to new creative processes, market developments and digital technologies that affect the whole value chain. Activities may include inter alia: supporting new creative processes; harnessing digital innovation in audiovisual production and distribution, uptake of digital tools for videogames production and distribution; enhancement IP rights exploitation; green transition.
  • Markets, B2B activities and networking
    • Activities and networking industry events, physical, digital or hybrid, focused on business-to-business exchanges among European audiovisual professionals, facilitating coproductions and sales and showing a structuring effect on the European audiovisual eco-system as well as impact on the promotion and sales of European audiovisual works on global markets.
  • International co-production between a company based in a country participating in the Creative Europe MEDIA strand and a company based in a country not participating to the MEDIA strand. The eligible activities consist of the provision of financial support to eligible third parties for eligible projects conforming to the following criteria:
    • Production of feature films, TV series, animation and documentaries (short films are not eligible).
    • Distribution activities and international promotion strategies to improve the international circulation and audience of international co-productions.
  • Harnessing innovation to increase the availability, visibility and audience of European works in the digital age and/or to increase the competitiveness or the greening process of the European audiovisual industry. Eligible activities may also include activities aimed at incubating, accelerating & scaling innovation in the audiovisual and gaming ecosystems.
  • Private investment
    • Support workshops, seminars or tutorials that focus on the importance of financial investments, the various opportunities available, and how these can benefit audiovisual/gaming companies in the long run. These events can also provide a platform for audiovisual and gaming companies to interact with financial experts and prospective investors and share success stories of companies/content that have benefited from financial investments, thereby encouraging others to explore these opportunities.

Eligible Projects

• Reinforce the capacity of the EU industry to create, produce, distribute and promote European works with the potential to travel across the EU and beyond.
• Improve the competitiveness of European organisations with a high level of expertise and global track record.
• Incentivize the experimentation of new business models.
• Enhance private investment in audiovisual and/or gaming companies.
• Promote sustainable and more environmentally-respectful solutions for the audiovisual industry.
• Support the digital transformation of the audiovisual and/or gaming industries and the uptake of digital tools by audio-visual and/or gaming companies; Support the acquisition of new skills by audiovisual and or gaming professionals to thrive in an increasingly competitive market.

Eligibility Criteria

• Applications will only be considered eligible if their content corresponds wholly (or at least in part) to the topic description for which they are submitted.
• In order to be eligible, the applicants (beneficiaries and affiliated entities) must:
  • Be legal entities (public or private bodies)
  • Be established in one of the eligible countries, i.e.
• Creative Europe Participating Countries:
  • EU Member States (including overseas countries and territories (OCTs))
  • Non-EU countries:
    • Listed EEA countries and countries associated to the Creative Europe Programme or countries which are in ongoing negotiations for an association agreement and where the agreement enters into force before grant signature.
• Be established in one of the countries participating in the MEDIA strand of the Creative Europe Programme and owned directly or by majority participation, by nationals from such countries; for publicly listed companies, the location of the stock exchange will be taken into account to determine its nationality.
• Beneficiaries and affiliated entities must register in the Participant Register — before submitting the proposal — and will have to be validated by the Central Validation Service (REA Validation). For the validation, they will be requested to upload documents showing legal status and origin.
• Other entities may participate in other consortium roles, such as associated partners, subcontractors, third parties giving in-kind contributions, etc.

For more information, visit Creative Europe.