Preparatory Action Writing European Program

It should enable European companies to scale up their collaboration and to offer talents continuous opportunities in Europe throughout their career.

Objectives

• Increased global competition in the audio-visual sector makes international cooperation in scriptwriting ever more crucial to create works that can travel across borders and have a global appeal. Such cooperation is particularly necessary at European level to allow European players to scale up and face the increasing risk of ‘brain-drain’ of European audio-visual professionals towards third countries.
• The objective of the proposed scheme is to respond to the need for European storytelling suitable for co-production.

Themes and Priorities

• The purpose of this preparatory action “Writing European” is to help the European audiovisual industry to develop excellence in creating and writing high-quality drama content and foster innovative storytelling. It aims to promote co-writing practices, thereby also enlarging the experience of creative talents working on fiction series.
• Applicants are invited to setup creative hubs that can achieve the above objectives as well as the following priorities:
  • Improve the knowledge and capacity of creative talents in the creation of fiction series and foster the emergence of strong teams/hubs of European creative talents (e.g. scriptwriters, editors, showrunners, producers) coming from diverse backgrounds and nationalities;
  • Facilitate collaborations that follow a learning-by-doing approach, enabling creative talents to work on a set of different projects in parallel;
  • Identify and implement working methods for co-writing, from the conceptualisation and early stage of storytelling, to matchmaking with potential buyers;
  • Ensure contacts with industry leaders, producers or commissioners of audiovisual works (e.g. distributors, buyers, platforms, broadcasters) to enhance the talents’ understanding of the market trends and dynamics;
  • Scout and select talents, for instance through open calls or prizes;
  • Enhance the use of:
    • innovative technologies and market intelligence that can affect the creative process (e.g. cognitive neuroscience, data analytics, artificial intelligence);
    • intellectual property rights management as it secures creative autonomy and fair remuneration of creators.

Funding Information

• The available call budget is EUR 3 000 000.

Duration

• Projects should not normally exceed 36 months (extensions are possible, if duly justified and through an amendment).

Eligible Activities

• Potential applicant and beneficiaries include groupings of audio-visual creatives or entities supporting creative talent, such as creative labs, training organisations, broadcasters, Video on Demand (VoD) platforms, international markets. The following types of activities are eligible under this call for proposals:
• activities related to co-writing/concept development/prewriting/conceptualisation for the creation of high-level European fiction series content (including through support to third parties such as scriptwriters, authors, show runners, producers or other members of the creative team);
• activities of the collaborative hub/writers-room, in particular organising the process of co-creating European fiction series, including coordination tasks, mentoring activities, governance or management, activities of match-making with potential buyers;
• advertising or promotion, in particular to scout for new talents or organise a competition to ensure excellence and diverse participation in the project;
• activities aimed at the creation and dissemination of replicable innovative models and methodologies for writing high-end European audiovisual content;
• data studies, research, including the use of digital technologies that can affect the creative process (e.g. cognitive neuroscience or artificial intelligence tools) or market intelligence and audience measurements directly related to the needs of the project;
• dissemination activities and promotion of the project’s results.

Expected Impact

• The project should involve creative talents throughout the EU. It should stimulate exchanges at EU level and foster participation of creatives from different backgrounds in order to come up with stories that reflect the diversity of EU societies. Ultimately, this will be a vector to reach out to new transnational audiences.
• It is expected to catalyse innovation in the audiovisual creative process to encompass all mediums of expression.
• Furthermore, it should ensure coherence between high-quality storytelling and highquality audiovisual content, as well as enhance cross-border collaboration among European talents.

Eligibility Criteria

• Eligible participants (eligible countries)
  • In order to be eligible, the applicants (beneficiaries and affiliated entities) must:
    • be legal entities (in particular non-profit organisations, public or private bodies, educational institutions and research centres)
    • be established in one of the eligible countries, i.e.:
      • EU Member States (including overseas countries and territories (OCTs))
• Specific cases
  • Natural persons — Natural persons are NOT eligible (with the exception of selfemployed persons, i.e. sole traders, where the company does not have legal personality separate from that of the natural person.
  • International organisations — International organisations are eligible. The rules on eligible countries do not apply to them.
  • Entities without legal personality — Entities which do not have legal personality under their national law may exceptionally participate, provided that their representatives have the capacity to undertake legal obligations on their behalf, and offer guarantees for the protection of the EU financial interests equivalent to that offered by legal persons.
  • EU bodies — EU bodies (with the exception of the European Commission Joint Research Centre) cannot be part of the consortium.

For more information, visit EC.