The European Commission has adopted Creative Europe‘s 2022 work programme, meaning that the relevant calls for proposals can now be launched. With a budget of around €385 million, nearly €100 million more than in 2021, Creative Europe is strengthening its support to creative and cultural partners, taking due account of the challenges resulting from the COVID-19 crisis and growing global competition.

Commissioner for Innovation, Research, Culture, Education and Youth, Mariya Gabriel, said “The cultural and creative sectors are the soul of European society and we know how resilient the creative and cultural sectors have been in these past two years. In 2022, Creative Europe will benefit from its biggest budget ever. The EU stands by their side to support their recovery, their creative process and their innovation potential. We invite artists, creators and culture professionals to explore and benefit from the many funding opportunities provided by Creative Europe.”

The culture strand of the programme will include new calls and initiatives for the music, cultural heritage, performing arts and literature sectors, the MEDIA strand focuses on audio-visual and several innovations introduced in 2022, and the cross-sectoral strand will increase funding for the Creative Innovation Lab for joint-innovation projects involving several creative sectors, contributing also to the New European Bauhaus. It will also widen support to the news media through additional measures to nurture media freedom.

The cultural and creative sectors are encouraged to use CulturEU, the recently launched online guide to all EU funding available to them. The interactive website gathers a total of 75 funding opportunities from 21 different EU programmes, from Creative Europe and Horizon Europe to structural funds and InvestEU.