“Artistic intelligence” : harnessing the power of the arts to address complex challenges, enhance soft skills and boost innovation and competitiveness

Europe’s rich cultural heritage and strong creative industries not only reflect our past but also shape our future. It is by building on this foundation and developing our strengths that we can face the great challenges of our time with confidence and shape a desirable common future. Europe's cultural heritage originates from the interaction between people and places through time and is constantly evolving^[1]. Every citizen has a right to engage with the cultural heritage of their choice, while respecting the rights and freedoms of others, as an aspect of the right to participate freely in cultural life^[2].

Europe’s diverse tangible and intangible cultural heritage and dynamic cultural and creative industries (CCIs) are strategic assets. They enrich our lives, foster social cohesion and societal resilience, and contribute to a sense of belonging. They underpin a growing economy that generates more employment than the automotive industry and a similar trade balance as food, drinks and tobacco combined. Many of Europe’s multinational companies build their international success on European heritage and creativity. At the same time, the sector is nurturing large numbers of dynamic small, medium (SMEs) and micro enterprises, creating employment not the least for young people, while deploying their creativity not only to generate income but also to contribute to social and cultural sustainability, wellbeing and to projecting European values at home and abroad. The cultural and creative industries are engines of innovation not only in themselves, but across the entire economy, thus contributing strongly to Europe’s overall competitiveness and future prosperity.

This destination adopts a people-centred perspective and places cultural heritage and the cultural and creative industries at the very heart of the European economy, its competitiveness and sustainability. R&I activities under this destination will be aligned with the main principles and objectives of the Culture Compass for Europe and support objectives such as circular and just fashion and textiles value-chains, social cohesion and resilience through arts, design and cultural practices and creative entrepreneurial ecosystems for regional development. R&I activities under this destination will support and strengthen European cultural heritage and cultural and creative industries essentially along the following lines:

Europe’s sustainable prosperity and competitiveness: To secure Europe’s future prosperity and competitiveness, it is necessary to unlock the innovative power of our cultural heritage and CCIs. The CCIs contribute strongly to drive innovation not only in themselves but also in other industries and economic sectors, shape new technologies and can contribute to user-driven innovation, open innovation and cross-sectoral innovation, in addition to their wider societal contributions such as to cultural wealth, social cohesion and resilience.

R&I actions under this area will focus on boosting the innovation-driving role of the CCIs, on creative startups, on the impact of artificial intelligence technologies on creativity and CCIs, while ensuring that new technologies are fairly deployed, along with the contributions of artistic intelligence and soft skills, boosting a circular economy and global partnerships in cultural policies and CCIs, among other things.

Supporting people, strengthening our societies and our social model: Cultural heritage, the arts and the CCIs have a crucial role to play for resilient and socially sustainable societies, shaping and strengthening the values that hold us together and give meaning and a sense of belonging.

R&I actions under this area will focus on boosting the role of culture, the arts and creative industries in contributing to well-being, to the social economy and in general the societal impact of cultural heritage. R&I actions will explore and strengthen the role of culture, heritage and CCIs in shaping the technologies of the future and focus on safeguarding intangible heritage and linguistic diversity, on sustainable cultural tourism and on countering illicit trafficking of cultural goods, among others.

Some actions funded under this Destination will need access to and/or generate data. Where appropriate, actions should leverage the data and services available through European Research Infrastructures federated under the European Open Science Cloud or included in the European Strategy Forum on Research Infrastructures (ESFRI) and the ESFRI roadmap, as well as data from relevant European Data Spaces. In particular, projects that produce data or digital tools of potential interest to cultural heritage institutions or researchers should, as appropriate, establish links to and/or consider integrating their results in the European Collaborative Cloud for Cultural Heritage (ECCCH)^[3].Particular efforts should be made to ensure that the data produced in the context of actions under this Destination is FAIR (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable and Re-usable).

The innovation ecosystems created and nurtured by the Knowledge and Innovation Communities (KICs) of the European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT), in particular the KIC “EIT Culture and Creativity”, may contribute to actions under this destination, and may as appropriate be considered by applicants. Furthermore, applicants are invited to consult funding opportunities in other parts of the Horizon Europe Work Programme, including for instance the funding opportunities for companies, high potential start-ups, entrepreneurs and innovative researchers offered under the European Innovation Council.

R&I actions under this Destination will help ensure Europe’s sustainable prosperity and competitiveness, support people, strengthening our societies and our social model, contribute to protecting our democracy, upholding our values and boosting a global Europe, leveraging our power and partnerships. They will contribute to reaching the UN Sustainable Development Goals and to building a stronger, more participatory and crisis-resilient society and economy. They will support the realisation of the full potential of cultural heritage, arts and cultural and creative industries as drivers of sustainable innovation and a European sense of belonging.

To maximise the impacts of R&I under this Destination in line with EU priorities, international cooperation is encouraged whenever relevant in the proposed topics.

Expected impact:

Proposals for topics under this Destination should set out a credible pathway to contributing to the following expected impact of the Horizon Europe Strategic Plan:

• The full potential of cultural heritage, arts and cultural and creative industries and sectors as drivers of both sustainable innovation and a European sense of belonging is realised through a continuous engagement with society, citizens and economic sectors.

[1] Council conclusions of 21 May 2014 on cultural heritage as a strategic resource for a sustainable Europe (2014/C 183/08) https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/PDF/?uri=CELEX:52014XG0614(08)

[2] CETS 199 - Council of Europe Framework Convention on the Value of Cultural Heritage for Society (coe.int)

[3] See further for instance https://research-and-innovation.ec.europa.eu/research-area/social-sciences-and-humanities/cultural-heritage-and-cultural-and-creative-industries-ccis/cultural-heritage-cloud_en

Expected Outcome:

Proposals should contribute to the first two expected outcomes, and either the one listed under Focus 1, or the one listed under Focus 2.

• The potential of art-science and/or technology collaborations to address societal challenges and drive innovation is better understood. Guidance, toolkits, and actionable methodologies are developed to promote these collaborations, providing policymakers, professionals, and training organisations with clarity on intervention scope, applicability across various fields, and evaluation methods, metrics, or tools.
• New and existing national, European or international networks for art-science-technology collaborations are established or strengthened, expanding opportunities for artists to engage with science and technology.

Focus 1

Approaches, methodologies and model interventions for integrating arts and creative practices to enhance soft skills across public and private sectors are developed, tested and disseminated.

Focus 2

The effectiveness of critical artists’ engagement in interdisciplinary teams is demonstrated alongside the assessment of the viability of research-intensive emerging technologies through at least three low technology readiness level (TRL) pilot demonstrators.

Scope:

Artistic research fosters inter-, multi-, and trans-disciplinary thinking, inspiring innovative problem-solving and offering new avenues for innovation across policy areas, akin to scientific research. EU initiatives such as SciArt and S+T+ARTS^[1] show that art-science-technology collaborations enhance scientific and technological progress. Art acts as a catalyst for innovation, developing creative solutions to complex challenges and brings fresh perspectives to the scientific community. Artistic research is increasingly fostering mutual fertilization between the arts and academia. Collaboration with artists leads academics to adopt experimental practices, while artists increasingly engage with theoretical aspects of their practice. Closer collaboration between artists and companies in emerging technologies ensures that technological developments are guided by diverse, human-centred perspectives. Artistic research offers cross-disciplinary insights that challenge conventional thinking, spark innovation beyond technical efficiency, and address societal challenges holistically. Furthermore, artistic intelligence^[2] makes complex concepts accessible and engages audiences emotionally and culturally. Artistic expression facilitates the adoption of innovative concepts and practices and catalyses social innovation, supporting sustainable and inclusive societal transformations and the cultural uptake of socio-scientific issues. Now is the time to consolidate understanding of the transformative potential of art-science-technology collaborations, distil it for application across policy areas and levels, and develop methods to evaluate their impact both quantitatively and qualitatively. Projects are expected to:

• Gather evidence on art-science-technology collaborations for addressing societal challenges and spurring innovation in science and technology.
• Collect case studies, produce and disseminate guidance, toolkits, and methodologies supporting policymakers in promoting these collaborations and strategies for cross-disciplinary innovation. Mechanisms, span of possible interventions, applicability to diverse fields and contexts will be clarified and exemplified.
• Develop concrete use cases, such as (but not limited to): artists supporting ethical, inclusive, human-centred AI; addressing societal challenges and complex transformations through art-science-technology collaboration, advancing emotional storytelling, experiential art and public engagement through AI and real-time data; public sector roles in the art-science-technology uptake; role of artists in catalysing innovation in policymaking; participatory art-science-technology initiatives and citizen science.
• Develop and test qualitative and quantitative methodologies and key performance indicators for evaluating such interventions, assessing their impacts, measuring their medium to long-term benefits and identifying what constitutes success.
• Increase opportunities for artists to engage in art-science-technology collaborations, through network establishment or consolidation, interdisciplinary initiatives or other methods.

Project consortia should include artists and creatives/representatives of creative industries. Through leveraging creativity, projects should boost EU productivity and competitiveness while improving artists and creative professionals' employment conditions and preserving the autonomy and freedom essential to artistic practice and democratic society.

Financial support to third parties of up to EUR 60.000 in the form of grants may be considered, with the aim of actively engaging artists and creative professionals, for example through residencies, to facilitate development of solutions and innovative experimentations.

In addition to the main focus area, proposals should choose between the following two focuses:

Focus 1. Enhancing soft skills through creativity and the arts

Policies and strategies for introducing creative thinking and cross- and transdisciplinary methods in education, research and the broader public and private sectors are needed. In the workforce, engaging with creative practices and the arts enhances soft skills -such as creativity, critical thinking, problem-solving, emotional intelligence - crucial for productivity and competitiveness in an increasingly automated world^[3] and to meet the demands of a changing market. Supporting research and innovation in this area will help individuals and institutions develop the skills and mindsets needed to thrive and increase creativity, productivity and well-being, including mental health, in a complex, interconnected society. Projects are expected to develop, experiment, and disseminate frameworks for using the arts and creative practices to strengthen soft skills in various public and private sectors, including education and lifelong learning, public administration and corporate environments, and showcase best practices. Proposals may choose their own areas of application.

Focus 2. Pilots on emerging technologies

Proposals should develop at least 3 small scale pilots on emerging technologies in interdisciplinary settings involving artists, to assess, demonstrate and streamline research-intensive technologies. Candidate technologies could include, among others, immersive arts, grid sensing networks, multisensuality, ubiquitous XR, spatial computing, VLM/LLM and historical data, crowd digitization or virtual reality. Pilots should demonstrate the effectiveness of artists’ engagement.

Proposals should clearly indicate the focus they have selected.

Proposals should consider the involvement of the European Commission's Joint Research Centre (JRC) based on its experience, in particular with the SciArt programme, and with respect to the value it could bring in providing an effective interface between research activities and policymaking.

[1] For information on these initiatives, see https://science-art-society.ec.europa.eu/front and https://starts.eu/

[2] In the context of this topic, artistic intelligence can be understood as the collaborative capacity of artistic research and practice to generate and drive innovation, impact, and value by integrating creativity with scientific, technological, and cultural knowledge, particularly through cross-disciplinary collaboration, as demonstrated in initiatives such as STARTS and SciArt. Proposals can critically explore and develop the definition.

[3] M. Draghi (2024), The future of European competitiveness. Part B: In-depth analysis and recommendations, p. 258, 272.