Boosting creative startups for disruptive innovation

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:

Projects should contribute to all of the following expected outcomes:

• Deepened knowledge of specific factors favouring the growth of creative startups^[1], in particular those with potential for disruptive innovation^[2] and/or cross-sectorial innovation impacts, is made available and promoted to policymakers, investors, funding- and enterprise support bodies.
• Effective methods to favour the growth of creative startups, in particular those with potential for disruptive innovation and/or cross-sectorial innovation impacts, are developed, tested and put in practice by industry, investors, funding- and enterprise support bodies, and relevant decision makers.
• Examples of creative startups scaling up and/or engaging in disruptive innovation are made available, with a view to increase the visibility and recognition of the innovative power of Europe’s creative startups.

In addition, proposals should contribute to at least one of the following expected outcomes, depending on the option chosen (a or b below):

• The effectiveness of the methods developed is demonstrated by at least one creative startup supported via the action becoming a scaleup^[3] in a Member State or an Associated Country.
• The effectiveness of the methods developed is demonstrated by at least one creative startup or scaleup supported via the action succeeding in bringing a disruptive innovation to the market.

Scope:

The cultural and creative industries (CCIs) count a high rate of startups. Data indicate that CCIs are among the early adopters of new technologies, especially in the digital realm. For instance, the European Monitor of Industrial Ecosystems (2024)^[4] notes that artificial intelligence-based technology startups were most common among the CCIs and in the health sector. Furthermore, creative startups drive innovation through crossovers with other sectors. They can be a motor of growth in local economies, unlocking opportunities, investment, jobs and higher productivity. That is why a host of initiatives like creative clusters, innovation hubs, smart specialisation strategies, innovation ecosystems, etc. foster the emergence of creative startups. Also at EU level, there are a number of initiatives to support startups and/or cultural and creative industries^[5], and there is a clearly stated ambition to make EU the preferred choice for startups and scaleups, as expressed in the EU Startup and Scaleup Strategy^[6].

However, in order to better support European creative startups to grow into scaleups and to multiply their potential as high-impact disruptive innovators, in line with the EU Startup and Scaleup Strategy, additional measures are needed.

The challenge is to deepen the knowledge of the most important factors that favour the scaling up of creative startups in Europe and unleashing their potential for disruptive innovation, with a particular focus on those factors that distinguish them from startups in other sectors.

Proposals are expected to focus either on:

Option a: Boosting the growth of creative startups into scaleups.

Option b: Boosting creative startups or scaleups with a potential for disruptive innovation.

Proposals should clearly indicate the option they have selected.

Approaches should be devised that boost the growth of creative startups in Europe and/or encourage engaging in disruptive innovation. Approaches developed may build on existing methods, such as shared technological resources/platforms to lower investments needs, credible assessments of technologies, IPR or of creative companies to increase investor readiness, matchmaking platforms, etc. However, the approaches to be developed under this action should be innovative and go beyond the existing ones. They should be effective and feasible across Europe under the current legal framework.

In order to validate and refine the proposed approaches, projects should carry out at least 3 pilot trials in different settings under real-world like conditions. These should involve piloting the scaling-up of a creative startup or positioning a creative startup/scaleup for bringing disruptive innovation to the market, according to the option chosen (a or b above). Financial support to third parties may be considered, with the aim of engaging diverse innovative creative startups, facilitating the uptake of solutions devised by the projects, experimenting with innovative approaches, or engaging other funders in co-financing.

To the extent appropriate, projects should build on and take advantage of previous research, networks, policy initiatives and infrastructure at European and national levels. This may include building on results of or structures developed by relevant R&I projects funded under Horizon Europe or other EU funding programmes that focus on boosting the innovation potential of CCIs, the EIT Knowledge and Innovation Community ‘EIT Culture and Creativity’^[7], or other relevant projects and networks. Such existing networks and infrastructures may also include business incubators or accelerators, venture capital networks^[8], etc.

To the extent appropriate, the Commission expects projects funded under this topic to establish coordination mechanisms in order to achieve the strongest possible common impact. One such area of cooperation could be communication and dissemination efforts.

The Commission estimates that a project duration of at least 4 years is appropriate, in order to be able to achieve the expected outcomes.

[1] In the context of this topic, a ‘creative startup’ should be understood as a private company that falls under the definition of cultural and creative industries as defined in the European Parliament Resolution ‘A coherent EU policy for cultural and creative industries’ (https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/PDF/?uri=CELEX:52016IP0486&from=EN), is younger than ten years and has an innovative product and/or service and/or business model that it aims to scale up.

[2] In the context of this topic, ‘disruptive innovation’ should be understood in the sense used by the European Innovation Council, but with no requirement to be based on deep tech; as an innovation which radically changes the way of operation (‘of doing things’), and therefore creates new market(s) or has a significant impact on current markets, on economic activity of firms and/or on the public sector or society at large.

[3] The definition of scaleups by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) requires that a company grows at an annual rate of 20% or more over three consecutive years in terms of number of employees or turnover. In the context of this call topic, such growth rate in one year / 2 consecutive years is sufficient.

[4] SWD(2024) 77 final https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=CELEX%3A52024SC0077

[5] E.g. the EIT Culture & Creativity KIC , Cultural and Creative Regional Ecosystems , Digital Innovation Hubs in the cultural and creative sectors , Creative Innovation Labs

[6] See further COM(2025) 270 https://research-and-innovation.ec.europa.eu/document/download/2f76a0df-b09b-47c2-949c-800c30e4c530_en

[7] https://eit-culture-creativity.eu/

[8] Such as for instance https://eic.ec.europa.eu/eic-fund/trusted-investors-network_en