Research & Development Grants

Our Research and Development Grants support people and their ideas using creativity and cultural methods for positive change at a local, regional and/or European level. Currently, we have no open call running, and therefore are not accepting applications.

Courageous Citizens | Research & Development Grants 2018

We love ideas that create positive change and equality through culture. With our new open call, we are searching for daring, bold ideas that focus on inclusiveness, are minority-led, and connect people within and beyond existing communities.

Every person living in every village, city and town is a citizen, not just a chosen few. Courageous Citizens are individuals, collectives and organisations whose energy and courage help to cultivate Europe as a home.

The open call for new, daring and courageous ideas ran in Spring 2018. We received more than 500 applications from all corners of Europe and beyond. As a result, we welcome 31 new grantees and their projects into our network! Their bold and daring projects range from raising eco-consciousness in the city, being decolonial detectives, empowering people with physical disabilities, to re-inventing one’s heritage in the context of migration and displacement.See the full list here.

Partners in this call are: 4iS Plataforma Para A Inovação Social (Portugal); We Make Places CIC (UK); Eutropian (Italy); Right to the City (Croatia) and Les Têtes de I’Art (France).

Idea Camp and Research & Development Grants 2014 - 2017

In 2014, 2015 and 2017, we launched an open call to submit innovative ideas that address Europe-wide issues. A selection of 50 applicants from different sectors and countries were invited to attend an Idea Camp – a three-day incubator workshop with opportunities to network, find new partners for collaboration, develop ideas and take part in the training.

Each edition, around half of these projects received Research & Development (R&D) grants of up to €10.000 to take their ideas to the next level.

2017 R&D grantees

2015 R&D grantees

2014 R&D grantees

Our Residency Projects

Grantees are invited to develop their projects further at our Connected Action for the Commons hub Subtopia, and ECF Princess Margriet Award for Culture laureate Medialab-Prado.

Medialab Prado hosting #RDgrantee of Idea Camp 2017

In a series of interviews with the 2017 R&D grantees of the Idea Camp, we talk to Paris Legakis, who is about to start his residency at Medialab Prado.

Read the interview

Subtopia hosts first residency of 2017 #RDgrantees

Earlier this summer we announced the 2017 R&D grantees – the 25 Idea Makers, participants of the Idea Camp in Madrid, who received a grant to develop their idea into a project. Some of them will be traveling to complete residencies at Subtopia, one of the Connected Action for the Commons hubs, and Medialab Prado, 2016 ECF Princess Margriet Award for Culture laureate.

Read an interview

Medialab Prado hosts residencies for ECF #RDgrantees: Nicolai Chirnev and Laura Popplow

Following on from receiving the ECF Princess Margriet Award for Culture, Madrid-basedMedialab-Prado are hosting two residencies this month for ECF’s R&D grantees, Nicolai Chirnev and Laura Popplow.

Read an interview

Call for Applications: Display Europe Micro-Grants

The Europe Challenge 2024

''Display Europe – Democracy Runs on Screens'' Call for Proposals

Call for Curatorial Proposals: The European Pavilion 2024

The Europe Challenge 2022

We have launched the Europe Challenge 2022, and we are calling on libraries in Europe to apply! Every library in Europe is eligible to take part in the Europe Challenge, from public libraries to mobile, rural, school, university, and prison libraries, municipal and national libraries.

i-Portunus Houses

‘i-Portunus Houses’ – New call for host organisations from all creative fields. This third round of i-Portunus pilot schemes offered by the European Cultural Foundation (Amsterdam) – Kultura Nova Foundation (Zagreb) – MitOst (Berlin), and funded by the European Union. The second round of this call opened on 23 August. The deadline to apply is 3 October at 24.00 CEST.

Culture of Solidarity Fund

In 2020 we launched the Culture of Solidarity Fund to support cultural initiatives that, in the midst of turmoil and crisis, reinforce European solidarity and the idea of Europe as a shared public space. Since then we have launched 11 editions ranging from supporting cultural actors in the Corona crisis, regional and thematic editions, to dedicated Ukraine editions. In these nine rounds, we have supported more than 200 projects with over 5 million euros with 20 co-funding partners on board.The 11th edition of the Culture of Solidarity Fund supports European transnational initiatives that mobilise voters for the 2024 European Parliament elections. This edition has been developed in collaboration with Evens Foundation, Allianz Foundation & partners.

Culture Lab Europe

The European Cultural Foundation, Rijeka 2020 European Capital of Culture, Krytyka Polityczna and ZEMOS98 invited everybody to apply for participation in Culture Lab Europe. The event was planned to take place in April in Rijeka, Croatia, but was transformed into an online event in June 2020 due to the Covid-19 crisis

Democracy Needs Imagination

In 2019 we ran two open calls under our annual theme. We want to support people who are working for European democratic values. People who are fighting for their rights as citizens, for their right to public space and personal freedoms, and for their right to creative expression.

FundAction

FundAction is a participatory fund making grants for social transformation. Participatory grant-making seeks to involve those directly affected by the issues — the people that the money intends to help — in decision-making about where the money goes. It can be a more effective way of reaching people and addressing issues of power

Civitates

Civitates strengthens the capacity of civil society to play its indispensable role in shaping vibrant and open European democracies that work for all.