Call for proposals ­– EAC/16/08

PILOT PROJECT

Networking of existing structures supporting mobility in different cultural sectors

Introduction

Transnational mobility of cultural players is of major importance in helping to make a common "European cultural area" a reality. Artists and cultural workers need to travel beyond borders to extend their scope of activities and meet new audiences; to find new and inspiring sources of inspiration to make their creations evolve; and to exchange experiences and learn from each others.

Cross-border mobility of artists and culture professionals has been a priority of the Culture programme since 2000. It has been further reinforced as one of the three specific objectives of the Culture programme for the period 2007-2013, as a means of enhancing the cultural area shared by Europeans and encouraging active European citizenship.

In 2007, the Commission Communication on A European agenda for culture in a globalising world was adopted. The mobility of artists and professionals in the cultural field is a specific objective of this Communication. The strategic objectives of this Communication have been endorsed by the Council which has included mobility as one of its priority areas for action in its work plan for 2008-2010.

At the end of 2007, the European Parliament voted a budget line (15 04 45) dedicated to supporting the environment for the mobility of artists on the 2008 budget (1.5 million euros), comprised of three elements, including calls for networking of existing structures supporting mobility in different sectors in order to develop exchange of best practices, evaluation methodologies, valorisation of results as well as possible joint actions and studies aiming at improving the overall effectiveness at EU level.

This call for proposals implements this element of the EP amendment which is aimed at supporting networking of existing structures in the independent civil society sector and initiatives by public authorities.

Objectives and description

In relation to the second element of the pilot project mentioned above, the aim of this call for proposals is to support, on an experimental basis, the mobility of cultural workers in the cultural sector through networks of existing structures supporting mobility, with a view to exploring ways of improving the overall environment for mobility at EU level.

In this context, "cultural workers" refers to artists of all disciplines, cultural workers, practitioners, cultural institution managers, producers, promoters, researchers, journalists, operators in the cultural area, etc. The concept of mobility applies when these individuals travel outside of their country of residence in order to perform, learn, create, cooperate and exchange for professional purposes.

Culture is taken in the broad sense and, in addition to cultural and artistic activities in the strict sense (performing arts, visual arts, cultural and architectural heritage, literature), also includes the cultural industries, i.e. sectors which combine the creation, production and marketing of goods and services and the distinctive feature of which is the intangibility of their cultural content, which is generally copyright-protected. For the purposes of this study, these industries include printed works and multimedia, the press, cinema production, audiovisual and phonographic production, craft industry, design and cultural tourism.

With a view to feeding into future policy and programme developments, the present call aims to support:

- the networking of existing structures supporting mobility in different cultural sectors;

- existing networks of structures supporting mobility in different cultural sectors;

- the networking of existing networks of such structures.

The networks to be co-funded through the proposal have to encompass at least 5 partners from at least 5 different Member States.

All the partners have to have supported mobility of cultural workers within the EU or between the EU and third countries for a minimum of 2 years, by coordinating or co-funding mobility schemes or improving the context of mobility for cultural workers.

Timetable and eligibility period

Applications must be sent to the Commission no later than 30 September 2008 at the latest.

The activities to be co-financed must start no later than 1 December 2008. The period of eligibility of costs will start on the day the agreement is signed by the European Commission. Under no circumstances will the eligibility period for expenditure commence before the date of submission of the grant application¹. Costs incurred prior to 30 September 2008 cannot therefore be considered.

The duration of the period of eligibility of costs of each Community agreement will be no longer than 36 months.

The intention is to inform applicants of the outcome of the selection procedure in November 2008. It is planned that beneficiaries will receive their agreements for signature also in November 2008.

Budget available

The total budget earmarked for co-financing these projects amounts to 1.250.000 EUR.

The size of the grants will range between 150 000 and 350 000 EUR.

The financial contribution from the Commission cannot exceed 80% of the total eligible costs².

Community support will be granted on condition that the administrative and financial procedures are properly completed.

The amounts mentioned in the present document are subject to the release of the necessary appropriations by the budgetary authority.

The European Commission reserves the right not to distribute all the funds available.

Eligible bodies

Eligible applicants must have the following characteristics:

- they must be a public³ or private body with legal status and a proven experience of at least 2 years in the cultural area;

- they must have their registered legal seat in one of the 27 Member States of the European Union on 1 January 2008 (Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, the Slovak Republic, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, United Kingdom);

- they must have supported mobility of cultural workers within the EU or between the EU and third countries for 2 years at least, by coordinating or co-funding schemes of mobility or improving the context of mobility for cultural workers.

Award criteria

Eligible projects will be assessed against the following award criteria:

1) Compliance with the objectives of the call for proposals (0-5 points):

• Relevance of the project in relation to the criteria and objectives of this call

•Nature and suitability of partnerships in order to bring an added value in supporting mobility in comparison with the activities of each partner

2) Quality of the proposed activities (0-5 points):

• The thoroughness of the methodology (credibility and rigour of the project);

• The overall coherence of the activity programme, from identification of existing resources through to the dissemination of results.

• The quality and innovative characteristic of the proposed outputs.

3) Quality of partnership (0-5 points):

The smooth and efficient cooperation between the various members of the network as well as the number of members are a vital element of its successful operation. In this respect, the following factors will be assessed:

• The number of partners involved in the network (a high number of partners will be considered as a positive element) ;

• The level of networking, cooperation and commitment of each co-organiser in the design, implementation and financing of the project: the number of co-organisers, geographical distribution of the participating organisations, actual role in the cooperation;

• The role and contribution of each co-organiser to project management: method of management applied to the proposed activities, clarity of the tasks assigned to the staff and clear description of the role of each co-organiser involved in the project;

• The way the budget allocated to the various activities and the staff available to implement them (suitability of fit between the skill-sets/experience of team members and their assigned tasks, soundness of resource allocation) correspond to the activity programme;

• The quality of application and budget: Seriousness and completeness of the application, clarity and relevance of the proposed methodology, clarity of the project description in terms of objectives-activities-outputs and detailed nature of the budget breakdown.

• The relevance of the budget in comparison with the size of the network.

4) European added value (0-5 points)

Projects must provide real European added value. In this respect, the following factors will be assessed:

• The way the objectives, methodology and nature of the networking/cooperation undertaken have a perspective which looks beyond local, regional or even national interests and aims to develop synergies at a European level;

• The way cooperation and partnership are based on mutual exchange of experiences and would lead to a final result that differs qualitatively from the sum of the several activities undertaken at national, regional or local level, thus producing real multilateral interaction which promotes the achievement of shared objectives;

• Particular attention will be given to the possibility for the partners to actively involve pan-European networks in view of an optimal dissemination of the results.

5) Dissemination and exploitation strategy (0-5 points):

Projects should present a comprehensive plan for the dissemination and exploitation of their project results. This should cover both ongoing activities to communicate the network's activities and promote the visibility of the project results, and measures to ensure that the project's results are exploited to the full by interested parties both within and beyond the network.

6) Long-lasting impact (sustainability) (0-5 points):

Projects are supposed to generate the greatest possible long-term results and cooperation, and to act as multipliers for other possible promoters. In this respect, the following factors will be assessed:

• The potential of the proposed activities to result in continued, sustained cooperation, in complementary activities or in long lasting benefits at European level, and to contribute on a long-term basis to the development of cultural cooperation in Europe;

• The potential of the proposed activities to generate other future initiatives of cultural cooperation.

A committee shall be appointed in order to evaluate the proposals. Outside experts may assist the committee. A ranked list of the projects which receive at least 3,5 points for each criterion and at least 21 points in total will be compiled. The Commission will use this list when deciding on the award of the grants.

Full details

The full text of this call for proposals and the application forms are available on the following website:

http://ec.europa.eu/culture/index_en.htm

Applications must comply with the requirements set out in the full text and be submitted using the form provided.