Boosting creative startups for disruptive innovation
Culture, Creativity and Inclusive Society 2026 · HORIZON-IA · Needs partners
What this call funds
This call funds projects that help creative startups (in cultural and creative industries) either grow into scaleups or bring disruptive innovations to market. Funded projects will develop and test new methods to support these startups, run at least three real-world pilot trials, and demonstrate success stories to inspire investors and policymakers across Europe.
creative cultural · sme scaleup · deep tech · social innovation · regional development
Who wins this
A consortium with expertise in supporting cultural and creative industries, able to design and pilot innovative growth or innovation-support methods for creative startups across multiple European countries over a multi-year project.
Could you win this call?
We read your site to see what you build.
The call in detail
- Indicative grant size
- €5M–€6M
- Funding model
- Lump sum — paid per completed work package, no financial reporting of actual costs
- Submission
- Single-stage submission (full proposal at once)
- Type of action
- HORIZON Innovation Actions
- Partners
- Required. The call asks for a consortium — a group applying together, typically 3+ organisations from 3+ countries.
- Support to third parties
- Beneficiaries may provide financial support to third parties in the form of grants, up to a maximum of EUR 60,000 per third party.
- Also required
- Projects must run at least 3 pilot trials in different real-world settings and should focus on either Option a (scaling creative startups into scaleups) or Option b (boosting disruptive innovation potential); minimum project duration of about 4 years is expected; grants awarded to top-ranked proposals in each of the two options.
- Eligible countries (45)
- Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czechia, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Norway, Iceland, Switzerland, United Kingdom, IL, TR, UA, RS, MK, ME, AL, BA, XK, GE, AM, MD, TN, NZ
Read the full conditions from the official call ›
General conditions 1. Admissibility Conditions: Proposal page limit and layout As described in Annex A and Annex E of the Horizon Europe Work Programme General Annexes. Proposal page limits and layout: described in Part B of the Application Form available in the Submission System. The page limit of the Part B of the Innovation Action (IA) application using lump sum is 45 pages. In addition, it is mandatory to submit a detailed budget table using the template available in the Submission System. 2. Eligible Countries As described in Annex B of the Work Programme General Annexes. A number of non-EU/non-Associated Countries that are not automatically eligible for funding have made specific provisions for making funding available for their participants in Horizon Europe projects. See the information in the Horizon Europe Programme Guide. 3. Other Eligible Conditions As described in Annex B of the Work Programme General Annexes. 4. Financial and operational capacity and exclusion As described in Annex C of the Work Programme General Annexes. 5a. Evaluation and award: Award criteria, scoring and thresholds To ensure a balanced portfolio, grants will be awarded to applications not only in order of ranking but at least also to those that are the highest ranked within each of the two options provided in the scope (Option a and Option b), provided that the applications attain all thresholds. As described in Annex D of the Work Programme General Annexes. 5b. Evaluation and award: Submission and evaluation processes As described in Annex F of the Work Programme General Annexes and the Online Manual. 5c. Evaluation and award: Indicative timeline for evaluation and grant agreement As described in Annex F of the Work Programme General Annexes. 6. Legal and financial set-up of the grants Eligible costs will take the form of a lump sum as defined in the Decision of 7 July 2021 authorising the use of lump sum contributions under the Horizon Europe Programme – the Framework Programme for Research and Innovation (2021-2027) – and in actions under the Research and Training Programme of the European Atomic Energy Community (2021-2025) [[This decision is available on the Funding and Tenders Portal, in the reference documents section for Horizon Europe, under ‘Simplified costs decisions’ or through this link: https://ec.europa.eu/info/funding-tenders/opportunities/docs/2021-2027/horizon/guidance/ls-decision_he_en.pdf ]]. Beneficiaries may provide financial support to third parties. The support to third parties can only be provided in the form of grants. The maximum amount to be granted to each third party is EUR 60 000. The granting authority may, up to 4 years after the end of the action, object to a transfer of ownership or to the exclusive licensing of results, as set out in the specific provision of Annex 5. In addition, as described in Annex G of the Work Programme General Annexes. Specific conditions As described in the specific topic of the Work Programme.
Who has won calls like this
Organisations that most often win this call family · 116 past winners