Preventing and fighting illicit trafficking of cultural goods
Culture, Creativity and Inclusive Society 2026 · HORIZON-CSA · Needs partners
What this call funds
This call funds a coordination project to help police, customs and other authorities across the EU better fight the illegal trade of stolen and looted cultural artifacts. It supports consolidating existing tools and databases, building shared training programs for law enforcement and heritage experts, and creating a long-term cooperation network so cross-border cases of art and antiquities trafficking can be tracked, investigated and resolved more effectively.
cybersecurity · data analytics · artificial intelligence · civil society democracy · defence security
Who wins this
A consortium led by security/law-enforcement agencies and cultural heritage research institutions across multiple EU countries that wants to consolidate existing anti-trafficking tools and build shared training and cooperation frameworks rather than create new technology from scratch.
Could you win this call?
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The call in detail
- Indicative grant size
- €4.5M–€5M
- 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 Coordination and Support Actions
- Partners
- Required. The call asks for a consortium — at least 5 partners, from 3 countries.
- Eligible applicants
- security practitioner organisations/agencies (law enforcement, customs, border/maritime surveillance, etc.), scientific research institutions working on cultural heritage trafficking
- Funding rate
- Lump sum funding (100% of eligible costs as defined by lump sum decision)
- Support to third parties
- Beneficiaries may provide financial support to third parties up to 15% of the EU funding, in the form of grants, with a maximum of EUR 60,000 per third party.
- Also required
- Requires at least three security practitioner organisations from at least three different EU Member States or Associated Countries, and at least two scientific research institutions specialising in cultural heritage trafficking as beneficiaries; entities from non-associated third countries may exceptionally participate; cooperation with CEPOL expected for training aspects.
- 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 for the Part B of the Coordination and Support Action (CSA) application using lump sum is 28 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 Subject to restrictions for the protection of European communication networks. Due to the scope of this topic, legal entities established in non-associated third countries may exceptionally participate in this Coordination and Support Action as a beneficiary or affiliated entity and are exceptionally eligible for Union funding. This topic requires the involvement, as beneficiaries, of: at least three security practitioner [[Security practitioners has the meaning of organisations or agencies actively engaged in security operations, involved in e.g., law enforcement, customs, environmental crime management, smuggling and trafficking fighting and counter-terrorism, border and maritime surveillance, public safety, fundamental rights, etc. ]] organisations or agencies established in at least three different EU Member States or Associated Countries, and at least two scientific research institutions working on illicit trafficking in the specific field of Cultural Heritage. For participants with practitioner status, applicants must fill in the table “Information about security practitioners” in the application form with all the requested information, following the template provided in the submission IT tool. Some activities, resulting from this topic, may involve using classified background and/or producing of security sensitive results (EUCI and SEN). Please refer to the related provisions in section B Security — EU classified and sensitive information of the General Annexes. If projects use satellite-based earth observation, positioning, navigation and/or related timing data and services, beneficiaries must make use of Copernicus and/or Galileo/EGNOS (other data and services may additionally be used). 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 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 up to 15% of the EU funding. 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. 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