Frequently Asked Questions

No – at present, applicants to the programme must be organisations – however, it is likely that the partner organisations in many projects will work with individual artists who will contribute to the development of a successful project.

No – the partners can be any type of organisation – arts organisations, museums, heritage sites, university departments, local authorities, private companies (including profit-making private companies), co-operatives, charities, etc. – the only rules are that the organisation must have arts or culture as a key focus of their work, and that the organisation has a legal status recognised in their own country (and they can produce some sort of legal document to prove this). It helps if the organisation has been operating for at least 2 years, as you will be able to reinforce your credibility through your Annual Reports and your official accounts.

No – the project must be a partnership of organisations from at least 3 countries – not individuals – and part of the project should take place in each of the countries of the lead organiser and co-organisers.

Well, no-one will pretend that an application for EU funds is simple, but it is also true that, in the last few years, the application forms have been significantly simplified, and the new forms are much more straightforward.

Sections A and B need to be completed by the Lead Organiser and each co-organiser. These cover the following: A1: Organisation contact details A2: Name of person authorised to legally commit the organisation A3: Name of person responsible for implementing the project (contact person) B1: About the structure of the organisation (mostly tick boxes) B2: Objectives and activities of the organisation B3: details of any applications being submitted to other EC grant programmes for the same activity (you can apply to other programmes for the same project but if you were successful in two applications, you would then need to turn one of them down)

Sections C to G are completed by the Lead Organiser (with input from the co-organisers) and give information on the project. These cover the following: C1: Project dates. C2: Countries participating as co-organisers (tick boxes) C3: Names of co-organisers, when established, numbers of staff, country where based C4: Relevance of project to specific objectives of programme (tick boxes) C5: Which activities are most relevant to the project (tick boxes) C6: Project summary - 2000 characters

MOST IMPORTANT !! D1: Examples of experience in European cultural co-operation E1: Detailed description of project -- 20,000 characters, 5 pages max E2: About the quality of the partnership E3: Expected outputs, and any specific target groups E4: Communication and promotion activities E5: About the sustainability of the project F: Timetable showing key project activities, dates, location, who is responsible, any sub-contracting

There is a summary of the budget totals on the main application form and then a separate Excel spreadsheet to be completed - however, we recommend that, while you may want to have a look at the budget sheet first, you should then ignore it while you and your partners draw up what you think is a realistic budget for the project you are developing. Once you have finalised this with all partners, then you can transfer the figures to the official Excel spreadsheet. This spreadsheet is in 3 sections:

• Summary figures for the main expenditure and income sections
• An indication of which sub-sections your budget covers -- note that detailed figures for these sub-sections are not required for the application
• A third section (Annex III) which does not need to completed for the application process - it is to be completed at the end of the project with the detailed "actual" figures for all expenditure and income

To the offices of the EACEA (Education Audiovisual & Culture Executive Agency) in Brussels - the address is clearly stated on the application form. DON'T SEND THE APPLICATION TO YOUR CONTACT POINT!!

The application form and budget should be originals, as should several of the Annexes (e.g. legal and financial identification forms, financial capacity form, mandate). However, some documents may be copies e.g. activity reports and accounts, though copies of the accounts should be signed to confirm that they are a true copy of the original accounts.

No, it just has to be posted by the deadline. Whenever you post it, do make sure you have a receipt that it has been posted on or before the deadline date.

There are a series of Annexes to be included. The lead organiser and all co-organisers need to submit: A. Activity Report of the past 2 years which could be your printed Annual Report if your co-organisers only have their Annual Report in one of the less widely-spoken EU languages, you may wish to include a short summary in one of English, French or German. B. Curriculum Vitae for Project Manager C1. Legal identification form G. Mandate (co-organisers only this gives the lead organiser "power of attorney" to represent the co-organisers) In addition, the lead organiser needs to submit: C2. Legal status documents D. Financial Identification Form E. Official accounts (balance sheets and profit & loss accounts) F. Financial Capacity Form Associate partners (from eligible or non-eligible countries) do not need to submit anything though if you feel it would help, you could include a copy of their most recent Annual Report or the like.

Well, while you are not technically ineligible just because you are relatively new, this might be a problem as the EC needs accounts, etc., for the Lead Organiser to ensure that the Lead Organiser is "financially viable" and able to manage the EC funds without difficulty. There is a Financial Capacity form that the Lead Organiser needs to complete which takes certain figures from your most recent set of accounts and does a calculation to ensure you are financially viable. Without accounts, it is clearly difficult to do this calculation, so the EC may ask you for a "bank guarantee" equivalent to the amount of the EC grant which, in the UK, is virtually impossible to get, unless you wish to put you house up as collateral ! (we are not suggesting you do this).

• Curriculum vitae of the legal representative of the applicant organisation and curriculum vitae of the person(s) responsible for the overall coordination of the proposed action;
• Activity report covering the past two years (such as catalogues);
• Any material to support the application (e.g. such as press release);
• Copy of each original book proposed for translation. Photocopies could exceptionally be accepted in the case of precious and rare works;
• Curriculum vitae of the translators;
• Copy of the contract between the publisher and the translator for each book proposed for translation;
• Copy of the contract covering translation rights for each book proposed for translation and, if needed, extension to this contract;
• Declaration on the honour signed by the owner of the rights, in the case of free cession of rights;
• Signed and dated declaration from the publisher that the name of the translator and the EU support shall be clearly indicated in each translated work.

The focus is on the translation of high quality literature at European level for the broadest possible public; and the translation of literature from those countries that have joined the EU since 2004. Projects must be submitted by publishers.

The key criteria are as follows:

• Only works of fiction are eligible, irrespective of their literary genre, such as, novels, tales, short stories, theatre plays, poetry, comics;
• Applicants shall not propose more than 10 works of fiction for translation per selection round;
• Works must have been already published;
• Works must be translated from one European language into one other European language
• Works to be translated must be written by authors who are nationals of or residents in an eligible country
• Works may not have been previously translated into the target language;
• The grant applied for is between EUR 2.000 and EUR 60.000 per selection round;
• The duration of the project shall not exceed 24 months
• The target language must be the translator's mother tongue, except in case of lesser-used languages if the publisher duly demonstrates that he can not find a suitable translator
• A European dimension must be proved in order to avoid the translation of national literature into another official language of the same country
• The project cannot start before 1 September following the deadline

The official languages of the eligible countries, plus Latin and Ancient Greek.

1 February each year.

Broadly, the key criteria for the trans-national funds is that they require partner organisations (from at least 3 countries) to come together to develop a project. Some trans-national funds also offer small grants for individuals or groups to go on visits and exchanges. While the Culture programme is the only fund that is specifically focused on culture, other funds may support cultural projects if the project delivers both the criteria for that programme as well as some sort of cultural activity. Find below a list of other EU programmes that might be of interest for you.

• Media 2007 for the audiovisual sector
• Europe for Citizens opportunities for citizens to interact and participate in an ever closer Europe, through town twinning; trans-national projects or work programmes; events, studies &information tools; and actions remembering the victims of Fascism and Stalinism
• Lifelong Learning a number of different programmes in education & training in schools, colleges, universities, adult education, etc.
• Youth in Action for young people aged 13-30
• Life - the environment programme covers the "natural heritage"
• 7th Framework - a research & development programme - may support projects such as digitalisation of museum objects

These are the funds made available to address the economic challenges in certain areas of the EU. These regions received significant funds from the EU, routed mainly through the ERDF (European Regional Development Fund focusing on infrastructure projects) and the ESF (European Social Fund - focusing on training, skills development and business incubation). From 2007, there are 3 new objectives which are the basis of the allocation of these funds: the new First Objective is similar to the previous Objective 1 (i.e. for the most deprived regions), the new second objective combines the previous Objectives 2 and 3, and the new third objective is entitled European Territorial Co-operation and is an upgrade of a programme known as Interreg III, offered previously under the "Community Initiatives" umbrella. Cornwall and West Wales are the only UK regions classified under the new First Objective. The rest of the UK is now eligible for some funding under the new Second Objective, though there are some extra funds available as "transition funds" to help regions which were formerly Objective 1 regions. The funds for the new first and second objectives are devolved by the EU back to the Member States and the regions for allocation to projects. Each nation or region prepares an Operational Programme (OP) for the allocation of these funds - this is generally a merger of the EU Structural Fund guidelnes and the national or regional Economic Strategy - regrettably in the UK, it appears that "culture" rarely appears as a priority or criteria in the OP. In England, the actual allocation is mainly done via the relevant Regional Development Agency - different arrangements operate in Scotland, Wales and N Ireland.

The new Third Objective of the Structural Funds, also known as Interreg IV, may be worth exploring. In some ways it is a trans-national fund, as it is about projects based on inter-regional co-operation, though the aim remains one of addressing economic (and social) challenges. Interreg IV is split into three strands, based on differing geographic criteria. Strand A focuses on cross-border co-operation and there are several parts of the UK eligible here: the south of England (from Cornwall all the way round to Norfolk) can partner with programmes covering either northern France or a combination of north east France, Belgium and parts of the Netherlands. Wales, N Ireland and Scotland can partner with Ireland. Strand B encompasses 10 sub-programmes, and different parts of the UK are eligible to participate in 4 of these: North West Europe (NWE) which covers the whole of the UK, the Atlantic Area which covers the western half of the UK, the North Sea Region, covering the eastern half, and the Northern Periphery which covers Scotland and Northern Ireland. Each of these programmes is run via its own regional secretariat (e.g. the one for the NWE region is in Lille) but there are some UK based staff who will also offer support for these programmes. Strand C focuses on support for projects particularly where the partners come from previous Objective 1 regions. All these strands (with the possible exception of Strand C) provide some opportunities for the cultural sector. Visit the website INTERREG IVC for more information.

There is a further opportunity through the new EAFRD (European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development), which is linked to the over-arching EU Common Agricultural Policy. In England, the programme is known as the RDPE (Rural Development Programme for England), and the different strands (known as axes) are distributed via either the relevant RDA, the Forestry Commission and Natural England. This fund in theory allows support for culture-related projects delivering rural development goals and outcomes, though in its early stages it is possible that the agencies responsible for disbursing the funds may not appear to prioritise the cultural sector.

Yes, you can be a lead organiser or co-organiser in more than one application - but these must be for completely different and separate projects or activities. And do make sure there is no issue of any overlap regarding the match funding if you are making several applications.

Yes, but, do make sure these are for completely different and separate projects or activities. And do make sure there is no issue of any overlap regarding the match funding if you are making several applications.

Yes, but you can only receive one EU grant for any one project - so, if you happened to be successful with two applications to different funds for the same project, you would have to turn down one of the offers.

Yes, please phone +44 (0)20 7960 9637

Yes, please send your email to info [at] culturefund [dot] eu

Yes, ALERT e-newsletter is sent out once a month and contains updates on the Culture programme, details of all deadlines for all other EU funds relevant to the cultural sector, as well as news from the EC and other key European organisations. Register free to receive the ALERT by subscribing here.

Advice and information on whether your project idea is likely to be eligible for the Culture 2007-2013 programme and, if not, as to whether there are other EU opportunities you might wish to consider including other trans-national funds, third country programmes and the Structural Funds (see question 11 above).

For both (strand 1.2.1) and (strand 1.1) projects, the earliest allowed start date is 1 May in the year following the deadline. You actually can choose your start date in the period from 1 May to 15 November (inclusive) of the year following the deadline. Once you choose your start date, your end date is simply however many months or years later depending on the length of your project -- 1-2 years for small projects, 3-5 years for large projects.

Apart from defining the start and end of your project, these dates are important for financial reasons - you can only include expenditure within your budget if it occurs between the start and end dates. Make sure your end date is a bit after the end of any actual performances, exhibitions, training, etc., so you have time to prepare your final reports and accounts before the final end date.

If the change is due to changes caused by the project (as opposed to changes caused by late notification by the EACEA of your successful application), then you need to draw up a revised work programme and timetable and send this immediately to the EACEA, asking them to approve the revised programme. Obviously, the closer the revised programme is to your original proposal (and budget), the easier it will be for the EACEA to approve any changes.

The match funding can come from a range of sources, and should be generated by the efforts of all co-organisers, not just the lead organiser:

From income generated by the project itself - for example, from sales of tickets, or of CDs or programmes, or of merchandise.

From own resources - if you or your partners have some funds of your own, you can use these. From grants - you can apply to bodies such as the Arts Council, MLA, Lottery Fund, etc.

From donations - you can seek donations from interested individuals or organisations

From sponsorship - you can seek sponsorship from businesses

From staff secondments - you can second staff members to work on the project, and the cost of their actual salaries (plus NI) for the time they spend on the project (timesheets must be kept) can be used as income (and expenditure) in the project. Please note that the match funding CANNOT come from any other EC sources.

No - these are no longer allowed - apart from staff on secondment - see previous question. The key phrase is that "cash must be seen to flow". In other words, all other goods and services (e.g. venue hire, costs of print, etc.) must be paid for from the project account, though it may be that some of these bodies may also be willing to make a cash donation to the project.

For 1-2 year and third-country projects, the lead organiser will receive 70% of the project grant within 60 days of signing the contract at the beginning of the project. The final 30% will be paid at the end of the project, once the final reports (of the project activities and of the project finances) are received and accepted by the EC - this process can take some time, so be prepared for the final payment arriving several months after the project has concluded. For 3-5 year projects, you will receive 70% of the first year - grant in the same way as above, and the same each subsequent year, with the final 30% for each year arriving at the end of each year following receipt and acceptance of a progress report (these annual reports are less demanding than the final project report).

This is up to the lead organiser, presumably in discussion with the various project partners. Your pre-submission budget planning should involve your partners, and you should clearly agree with the partners the amounts they will receive, when they will receive such amounts, and what they have to deliver in order to receive such amounts.

There is no hard and fast rule here - it will be up to each partnership to decide on the best mechanism. Ideally, in our view, the lead organiser should open a separate bank account for the project (for UK lead partners, it might be best if this was a euro account, which can now be opened fairly easily through most banks). Then all payments can be routed through this account - including payments to partners, and to artists and suppliers in the partner countries. However, in most cases, your co-organisers may wish to control payments to their own artists and suppliers in their country, so you may find that you are making payments to partners on the basis of various "contra-arrangements" this is fine, as long as all those involved keep very clear records and also keep all original receipts, etc.

VAT (or the equivalent in other countries) should be excluded from the budgets unless the partner organisation(s) cannot recover it.

The aim here is to support the long-term work programme of those organisations which are pursuing an aim of general European interest in the field of culture or an objective forming part of the EU policy in this area. This strand is not generally about new developments but more about supporting established and well recognised organisations that have a track record of providing a well-respected service or resource at the European level. There are four categories here: ambassadors, advocacy networks, festivals and policy support structures, which are all explained below. For further information, visit www.culturefund.eu, or leave a comment below.

These are special organisations or activities which, through their influence in the cultural field at European level, have clear potential to be European representatives pf European culture and, as such, can fulfil the role of a "European cultural ambassador". An example here is the EU Youth Orchestra.

Pan-European advocacy networks, which have a significant representation of specific categories of cultural operators. They must have been in existence for at least one year, and have members from at least 15 eligible countries (or 10 countries if they are a network of national federations or the like). If you want to set up a new network, then strand 1 is probably more appropriate.

This is for festivals which have achieved a major status and reputation in Europe, which support new and innovative European work, and which have been in existence at least 5 years. Their European added value, geographical outreach and European visibility should cover at least 7 countries. The programme does not support film festivals or others in the audiovisual and cinematographic sectors.

This provides support for structured dialogue platforms and policy analysis groupings. The platforms will engage in a structured dialogue with the European Commission. They will comprise non-governmental organisations from the cultural sector with a trans-national or European-wide dimension. The policy analysis groupings are groupings of private or public stakeholders which have a direct or practical experience in the analysis, evaluation or impact assessment of cultural policies linked to the EU Agenda for culture.

The official terms are:

• Lead organiser - the lead partner, who has overall project management responsibility, and who also has the official legal responsibility for signing the contract with the EC, and managing the budgets. Must be from an "eligible country" - see next question.
• Co-organisers - the other official partners, who, together with the lead organiser, must make up the minimum number of partners required - i.e if it says "minimum of 3 partners" this means a lead organiser plus two co-organisers. Must be from an "eligible country" - see next question.
• Associate Partners - additional partners you may wish to involve in the project - these can come from the eligible countries (see next question) or in fact from any other country in the world - but there are restrictions on the expenditure on the participation of partners from non-eligible countries - see the next question.

• The 27 Member States - click here for a full list
• Certain countries from the European Economic Area who are not members of the EU - Norway, Iceland and Liechtenstein
• Certain "candidate" countries - i.e. countries who are on the way to joining the EU at some future point - at time of writing, there are 4 such countries in this category: Turkey, Croatia, FYROM (Macedonia) and Serbia

No, for this programme (as for virtually all EC funding programmes), the UK is defined as one country.

There are two restrictions here:

• The maximum that can be spent on the involvement of non-eligible third countries is 15% of the total budget - either on bringing people from the NETC to participate in the project in an eligible country, or on sending other project participants to do something in the NETC
• The costs of expenditure in an NETC must be paid via the lead organiser or one of the co-organisers -- it cannot be paid by the third country Associate Partner who then sends an overall invoice to the lead organiser for reimbursement

No, the partners can be any type of organisation - arts organisations, museums, heritage sites, university departments, local authorities, private companies, co-operatives, charities, etc. -- the only rules are that the organisation must have arts or culture as a key focus of their work, and that the organisation has a legal status recognised in their own country (and they can produce some sort of legal document to prove this).

The EC chooses the country or countries each year. For the 2007 deadline, the countries were China or India. For the 2008 deadline, it was Brazil. The country for the 2009 deadline has not yet been announced but the rumour is that it will be the countries of Sub-Saharan Africa.

These projects can last minimum of 3 year and a maximum of 5 years.

These projects can last minimum of 1 year and a maximum of 2 years.

No – there is now a Programme Guide and application forms which are standard for all deadlines until 2013. These can be accessed by visiting www.culturefund.eu. There is therefore no call or announcement for the next deadline – you can access the Programme Guide and the application forms at any time and start developing your project and the application well in advance of the actual deadline.

1 October each year

On or around 1 May each year

1 February each year

1 November each year – though it is also possible to apply for a 3 year grant in this strand, and the next deadline for 3 year grants in 1 November 2010 (covering the 3 years 2011 / 2012 / 2013)

The EC (European Commission) has set up a separate agency, the EACEA (EACEA - Education Audiovisual & Culture Executive Agency - http://eacea.ec.europa.eu/) to manage the application process. You will access the relevant information from their website, and send your application to them in Brussels - http://eacea.ec.europa.eu/

Applications are first vetted by EACEA staff to make sure they meet the basic criteria. Then a jury will be gathered, comprising cultural experts from across the EU, who will look at the various applications. Each application will be seen by 2-3 jury members, each of whom will give a score based on the Award Criteria (which are clearly stated in the Programme Guide and included as specific questions on the application form). The 2-3 scores from each project are averaged our to give a final score for that project.

Applications are then re-ordered in order of their scores, and they will start at the top of the list and give away the funds until they run out of this year’s budget. This list of recommended projects then has to be approved by several bodies representing the Member States and others. Once approval is obtained, letters will be sent to successful (and unsuccessful) applications. This process takes around 6 months from start to finish.

The programme is about supporting projects involving co-operation and collaboration of arts and cultural organisations from at least three eligible countries (see topic 5 for information on which are eligible countries)

No – though if you need to purchase some equipment to undertake your project, then you can claim the depreciation costs of this equipment for the lifetime of the project. Capital expenditure may be supported via the Structural Funds if you are in an eligible region – visit http://structural.culture.info for information and links regarding the Structural Funds.

There is a separate EU programme (Media 2007 - http://www.mediadesk.co.uk/) for the audiovisual sector, so projects that are about making films, training film-makers, etc., should approach them for advice. However, the Culture programme does support video art and cyber art, and you can use film as a mechanism to document your project for dissemination purposes, and to help the sustainability of the project outcomes.

Yes – there are three (3) main strands:

• “co-operation (i.e. short) projects” – these can last from 1-2 years, and require at least 3 partners from 3 different countries (this is officially known as strand 1.2.1) – we encourage people to apply for this strand as it is the easiest to access
• “multi-annual co-operation (i.e. long) projects” – these can last from 3-5 years, and require at least 6 partners from 6 different countries (this is officially known as strand 1.1) – these are quite difficult to secure and we don’t recommend this strand if you are a small cultural organisation or if this is your first attempt attempt – around 10-12 projects each year are funded under this strand.
• “third country projects” – these follow similar criteria to the short projects, but, as well as the 3 partners from the eligible European countries, also need to involve at least one partner from a “third country” – designated each year by the EC.

In addition, there are two other categories that may be relevant in some cases:

• literary translation – strand 1.2.2 (see topic 9)
• Strand 2 provides support for important EU wide organisations in a number of areas – networks, festivals and “cultural ambassadors” (see topic 10)

There is also a strand 3 but this is mainly for marketing & dissemination activities, and also for occasional research projects, and therefore not really relevant to arts and cultural organisations and projects.

Not directly (it cannot give grants to individuals) – but artists may benefit by being involved in a project managed by a group of arts or cultural organisations.

There are no separate arts or cultural categories any more – just one pot of money – but this means that the EC are keen to see “inter-disciplinary” projects that involve two or more arts or cultural areas.

All types of theatre, music & dance, including street theatre, circus, etc. Literature. All areas of the visual arts, including design, video art, architecture, etc. Cultural heritage areas, including museums. There is also a separate strand for literary translation (see topic 9) and a separate programme for the audiovisual sector (Media 2007)