Call: Impact-driven research on realising the full potential of cultural heritage, arts and cultural and creative industries

Art Explora is a French non-profit foundation dedicated to broadening access to arts and cultural activities and fostering cultural participation, with sister organisations in the Uk and Albania. The foundation operates through two complementary approaches:

1. Implementing innovative programs in collaboration with cultural operators, as well as partners in the education and health sectors, across Europe.

2. Supporting innovative cultural organizations and practitioners through the Art Explora and Académie des Beaux-Arts European Awards — selecting 20 projects annually and funding 5 projects with grants of up to €50,000, and facilitating knowledge exchange across disciplines.

Through these activities, we foster experimentation and innovation in the European cultural sector to improve access and participation. We have also identified partners working on similar topics and have aggregated them into an informal network to share knowledge, best practices, and collaborative opportunities.

We aim to collaborate with a Horizon consortium to leverage our experience and networks in the arts and cultural and creative industries (CCIs). Our potential contributions include:

• Ground-level impact experience: designing and implementing cultural initiatives that reach diverse audiences and communities, and foster participation.

• Innovation support ecosystem: Managing sub-granting schemes that encourage experimentation and novel practices in the cultural sector.

• Networks and partnerships: Connecting with cultural practitioners across Europe and facilitating the circulation and implementation of the knowledge and methodologies produced.

• Data and insights: helping develop a framework the measure impact of cultural projects on audience engagement, participation and sense of belonging, and disseminate the framework among cultural practioners to collect data.

Art Explora is particularly interested in projects that combine rigorous research with practical experimentation to generate tangible, scalable outcomes across Europe.